Swenson He

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president and CEO of a company that offers e-commerce services to the public called Gacha World.

What challenge were you trying to address with Swenson He?

Swenson helped us with the entire development of our platform.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Swenson developed the front- and backend of our mobile app for Android and iOS. The backend development included features to support inventory management and accounting. Although we did most of the design work, their team created the entire UI/UX and shopping experience until the checkout process.

We sell exclusive products from Japan, so it's an e-commerce app. Swenson actually developed the Gacha machines, which were games for the platform. They essentially helped us gamify the shopping experience.

What is the team composition?

I've worked with 5–6 high-level people from Swenson. I worked with the president and CEO, the head of product development, and the head of design. Swenson also dedicated a project manager to our project.

How did you come to work with Swenson He?

We met about 20 development agencies in the Los Angeles area, and I met each one of them. We chose Swenson because we liked their smaller size, and their entire team was willing to work with us. Their budget was also reasonable.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $1 million on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in January 2020, and we’re still working with them.

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

We secured about 200,000 downloads and about 50,000 customers out of that group. Overall, their work has had a positive impact on our business.

How did Swenson He perform from a project management standpoint?

They meet deadlines, and we’ve had great communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Swenson meets deadlines. If they come across any issues, they let me know as soon as possible and immediately take care of them. When needed, they’ll assign additional staff to the project to get it done.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of any way for them to improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We were able to work with everyone at their company, including their CEO. Their team has a lot of experience running businesses and launching startups. They gave us development and business advice, which I highly recommend listening to.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and president of a software development company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Swenson He?

We identified a problem within the real estate vertical. We felt that there was an opportunity to implement a technology to replace a labor-intensive action, which was its current state.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had outlines created through Figma to provide them with an indication of our vision, and then Swenson took the project from there. Their team started from scratch. They designed and developed the app for iOS.

Currently, the platform’s in the testing phase. We have Swenson on retainer for evolution purposes and intend to have them build the platform for Android.

What is the team composition?

I’m involved with everybody on their team to some degree. Nick’s (Managing Partner) heavily involved with our project. He’s there to oversee it and ensure that it runs smoothly. I work with a designer, a project manager, and 2–3 developers.

How did you come to work with Swenson He?

We had an initial meeting with Nick and Chao (Founding Partner) who quickly understood our market. Their team then brought their technical expertise and business perspective, which was important. A developer can build any product that you ask them to build. If they’re not providing you with insight into your vertical, you’ve lost an important component to building a successful product. That was a huge advantage and why we decided to work with them. They saw the bigger picture.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested $300,000–$400,000 in their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started our partnership in March 2019, and it’s ongoing.

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

We’re receiving positive feedback from the tests. When it comes to the core functionality, we’ve scored a 10/10. Their team created a platform that functions properly. For the design, we’ve scored an 8.5/10. We plan to have a design company brush over the platform.

How Swenson He perform from a project management standpoint?

We talk daily through Slack, and their communication’s second to none. They meet deadlines too. I consider them a part of my team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Swenson understands business concepts and came up with phenomenal ideas that advanced our app. Their team’s committed to our project; They’re in it to win it with us. Their team’s not there to just collect a check.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s always room for improvement with UI and UX design.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Utilize Slack because it was a game-changer for us. They’re not cheap, but they’re phenomenal. There’s an old saying: faster, better, cheaper, pick your two. You get faster and better with Swenson He.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a startup that created a dating app that allows users to meet through affinity. It’s a native iOS and Android mobile app.

What challenge were you trying to address with Swensen He?

We had an MVP of our native iOS and Android app. However, our fortes weren’t cloud computing or backend engineering. While our backend was functional, we weren’t sure if it would scale.

We were about to turn on a large marketing budget. In this space, you have a short amount of time to make a first impression. It would’ve been extremely risky to throw marketing dollars at a platform that we weren’t sure could scale.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Swenson helped to build a scalable backend. They ran low testing on our infrastructure to understand our scalability. Then, their team implemented optimizations and provided additional reports.

That naturally evolved into the next phases, which was a product approach. Their team helped us identify features that would appeal to our particular demographic. They helped us to prioritize feature development and create a schedule for the remainder of the term. They supported the development of five separate large-scale features that ranged from user engagement campaigns to search engine optimizations.

What is the team composition?

We worked with 4–5 people from Swenson.

How did you come to work with Swensen He?

