Stakk

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a director at an interactive market research company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Stakk?

Initially, I went to a third-party developer with a concept for a mobile app. We developed the concept to a certain stage, but they couldn’t meet the requirements; the app was full of bugs, and functionality was missing. Ultimately, I decided to move from that third-party company to Stakk.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Stakk provided us with mobile app development; they took the failed delivery from the previous provider and turned it around to make it work until they couldn’t go any further. We had a set of requirement documents and the app documentation the previous company had worked on, and we transferred that over to Stakk. The team found no backend documentation for the AWS server capability, so they produced the documentation to support that. 

They received the codebase from the initial developer and found the libraries weren’t managed correctly. The team reworked the codebase to get it to a  point where it would work. They would deliver new builds when there was a sizable chunk of change. Then, we would go through a testing stage together and raise more observations. 

Stakk worked with iOS handsets, and they got that code sorted. Going into Android, they discovered they would need to do a fundamental rewrite of the library since Android’s version 32 wouldn’t allow us to implement the existing library. Since we couldn’t fund this rewrite, we stopped the project. 

What is the team composition?

We primarily worked with three teammates from Stakk: an account manager, Vikas (Technical Director), and Girish (Project Director), who was our project manager. 

How did you come to work with Stakk?

We found them through a recommendation from the app’s original developer because they were changing their approach. The company had done the research and due diligence and had already sent other clients to Stakk. We had an initial meeting with the team, and the vibe was really good, so we decided to transfer development to them. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from June 2021–October 2022.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Stakk did a fantastic job addressing the app’s issues and making the functionality operate as it should. The team’s engagement was also great; the people I dealt with in the UK and the technical team in India both had an excellent working ethos, and I can’t emphasize enough how good they were. They did a very professional job, in contrast to the previous developers. 

Unfortunately, the previous company coded the app in such a way that we came across an issue we couldn’t fix because the fundamental rewrite needed cost too much. As a result, we had to take the app down from the stores because it was unsupportable going forward. This outcome was disappointing because Stakk was a great team to work with. Although I’m not working with them for now, they’ll be my first call if I have another app concept in the future. 

How did Stakk perform from a project management standpoint?

They tracked issues and provided good feedback on their progress; I could see they worked hard to address the app’s problems. The team’s engagement and communication were also excellent. 

We had a weekly meeting with Vikas and Girish, and sometimes the account manager would attend. During these meetings, they would give us progress updates. The team issued new builds every month and recorded all our observations correctly. They used a pipeline to manage their tasks, from creating a task to working on it and passing the deliverable to me — they were very methodical. 

All our issue management went through Trello and our communication through Slack, and Stakk recorded everything very professionally.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed by Stakk’s communication and by Girish, who was really engaging. The backend team was particularly good; I interfaced with them through Vikas, who could articulate problems really well. His professional approach and standards were outstanding. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their work was suitable for the scope of work I had with them. I never thought anything was lacking; Stakk did everything great. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Everyone should do their due diligence before hiring a third party. However, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Stakk; their engagement is excellent. Their pricing is very reasonable. The expertise I received for the amount I was paying was really good. Therefore, I advise reaching out to Stakk and engaging with them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Arc Education, an online math education organization.

What challenge were you trying to address with Stakk?

We already had an iOS app for iPad, and we needed to build it in React Native to deploy it on Android.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Stakk built our mobile app using React Native. First, we sent them a features document. They coded the app from scratch using the design already in place. The app is connected to AWS and integrates with the admin side. The team also helped us integrate handwriting recognition through a third-party supplier.

The app asks users 12 questions, and they submit their answers. Then, they get feedback on their answers and a chance to practice them. An algorithm in the background determines what questions users need based on how they've answered previous questions.

What is the team composition?

Girish (Project Director) was our main contact and the project manager. Additionally, I worked a bit with the developers.

How did you come to work with Stakk?

We found them through a recommendation from my previous developers.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the engagement in September 2021 and launched the product in March 2022. Stakk is still involved with support and maintenance.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Thanks to Stakk’s work, we have more customers. Previously, our app was only available on iPads; now, it’s available for any touchscreen divide. As a result, we have a full offering for our customers. 

