STRV

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CEO of a catering company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STRV?

We wanted additional validation on our product’s direction and design.

Additionally, we aimed to ensure we weren’t in an echo chamber, in terms of what we believed about the market and our customers. We aspired to translate only the best elements into our product.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?            

STRV helped us get an early MVP of our product established. Specifically, they helped us with our need-finding and problem validation phases. They made sure we were approaching our issues correctly.

Once we were comfortable with the feedback data we received on our product challenges, they were able were able to help us get some early designs organized.

What is the team composition?

We worked with four people from STRV. Our team consisted of two designers, one project manager, and one product manager.

How did you come to work with STRV?

We were referred to them on two separate occasions. The first time was by a well-known design firm in the Bay Area, and the second time was by a colleague of mine from business school. Both of these recommendations lent ample support to our decision.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested $50,000–$200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in August 2018, and we wrapped up in April 2019.

We brought more of their assigned responsibilities in-house, as our company grew. We’re still in contact with STRV as it relates with needs that may come up in the future and we would certainly work with them again.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It’s difficult to assess the accuracy of need finding and problem validation in their early stages. However, six months removed from the project we found that many of their hypotheses were correct. Their process helped ensure that we didn’t diverge too far from our plans, which saved us time and money.  

How did STRV perform from a project management standpoint?

Our teams worked well together. Our product manager even came from the Czech Republic to visit for a week, and we had a chance to work together in person.

Our project manager took a lot of responsibility and leadership in running the project. Because they were in Europe, we’d go to sleep with discussion notes, and wake up with an outline of what was worked on, with next steps. It was impressive that they managed the process so efficiently; it allowed us to focus on other aspects of our operations, such as technology development and fundraising.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We felt we were getting great value for what we were paying, which is important to us as a small business where every dollar is so precious. The team understood our financial constraints and helped us to craft a plan and realistic milestones. Outsourced teams usually charge as much as they can, but it felt very different with STRV. They reflected the same level of efficiency with our resources that we would expect from ourselves, internally. They made sure we had a successful outcome, even though it didn’t necessarily translate into more income for them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It took us a little longer to familiarize their team with our industry. It would have been better if we could’ve gotten them up to speed quicker, but I don’t know what we could have done to help that process.

There was also a period where we needed to change designers, which was actually a great shift for us. Unfortunately, there was some time wasted with the first iteration of designers. We would certainly work with them again, even with some of those challenges.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

In general, it’s best to be clear about desired milestones and to have check-ins to remain on track. It’s definitely easy to have someone else come in and manage the process, but it’s important to keep a close watch on how much work should be outsourced and how much should be internal. I would suggest assessing what stage of competence your company is in; sometimes it’s crucial to the learning curve of your business and your team to keep certain responsibilities and jobs inhouse. Finding that balance with STRV was key, even though they were providing high-quality services for us.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CMO of a company that is about to launch what we see as a groundbreaking financial application aimed at everyday banking. It also includes significant rewards programs that nobody else is offering at the moment.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STRV?

We initially hired them for web design, but our engagement has since grown to include a redesign of the financial app we are introducing to the marketplace.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Taking a mobile-first approach, STRV designed our primary customer website by refreshing our existing content and presenting it in a new way. We wanted our site to be much more contemporary and clearer in terms of getting key information across to users. We have an in-house development team, but when we’ve needed extra help, their dev team has been very willing to step in.

They have also assisted with dev elements of secondary sites, including aspects of our corporate member program, which requires customized templates. More recently for our mobile app, STRV has orchestrated a complete redesign and representation of the material in the app, which takes up well over 250 pages.

What is the team composition?

Our primary contacts are our project manager and a designer, but we also communicate with their business and financial representatives at times.

How did you come to work with STRV?

We looked at competitive sites that we admired, and we researched who designed and built them. STRV was frequently the common denominator, so we contacted them and picked them.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement began in January 2019 and remains ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We anticipate a full launch of these redesigned products in about a month. STRV’s work to this point has been a significant upgrade from where we were previously.

How did STRV perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve had no issues from working with their design team in the Czech Republic. We have regular check-ins, and they run those meetings well. STRV always offers rationale and justification for their design decisions. I only have high praise for how they’ve handled the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are well-equipped to give recommendations within the design or development parameters. Also, they worked well with our expedited timelines, first for our website and now for our mobile app. Working under those time constraints has been a definite point in their favor.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not yet. I think we could have improved by having only one source of feedback, as opposed to multiple sources. And we could have done a better job of alleviating the time pressures we placed on them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would recommend that future clients review STRV’s capabilities and the success they’ve had with other clients. That was our process, and it worked well.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m one of the engineering managers at a cloud storage and content management services provider. My team is responsible for providing third-party APIs and software development kits (SKDs) for our platform’s features.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STRV?