Their foot was in the door as their two founders are also MIT alumni. Their team had exactly the necessary expertise, and I didn’t want to hire for that particular position.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $50,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We brought them onboard around September 2019, and the project went for about six months.

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

When heavily hit, a few of our features didn’t work. Swenson dropped the response times and failure rates of our more intensive endpoints more than thousands of percentage points. Other functions dropped in response rates from a matter of seconds to tens of milliseconds. Their team implemented large-scale campaigns and hardened the infrastructure.

How did Swenson He perform from a project management standpoint?

We had a substantial project management team, so we incorporated their developers into our team. We added their users to our Jira platform. They set up a Slack channel, and communication was good. The line between our team and their team was extremely blurred, which was nice. Their team was flexible.

For the user engagement campaign, we completely handed over the project. It was one standalone feature, and we didn’t have to do anything. They delivered the product, and we were happy with the result.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Swenson was the first outsourced development firm that I’ve hired. However, I have worked with lots and lots of consultants and other types of outsourced organizations. My biggest pet peeve with contractors is when they spend the first two weeks of the engagement conducting research and then create an unactionable PowerPoint of their findings. That wasn’t the case with Swenson. Their team identified the work that needed to be done and then did it.

We didn’t have to teach them anything, which is a complete failure when it comes to outsourced work. Their team always knew more than us, which was good.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They should expand their reach. It would be helpful for them to add an advertising arm into their current ecosystem. They could also expand their design capabilities. That would make them a one-stop-shop.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The scope was clearly defined from the start, so there wasn’t miscommunication throughout the project. If you both understand the expectations, there won’t be a problem.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m am one of the founders and the CEO of a payment processor for live festivals for food and beverages. This involves peer-to-peer transactions for confectioners and live event spaces. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Swenson He?

We were looking for a development partner. We had just got done with investments and we were going into a pitch. An entertainment company expressed interest in us, so we were looking for an MVP that could demonstrate our product.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Swenson He developed a quick MVP using some wireframes and a little bit of programming in the background to demonstrate the entirety of the product. From there, depending on the vote of the entertainment company and others, we had a plan to have them help us build out the whole app. 

What is the team composition?

I had two main points of contact including David (VP, Sales  & Client Success), who checked in all the time, and Tiago (VP, Product), who served as the head of technology for the product. 

How did you come to work with Swenson He?

Our CTO at the time was looking for a company to work with in 2017 or 2018. They are one of the companies we interviewed but we didn’t end up working with them.

A year later, I interviewed more development companies, and I still had Swenson He in mind. We had a great interview with them so we decided to work together.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent about $20,000 for the MVP, wireframes, and consulting sessions.

What is the status of this engagement?

We signed the contract in October or November 2019. The project is on hiatus because of what’s going on, but they completed the MVP in December 2019. We plan to continue working together. 

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

We had a set time, and we wanted to get it done before January. They couldn’t guarantee the speed, but they did it much faster than expected. They did a great job with the MVP — it was exactly what I asked for. The team listened well and produced high-quality work. 

How did Swenson He perform from a project management standpoint?

Tiago checked in with me weekly because he knew that I wanted to know everything that was going on at the frontend of it. He kept me up to date even if there wasn’t much to say, just to make sure all was well.

Swenson He is very communicative and friendly. They would send me versions about every week, and they took all of my feedback upfront. Before making changes, they always let me know. The team did exactly what I asked for even though I wasn’t over their shoulder the whole time, so they gained my trust very quickly. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communication was great. I’ve dealt with a lot of people who don’t reach out that much, or when they do, there are a lot of unanswered questions.

With Swenson He, there were multiple touchpoints per week, and I never felt nervous that they wouldn’t do the work correctly. The team kept me updated every step of the way, which was helpful and reassuring.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I have no suggestions. In the small amount of time we’ve worked together, it’s been a positive experience. I have no negative feedback at all.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The more information you can provide, the more they can do. I went in with every single thing I could think of. The more the team knows, the better they can tailor the work.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the owner of an innovative technology firm that develops apps to connect people. I also run a sanctuary and nature-based wellness center that promotes health through strength-based and intentional programming.

What challenge were you trying to address with Swenson He?

We needed help bringing a psychological invention to life. The purpose is to translate communication between non-verbal dependents and their caregivers. We wanted a web and mobile platform to support our initial concept.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They captured the essence of what I wanted and expanded it into a workable model. They then worked on concept development and pitched their ideas for improvements. They were very detailed and provided bigger possibilities than I imagined. They walked me through a summary overview of every aspect of the process, including workflow details, phasing, features, and the exact timeline. At every step along the way, they provided supplementary documentation and maintained a high level of interest. They behaved as if they were co-investors in the project, which I found impressive.