How did Stakk perform from a project management standpoint?

They delivered items on time, were responsive, and stayed on budget. Our communication was mostly through Zoom and Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What we liked most about Stakk was that they stayed fairly on track with the timeline, keeping a budget. Moreover, they were responsive and really delightful to deal with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There was nothing they needed to improve; I was totally satisfied.

Any advice for potential customers?

You’ll want to get past the sales team and talk to the project manager, Girish. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an operations manager at an internet publishing company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Stakk?

We needed to develop a mobile application for our business.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Stakk designed and developed our iOS and Android mobile app. The platform allows users to post jobs and employers to communicate with them. Currently, they're updating and maintaining the platform.

What is the team composition?

We've worked with around six members of their team.

How did you come to work with Stakk?

They were referred to us, and we decided to go with them after researching their work online.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2019, and the engagement is ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Stakk has done everything we wanted them to do. We’ve been delighted with their work, and they've exceeded our expectations.

How did Stakk perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been brilliant with project management. In terms of communication, we use emails and phone calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Stakk's strength is their ability to communicate with candidates to help them meet our expectations.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could include all of the things we request in the project brief, but it”s a minor thing.

Do you have any advice for potential customers

Be clear with your requirements, and they’ll do the rest.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of MyCoach School, a fitness training and coaching company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Stakk?

We hired Stakk to help us with web development work, which involved redeveloping and optimizing our website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Stakk rebuilt our website. They developed the new website on top of our existing site and fixed it. We were also building an app at the time, and we requested that the website’s new design reflect the app’s design. They also redesigned the UX using the features from our app. 

The project was split into five phases. Phase one was a custom rebuild of where our existing data was, deleting some of the existing structure and creating a new one. 

For phase two, the Stakk team restructured our site’s categories and post types. They exported old data and restructured categories, pages, and favorite posts. They also revamped our MemberPress page, which we use for subscriptions on our website.

Phase three was a calendar rebuild; they removed old code and refactored our current database. They also revamped the functionality and display of our website’s look.

In phase four, Stakk addressed the tracking feature of the website, renewing how the data is stored and redesigning the UX to be similar to our app’s tracking functionality.

Number five was the final phase of development, where they helped us with website performance optimization. Their team enabled lazy loading, decreased rendering time, and enabled cache. They also fixed bugs and installed updates and plugins.

They’re currently on a monthly retainer with us to fix bugs and update our website.

What is the team composition?

We have two designated teammates from Stakk on our project, though more of their development team worked on our website at some point.

How did you come to work with Stakk?

Our app development provider recommended Stakk because they work quite closely with them; that’s why I went with Stakk.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent around £65,000 (approximately $88,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Since Stakk optimized our website, its performance grading has improved from F to B+. Traffic to the website has also increased. Although we can also attribute the uptick in traffic to the fact that we’ve just launched our app and had an onboarding campaign, the improved speed of our website has also helped.

How did Stakk perform from a project management standpoint?

Stakk is very efficient with workload completion; they hit every deadline and sometimes even deliver early. We use Trello for project management, and we’re using Google Sheets for a quick Sprint project we’re doing.

We typically communicate through email and phone calls, and we also have a weekly meeting to discuss updates on their side. We’ve recently moved into Freshdesk for communication because our app development team is there. Now that Stakk is also in that communication thread, our ticket process is easier; we submit a ticket, and our providers can delegate who the issue falls on, either our app provider or Stakk. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I appreciate the amount and depth of communication we get from Stakk. We had a previous web provider that wasn’t very good at keeping us in the loop. Stakk is always transparent about the tasks being completed.

Additionally, we always know exactly what we’re paying for with Stakk. When the team was working on development, they would go through their work during our meetings, showing us our site’s updates and changes. As a customer, their transparency inspires trust.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there isn’t anything they need to do differently. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you’re engaging with Stakk, be as open and honest with them as possible. Also, ask questions because their team is very good at communicating whatever you need. The more questions you ask, the more informed you’ll be, and the more you’ll get to know your website. Then, you can use that knowledge in future projects.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are an ethical fashion brand and I am the managing director.