My team had inherited a set of iOS and Android SDKs that another in-house department had developed. However, we didn’t have any mobile experience in our group, so we needed a contracting partner to help us ramp up while also solving pressing customer issues with our previous SDKs.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

STRV is working closely with my team to develop new mobile SDKs for both iOS and Android. Most of the work has focused on the iOS side. The previous iteration was written in Objective C, so we wanted to rewrite it in Swift. We’ve just released a private beta to our customers this past week. 

As for the Android side, customers requested the SDK to be Android X and 64-bit compatible, so we’ve updated the kit accordingly.

What is the team composition? 

We work with about four resources at any given time, split between the iOS and Android teams.

How did you come to work with STRV?

One of our customers who works with our SDKs actually recommended STRV to us, so I contacted them. Their engineers did well in our interviews, so we decided to hire them. 

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent about $300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started talking to them in February 2019, and they still work with us today.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our primary goal has been to deliver the beta iOS SDK and to fix bugs across both versions, and they’ve been successful there.

How did STRV perform from a project management standpoint?

We mostly manage the project from our side, working with their engineers in daily stand-ups in a large team format.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of the engineering is excellent, and their staff is very engaged with our project. Rather than telling them what to do and expecting a final product, we share a real collaboration. They work with us to figure out the best approach and provide a lot of suggestions when tackling engineering problems.

In terms of business logistics, I appreciate that they’re willing to work within our budget and timelines. That sort of participation has been very proactive from their side.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The toughest part of working with them is navigating the time zone differences because they’re based in the Czech Republic. Occasionally, their engineers have visited for a few weeks so that we could work on projects side by side, and the team is pretty flexible about our schedules. But having more in-person meetings would be great.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?
 
There’s a huge number of engineering companies out there, but STRV has high-quality engineers. If you’re looking for good work, they’re the ones to go to.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the COO and co-founder of Ecomi, an app that helps users manage digital collectibles.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STRV?

We needed additional qualified resources to help us quickly complete the frontend and some of the backend of our mobile app. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

STRV provided mostly frontend development resources to help our team build our app from scratch, using React Native. They also provided some short-term backend support and tracked user analytics. 

What is the team composition? 

We worked with about five people, including one backend developer, three frontend developers, and a user analytics resource. 

How did you come to work with STRV?

I believe they were introduced to us by a mutual contact who had worked with them before on a similar project. After speaking with their team, we felt they'd be an ideal partner for us.

How much have you invested with them?

We've invested around $225,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from January–July 2019. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

STRV has done a great job of providing high-quality development resources that have successfully helped us develop our app quickly. Their work has been received well both internally and externally. 

How did STRV perform from a project management standpoint?

They had a fairly limited role when it came to managing the project. Initially, our main point of contact was somewhat lackluster but, after a few conversations, they improved their involvement to a satisfactory level. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were very impressed by their robust recruitment process, which is one of the main reasons we chose to work with them: They have a strong team of highly qualified resources.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not in particular. They met our standards of quality and timeliness.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Different resources on their team are located in different countries, so just be aware of potential time zone differences or try to request resources available during ideal hours. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO of Bonder.me, a next-generation platform for people to connect with each other.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STRV?

We needed to create the product and make sure the code is done right. Our company received a patent within two years, which validates our idea, but we needed to find a team to help us build it. Because we’re on the innovation side, we didn’t have the necessary technical experience.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

STRV did all of the strategy and development for our platform. We went through an R&D process with them, conducting focus groups and going through redesign phases. Their team made the necessary tweaks as we went through this process together.

After this strategic and research phase, STRV developed the product. This process is ongoing, so they’re building both the front- and backend of iOS and Android apps, along with performing QA testing. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with 10–15 people from STRV, including a product development director. The amount of people fluctuates based on the intensity of the project at that time.

How did you come to work with STRV?

I have a friend who is a lead at a popular ridesharing service who told me about STRV. He said that when a company gets stuck and needs something done quickly, they call STRV. After completing some research, I decided to work with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We have invested between $200,000-$1,000,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement with STRV began in July 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Everything STRV has created has been really well received by our team. The quality of the code is excellent, and they’re involved in the process from start to finish. Their team is always able to execute on time and really understands the task at hand. 

How did STRV perform from a project management standpoint?

STRV is fantastic at project management, bringing my team into the fold. They have high standards for how the process works. Our product development director was very assertive. She has a very extensive background and it made our collaboration successful.

Our teams communicate through Slack and email. Despite the distance, they’re exceedingly responsive. The speed of their response time is unwavering. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

STRV is all about the relationship and the partnership. They’re good at achieving because our product matters to them too. It doesn’t feel like they’re outsourced, it feels like they’re part of our team. That isn’t something that’s easy to achieve in this space.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything they could improve on. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The instinct, especially if you’re in the startup business, might be to find a team who can get it done for the least amount. I’d advise against that. If you’re spending a little bit more, you’ll actually save in the long run. That has been my experience with STRV.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of sales & solutions engineering at an IT solutions company for enterprise companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STRV?