We did our initial phasing and they delivered every aspect of the methodologies, hypotheses, and claims we needed to validate our path toward a provisional and nonprovisional patent. They built a backend and are moving into beta testing, algorithms, and market research. They did literary reviews and data analysis and challenged any assumptions or hypotheses before defining other factors beyond the original scope of the project.

They came in well under the timeline and were faster than any other proposal we received. They’ve delivered all the documentation we need so far and will continue working with them on future stages. The next step is software development.

What is the team composition?

I have worked with both of their co-founders. I flew to them and met with them directly, then worked with two engineers. They have about 30 engineers in-house and I was able to engage with their whole team when I met with them initially.

How did you come to work with Swenson He?

A friend and colleague referred them to us.

How much have you invested with them?

To date, we’ve paid between $40,000–$60,000 for phase one. We project the entire project will cost around $400,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We first started working together in April 2018. The work is ongoing.

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

We filed our patent, which was our goal deliverable. We have the algorithm to prove our concept and all the methodology documentation they created.

How did Swenson He perform from a project management standpoint?

They provide solid workflow details and weekly breakdowns of deliverables. We have weekly conference calls to review them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The scope of their industry knowledge is vast. They’re able to advise us on technology and medical marketing and are instrumental in our process. We thought they would develop the software, but they’ve provided so much more. With their help, we’ve gone much further than we thought we could. They have a great stream of communication and are super-efficient.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re so good. I would love to partner with them for every development capacity and hope they develop their business to be venture capital investors.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of WaBee Inc. We’re a mobile app that functions as a rewards/customer acquisition platform that gives users cashback on purchases.

What challenge were you trying to address with Swenson He?

We initially developed the app with a freelance approach. A project manager here recruited freelance developers from overseas. Unfortunately, the build they created was terrible. When starting this project we had to consider if it’d be feasible to salvage what we already had or completely start over. Either way, we needed to add new features to facilitate working with nonprofit organizations.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Swenson He was involved in early stage project planning and design. We spent about a month planning the project and another month designing the app with all its features and functionalities. We chose not to use any of the existing code because it was done in .NET. Also, the apps were built on a hybrid platform that's not supported anymore. We decided to completely redo the app’s backend to enable future scaling of the business.

They developed native apps for iOS and Android. They advised that native apps would best utilize the capabilities of each device and provide the experience we wanted. It's a massive project, but the main feature they're adding is an optical character recognition (OCR) software development kit (SDK) into the app that allows the system to start reading customer receipts. This is a vital component because it enables customers to claim their cashback by scanning the receipts and uploading them into the app. Before engaging with Swenson He, someone had to manually read every receipt and input that information to issue cashback. The OCR currently reads the date, time, and amount. However, they're already integrating technologies to get the process completely automated.

Other integrations include Google logins and an extensive amount of third-party apps for data analytics and other functions. Such additional integrations include Stripe, Paypal, Twilio, Plaid, and Pushwoosh. Pushwoosh allows us to send out notifications to users on both platforms and can even target notifications to specific areas. One of the more significant integrations is with Algolia, which is a search API that gets plugged in with storable data and creates high-speed search capability.

Swenson He is also developing our backend dashboards for merchants, organizations, and our sales team, account managers, and corporate administration staff. This allows organizations trying to raise funds through the app to log in and track how much has been raised and who donated. They developed around 125 admin dashboard panels, individually.

What is the team composition?

About 14 people work on the project. We communicate directly with the project manager.

How did you come to work with Swenson He?

As a result of our previous experience, we were very hesitant about letting another vendor take over development. We interviewed 20–25 local development companies and laid out the state of the project. We wanted a firm that had insight into new technologies and could give us feedback to further improve the app.

Swenson He was found via Clutch and they were the second group we interviewed. They exuded a pleasant atmosphere and intended to do everything in-house. It was hard to compare everyone else to them because they were on every point we needed.

How much have you invested with them?

The whole project is costing about $540,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2017 and the project is ongoing.

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

The apps are still under development and set to go live in April of 2018. Swenson He’s team has made great progress and presents all deliverables on time. The difference between what they’ve developed versus the original version is night and day. We're going to have so many tools in the app that weren’t even on our radar before. Also, we gave them creative freedom over the designs we had and they delivered awesome stuff. Now, everyone seeing the new app is very excited and they love the whole look of everything. Swenson He took an app without any real uniqueness or character and created something that stands on its own.