For what projects/services did your company hire Stakk, and what were your goals?

We were in need of a new e-commerce website that needed to be built from scratch as our old site was built by someone who wasn’t able to deliver on our needs and so we had to scrap it altogether. Our goal with hiring Stakk was to build a sleek, user friendly e-commerce store that streamlined the purchase process for our customers and could compete with our longer standing rivals.

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Stakk came highly recommended by someone in my professional network and after seeing the quality of the work they delivered, we were happy to go with them.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We asked the team to help us conceptualise our e-commerce site from a customer journey perspective, build all the pages, integrate moving images for products, create a customer account environment, provide UX/UI design and integrate everything into our existing shop in Shopify.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We had contact regular with a project manager who oversaw everything. We also had 2 stack developers and a designer working on the project for us.

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The proposed design solutions were great the design implementation has been seamless, the communication between us has been easy. The team was attentive to detail and quality.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

The PM has made himself available via WhatsApp pretty much at all hours, otherwise we have had regular calls via Google Meet weekly to discuss progress and updates and have been sharing information via Gmail.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Their level of experience showed, as when we came to them with ambiguity they were able to quickly create a clear and spot on vision. I was pleasantly surprised that they have kept to timelines as most we have worked with before have gone over expected timelines.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

There really hasn’t been anything I can fault them on during this process.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the product manager for a B2B app provider.

What challenge were you trying to address with Stakk?

We needed someone to provide us with maintenance and mobile app development services.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Stakk is currently helping us maintain our iOS app, and we're in talks about future development. They’re also monitoring our usage of various SaaS to make sure it remains optimized for high-level support. We would talk about specific features we want to implement and work out a timeline to manage our stories.

What is the team composition?

I mainly work with Girish (Co-Founder & Project Director), Jack (Co-Founder & Commercial Director), Kiran (React Native Engineer), and Vikas (CTO).

How did you come to work with Stakk?

Stakk was introduced to us by our previous developer. We chose to hire them because they were quite client-centric and their prices were competitive, in the sense that it was proportional to the value they will deliver.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing partnership started in June 2021.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Stakk is very good at delivering their requirements and fixing defects and issues whenever they arise. Furthermore, we also keep them at a very high IT compliance standard so they answer each of our queries and concerns in great detail.

How did Stakk perform from a project management standpoint?

In terms of communication and timelines, they’re always available to accommodate our needs and deliver our requests within the given timeframes.

We don’t do a lot of email correspondence, but they always keep us updated on the progress of their tasks and respond quickly whenever we have questions.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re impressed with their team dynamic and client-centric approach to the partnership.

Are there any areas they could improve?

As they take on more international clients, they could improve on providing their services at a much faster rate.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would advise taking the time to involve yourself in the process and share as much information on your company’s background, infrastructure, and documentation as possible, and give them time to digest everything.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director at Spa Contract Cleaners, a commercial cleaning company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Stakk?

I needed help managing my business’ staff.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Stakk provided an admin panel where I can set up my staff. The staff can clock in and out when they start and finish work. I can allocate jobs to the team and put the frequency of the employment. That then gets sent out to each staff member to know when they’re on and what they’re doing. 

They also developed a mobile app for all of the staff to use. It’s available for iOS and Android. They did the UI/UX of the admin panel and the mobile app as well.

What is the team composition?

There are three people involved in our project.

How did you come to work with Stakk?

Another app developer referred them to me.

How much have you invested with them?

I’ve spent over $10,000 with them so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

I’ve been pleased with them and the progress to date. I’ve been able to test the app and admin panel as we’ve been going, and I’m happy with the results so far.

How did Stakk perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is good; they work in sprints, and we have regular weekly meetings. Communication is excellent as well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I like that I deal directly with the director of the company. We deal with the people who own the company rather than just an employee.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think there’s anything they can improve on.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Listen to what they have to say.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of Talley App, a mental wellness startup. We connect people going through emotional distress to people in similar situations. We deal mostly in the mental health area, where we do talks in two main ways. One of them is grouping anonymous people into conversations using third-party companies, such as Zoom.