One of our clients was looking for a company to help develop an application quickly.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

STRV sat with our client, asking questions about what they want. It helped the client get a clearer idea for the app. Then STRV took a couple weeks to create wireframes with a properly designed UX/UI. After developing the application for two months, it was launched.

Since that project ended, we’ve continued working with STRV. We had one project where we needed to refresh the design of an existing application. They worked with our project management team to come up with the right product direction for the UX/UI. Another project was for a customer’s product strategy. The client wanted to come up with an Excel product to demo potential projects. STRV was not only involved creatively with development but also in figuring out the whole ideation phase.

What is the team composition?

Depending on the project, we have anywhere from four to eight engineers that specialized in design, front- and backend development, and QA.

How did you come to work with STRV?

STRV was recommended by a friend of ours. When he worked with them before, he had a good experience.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested between $500,000–$1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement with STRV started in October 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

All of the projects they’ve worked on have been excellent. STRV not only develops projects for us but know what to or what we should develop. My colleagues and I are happy with their work.

How did STRV perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve established a great working relationship with the project manager. She’s dedicated and creative.

What did you find most impressive about them?

STRV maintains their competitive advantage by keeping their engineers up-to-date with the latest technologies. Their entire team is motivated. They not only develop what we want but suggest what technologies can better the project before making it happen.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Traditional vendors provide a fixed rate for a support contract for startups on a time’s basis. It’s different with the enterprise market. When we use their service, they charge us. It’s something they’re transitioning to change for the enterprise market.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO of Flikflix. We offer an iOS and tvOS mobile app that helps people discover movies they love faster than they typically can now.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STRV?

We were trying to create an interface for the tvOS portion of the app that allowed users to swipe through—like Tinder. Our coders were running into difficulties with the task.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I shared a Sketch file that detailed how I envisioned the interface with the STRV team. After examining the document, they browsed our databases and put together a plan for a backend that would make the UI look and feed as it should.

Their team provided valuable feedback and suggestions to help us improve the app, and they made our requested changes without any issues. The project was completed within five days.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a team of four people, including a project manager.

How did you come to work with STRV?

In a former role, my CEO had asked me to look into STRV for a project we were working on at the time. When I started researching companies for this project, I was surprised to find that their team had cold called us. I looked through their brochure, website, and portfolio of successful past projects and was very impressed. Their skills rivaled some of the dev shops I’d known for 15 years, and their pricing was reasonable. Hiring them seemed like a no-brainer.  

How much have you invested with them?

We have spent between $100,000–$200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in April 2018 and still have some ongoing projects with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our team spent weeks trying to figure this out, and STRV finished the full project in five days. I can count on them to get the job done and get it done quickly. For example, at one point we had a hard two-week deadline on a task that could have a huge impact on our company. It required the STRV team to work on code they’d never seen before. Long story short—they came through. They’re dedicated to getting the job done. Confident and competent, STRV strives to deliver what’s necessary for our projects, and they don’t get caught up in frivolous details.

How did STRV perform from a project management standpoint?

They were great. We held standups with developers at the end each day, so I could track their progress, and I had two meetings per week with the project manager. We were in touch on a daily basis, and I was always able to chat with the team if needed. I appreciated that latitude.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They took on our project as if it were their own, and working with them has been easy. We have great experiences with outsourced vendors from time to time, but it’s really rare for me to find a company that stands out as much as STRV has. On top of their knowledge and commitment to our project, they make me feel like I’m their only customer. They’re not concerned with money; they genuinely want to deliver a solution that fits our company’s needs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s not a single thing that I would change about working with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Hire STRV—don’t look anywhere else.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the director of product testing at Opkix. We're a relatively new player in the event-capturing market.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STRV?

We were experiencing some issues, so we needed more development resources to help us produce a high-quality app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We wanted to relaunch our app for iOS and Android. STRV shared their vision with us and provided a lot of guidance. Then, they evaluated our code and refactored some of it. They also developed some of the code from scratch.

What is the team composition? 

I've worked with their CEO, a project manager, and two engineers. 

How did you come to work with STRV?

I joined the company after the relationship had started. 

What is the status of this engagement? 

We started working with them in April 2019, and the relationship is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They provide us with a weekly build so that we can see the progress. They're not only executing the plan, but they're also helping us navigate through the challenges. I've worked with a lot of vendors, but I've never seen this level of execution. 

How did STRV perform from a project management standpoint? 