What challenge were you trying to address with Stakk?

We needed to create a platform where our users could speak anonymously to our listeners without any fear of lack of confidentiality or being exposed. Since mental health adds a lot of stigma, we wanted to create a safe space.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We don’t do video calls because we’re an anonymous platform. Therefore, Stakk has developed a mobile app for audio calls. It’s a progressive web application used for both iOS and Android. We’re now doing end-to-end testing and gearing up for our launch in October. They’ll continue to do maintenance and additional development work.

For development, we provided documentation and wireframes to Stakk. We also provided them with some mock designs. The good thing about working with them was that they were able to help us redefine and polish our ideas in terms of what the platform should be, as well as some of the key functionalities.

In the beginning, we had a few discovery calls, and then we went on to get their quotation. We realized we didn’t have the resources we needed to bring what we wanted to life, so we went on to do some crowdfunding. After the crowdfunding, we came back to the drawing board with Stakk and went over our designs and specification documents with them. They pinpointed some holes and asked questions. Once again, we went to the drawing table with their feedback, and we sat with our project manager and the developers who would be working with us. They were very helpful and gave us options for the right APIs to use, as well as future cost and other API options they could bring us.

When we were set on the functionalities, we got a document from Stakk defining all the sprints and dates that we were going to go through. Finally, we signed documents and kicked off the project.

What is the team composition?

We have three points of contact, including a project manager, a lead developer, and a main developer. There are others working on the project but I don’t know how many.

How did you come to work with Stakk?

They were recommended to us by a friend of mine. We met with about 16 different companies. There was something very warm about Stakk. I felt I could trust them more than the other companies. They didn’t make us feel like we didn’t know what we were talking about. When we went on their website, it looked very modern and interesting, and their price caught my eye as well.

We initiated contact with them in April 2020 but they were still excited about our project after we crowdfunded in October. Stakk didn’t give up on us when we didn’t have the funds. They cheered for us along the way and even touched base with us during crowdfunding. It built a team spirit.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $23,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2020, and the relationship is ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We’re all very excited for this app — it’s a job well done. The biggest reason I’m glad we went with Stakk is that they’ve understood our issues and have been very considerate. They listen to us and get us.

Furthermore, the feedback from my team has been very good. We’ve started showing a few users in our community already, and there’s a big buzz. It’ll be lovely to see the feedback once we launch.

How did Stakk perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re excellent. They cater to our needs and understand that we work differently from others since we’re a pre-seed startup. Nonetheless, they’ve been very helpful at meeting us at our point of need, and they’re great in terms of giving us options. All in all, they’re very easy to work with.

On project management, they’re willing to meet with us every Saturday. We usually meet with our project manager and the lead developer working on our project. They’re very consistent in never missing meetings and being up-to-date. We use email, Slack, Google Meet, and WhatsApp to communicate. We’ve gone through different sprints, and they’re really efficient in bringing up issues on time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very understanding and empathetic. Stakk pays attention to detail and how we feel about things.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would’ve been nice to see each other face-to-face but we couldn’t due to COVID-19, so it isn’t against them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

First, come prepared with lots of documentation and be clear on what you want to do. Stakk has done a really good job in guiding us, but in hindsight, I’d make sure we were a bit more defined so I wouldn’t waste their time as much.

Secondly, communicate as much as you can. Don’t rely on verbal communication, write to them too.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and founder of Makemefiitclub, a health and fitness application. We’re addressing the current pitfalls in health education and service in the UK.

What challenge were you trying to address with Stakk?

I had a very concise idea in mind but didn’t know how to bring it to life. My idea was to have an integrated platform where experts of all fields can work together to provide a more holistic approach for their clients. I needed a company to develop my health and fitness app.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Stakk’s team designed the app. They helped me streamline and make the Android and iOS app an easy-to-use platform through the designs. Now, we’re undergoing development. 

I was also looking for a lawyer to help with the terms of the service and the privacy policy. Through their connections, Stakk connected me to a very reputable lawyer who works with startup companies. Through that, I’ve secured a lawyer to work on the services that I need.

What is the team composition?

Three people are working on the app, and there was also a commercial liaison as well.

How did you come to work with Stakk?

When I was looking at app development companies, others didn’t understand my vision. When I spoke to Stakk, they took the time to listen to me. They understood that I wanted to develop something new rather than replicating what’s already out there in the market. They understood the uniqueness of my company, and they had the knowledge and know-how to implement what I needed.

How much have you invested with them?

I’ve invested £20,000–£25,000 (approximately $28,000–$35,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2021, and our engagement is ongoing. The development of the app should be completed at the end of August 2021.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

They’ve been on time and on target with the designs. Stakk’s team is knowledgeable and also understanding of my vision for the business. I shared the screens that Stakk developed so far, and people have had very positive feedback. People have said it’s very interactive, to the point where we’re increasing the use of Stakk’s design on our landing pages to entice more experts and members onboard. Stakk’s work is user-friendly, detailed, and engaging. 

How did Stakk perform from a project management standpoint?

The project management is great. We have weekly meetings, which has been very beneficial in keeping me up to date. The meetings also allow me to provide any feedback on things that I don’t like or absolutely love. Stakk’s team is very engaged in email and calls. They’re easy to get a hold of, and they’re always happy to help. 

In addition to the meetings, we use Figma. I’m a very visual learner, so I prefer seeing the screens actually being populated and demonstrated. Figma allows me to comment and provide any feedback easily. For example, I can pull up the screens during a meeting and discuss going forward with them. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Stakk is very forward-thinking. They’re always thinking about the younger demographic and how technology has moved away from traditional websites and apps. They’re always thinking about being more user-friendly, engaging, streamlining their services, and making an intuitive platform, which is excellent for me.

This is a mainstream app, so I don’t want to create a platform that is too convoluted. My app is for all ages and demographics. They’re really good at understanding the target population that I want to attract and providing the technology to support that.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything for them to improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be engaged. If you want something changed or amended, they’re very responsive, but you have to ask for it, and you have to let your point be known. They’re very knowledgeable in their area and understand how things will work, so make sure you take on all the knowledge that you possibly can from them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO and co-founder of an HR tech platform. We use short video clips to optimize recruitment processes.

What challenge were you trying to address with Stakk?

We hired Stakk to develop our native application.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We didn’t have enough in-house bandwidth technology. It was a significant area that we needed to focus on to grow our business. Stakk helped us address this by creating the MVP that we used to take our business to the next level. They developed a native app that was iOS and Android-enabled. Additionally, their team provided backend support to ensure a successful product launch.

What is the team composition?

Jack (Co-Founder) was our main point of contact. We also worked with their developers.

How did you come to work with Stakk?

We met Stakk in Google Campus during Google’s Incubator Program in London. We had other options, but we happily went with their team to combine cost-efficient and reliable work.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about £50,000–£55,000 (approximately $69,000-$75,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

The project ran from August to September 2019. We plan to hire their team again for another project that we’re having soon.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Stakk helped us secure 27,500 app users. We also got more than 50 companies to sign up for our trial services, and we talked with major global organizations regarding our product. Apart from those, we also raised £1 million (approximately $1.4 million USD). We had all these quantitative analytics to measure Stakk’s success.

Stakk implemented everything that we wanted them to implement, even when we constantly changed that. We wouldn’t plan on hiring their team again if they didn’t do a good job — that could also be a good metric.

How did Stakk perform from a project management standpoint?

We used Jira to manage our workflow. Everything was done in a timely manner, and I didn’t find the need to chase them for anything. We were just lucky and there were no issues in terms of project management.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Stakk understood our business. They didn’t feel like an outsourced development team, but an extension of our bandwidth in technology. I recommended their work to three other companies based on their proposition and performance during our project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We were more than happy with our working experience with Stakk. If anything, I hope they consider expanding their team in the future.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Just be very open and honest. The more direct you are, the more they’ll understand your needs. In our case, we communicated that we needed them to move fast and pivot the realities — and Stakk delivered those.