They're able to effectively communicate what they're going to do and where the project is going. We use Asana to keep the project on track and make sure we hit our milestones. They've also established an interactive communication portal using Slack. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're paving the path for us to help us reach our goals. They embody the concept of a trusted partner.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything. I've been impressed throughout the entire engagement. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trust their guidance–it works out incredibly well. Also, keep an open line of communication.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO and founder of a tool that creates a safe space for people who have experienced harassment, bias, discrimination, mistreatment, or any kind of cultural issues in the workplace to share their experiences with their company leadership.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STRV?

We needed help developing a secure website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

STRV designed and built a mobile-friendly website from scratch, using React and Node.js, based on concepts we provided their team. After they developed the frontend and backend, they offered QA and security services as well.

What is the team composition?

We work with two engineers and a designer. Initially, we also worked with a project manager for no additional charge. 

How did you come to work with STRV?

One of my investors had worked with them in the past, so he brought them on.

How much have you invested with them?

We've invested about $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2017 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We don't have any metrics to report yet, but we're very happy thus far. They built a clean website that runs very well overall with very few bugs or issues. Their team has also been understanding of our needs and willing to work with one of our designers on the overall look and feel of the site.

How did STRV perform from a project management standpoint?

Aside from a few hiccups in the beginning, project management and communication with their team has been very good. They've made good progress on the project at a steady pace.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their team is incredibly friendly and approachable. They seem genuinely focused and concerned about client success as if they were an extension of our own team. Their backend engineer has also been very helpful in ensuring the site is secure, which is one of the most important aspects of the type of service we provide.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There were a few times I felt their team spent too much time on perfecting certain elements of the site, but that may because I didn't communicate priorities as effectively as I could have.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Map out your priorities and timelines during the earlier stages of the relationship to avoid any delays.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Laugh Lounge, a live-streaming standup comedy network.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STRV?

We needed to build a frontend on iOS, Android, and Apple TV and unify the user experience across all the platforms so that multiple consumers watching a piece of comedy could interact simultaneously around that content.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We worked with a different firm to design the entire app because we wanted STRV to focus solely on coding. We had the 3^rd party company create the designs, and then we hired STRV to see if anything was missing and start the programming.

STRV took about five months to develop the entire app, and they built natively on iOS and Android. Our product was just a concept before they stepped in, and they replicated what we had created in the design phase in a way that made sense for both Android and iOS.

One main feature they implemented is a new form of social metric called laughter. Instead of likes, our app has laughs, so users can tap anywhere on the screen and send a “haha” to the top of the content they’re viewing. Right now, the app is prelaunch and we haven’t taken it to market yet. STRV’s focus is on feature enhancement, bug fixes, and maintenance, and when we get ready to launch, we’ll ramp up the team to work out the rest of the kinks.

Overall, STRV built a product that’s usable across platforms and has a cohesive and engaging user experience that matched the design elements we had created initially.

What is the team composition?

They have about six developer who interact with our CTO. I usually work with the CEO, account executive project lead, and lead programmer.

How did you come to work with STRV?

They were referred to us by a former colleague. Initially, we were using Toptal to recruit individuals, but it became too much work. We started looking at programming companies, a few who were less expensive than STRV, but I really enjoyed STRV’s team. Some of the other top contenders wouldn’t let us do the design through a different firm, but STRV didn’t have a problem with that. They were a one stop shop, and after meeting with Dave [CEO, STRV] and some other team members, I loved their work ethic and leadership. Plus, they have a great portfolio, like Tinder, so I knew I wouldn’t be disappointed.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Development lasted from April to July of this year. Now, STRV is just providing maintenance and small fixes.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

All of our test users love the app. We still need to fix a few problems like synchronization issues, but overall, the feedback is that there’s no better-looking app on the market for this kind of service. A lot of that is the design, but STRV did a phenomenal job of matching our design to the actual code. We were planning on hiring local developers for maintenance, but we’re staying with STRV because they did such a good job.  

How did STRV perform from a project management standpoint?

We held weekly meetings with the entire STRV team, and they provided a complete set of documents around the code. They used Harvest to log hours and expenditures, which made me feel comfortable and increased trust and transparency. They understand the financial ecosystem of a startup, so they were flexible about payment deadlines, which was refreshing.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were truly concerned about our success. Dave made that clear. He told us he was committed to our product making it to market, and then he backed that up by actually executing on the plans we made. STRV isn’t just concerned about making money; they want to see your product succeed.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We had some language barrier issues, especially when it was us, STRV, and the design firm communicating. Everything was easily rectified, though, and it didn’t create too many headaches.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Write down all the questions you have and ask them when you first meet together. STRV brings a lot of technical expertise across numerous platforms, so don’t be afraid to ask questions and have them prove themselves to you. It’s the vendor’s job to convince you, and even though STRV wasn’t the cheapest, they were the right choice for us.