How did Swenson He perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate in several ways like Slack, email, and phone calls. We do weekly check-ins and if I need something, I call or email them and they get back to me right away. But what's really great is their hands-off approach. They give us the chance to know important things and update us if something needs our attention right away. Other than that, it almost feels like no one is working on the project from our side because we usually only hear reports once a week.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’ve been to their office several times at vastly different hours and there are always people working. Everybody looks like they enjoy what they do and dresses nice. No one just comes in flip-flops. Seeing that level of professionalism put my mind at ease. Additionally, both owners are MIT graduates and have severely vetted the entire staff. They highlighted their hiring process and introduced some of the developers working on our apps. That experience is what sold them to us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’ve treated us like we were their only and most important customer. I don't have much feedback on things to improve. They've been doing a great job.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder of Mav Farm, an interactive mobile camera and a shoppable video sharing e-commerce platform.

What challenge were you trying to address with Swenson He?

We needed help to develop our platform.

What was the scope of their involvement? 

We did some UI/UX designs before bringing them on board, but they helped fill in the design gaps and then applied architecture, and planned the product build for launch. Right now, the app is only on iOS. There is also a web portal for businesses.

It’s a social platform, with both social features and video sharing. They integrated it with the e-commerce capabilities. It is a 3-pronged product with commerce, video sharing, and social media. They took care of all three components, building it from the backend to the frontend, and there is some open-source software as well as APIs/SDKs.

What is the team dynamic?

For the first three months, we had a part-time project manager, who will be full-time moving forward. We started off with two people from their team, and now have an additional four full-time resources working on the project including developers and designers.

How did you come to work with Swenson He?

We found them on Clutch. We are a start-up and need a lot of counsel and support in many different ways. On top of that, we were looking for long-term partners, although we currently have a finite relationship defined by an agreement. Even if it something that isn’t set out officially, that is always the goal when you work with anyone, and it ended up being the decision maker in working with them.

How much have you invested in them?

We have spent $300,000—$600,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

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

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

We are still pre-launch, but our biggest success has been that we have been able to work with businesses that sell products, as well as media companies who help those brands advertise in their media content. We have been able to lock down some high caliber businesses as both customers and partners, even before the launch. We can credit Swenson He for much of this, as they allowed us to demo our product to those partners.

How did Swenson He perform from a project management standpoint?

I couldn’t have asked for more. They were always on top of things. I am a huge fan of communication, and I think the project manager is amazing at that. Even the directors of Swenson He were in close contact when needed. It makes me feel a lot more comfortable since we do  have that good communication. We use Trello for communication, as well as phone calls and emails.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Overall, they have a passion for the projects they take on. They made it apparent, even before we started with them, that they wouldn’t work on just any project. They showed deep interest in what we were working on, and that passion has only grown. There is a really close connection between them and our project, which makes our relationship more compelling.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Overall, I am really happy with everything that has happened and is currently happening. I have a lot of confidence in working with them into the future.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

When you work with another team, you have to compromise some of the ideas you had before engagement. I think it is always a good thing to find a partner who’s feedback you revere. Be open to that feedback from very passionate and experienced people.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO and Founder of Actually, Inc. and Scenebot, which are two apps geared towards the entertainment industry.

What challenge were you trying to address with Swenson He?

The first app, Scenebot, was already released. We thought the scope for the second app was bigger and more labor intensive, so we needed a different group to develop the app. We wanted a company that does everything in-house; we didn't want them farming out anything to any other contractors or subcontractors or going overseas.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We came in with a very detailed requirements document. I recommend always having a detailed document when you approach a developer because that will lead to an honest quote. We learned this previously, so our document was very detailed and the quote was very accurate. Nick Swenson [Founding Partner, Swenson He] and Genesan Kim [Client Services Director, Swenson He] were our two contacts. Genesan was phenomenal and acted as the liaison between us and the development team.

The app has been developed for iOS. In early 2018, we will be developing for Android. It is taking longer to develop than the first app because this one is very intense – it is more than your average app because it is very interactive and it is connecting people across the world. Swenson He is delivering more than we thought possible, which is very impressive.  

The app is a social media video sharing app. People interested in acting can do 30-second movies with friends or strangers around the world and have it all cut together into one piece. You can share the videos across YouTube, Instagram, or within the app itself, which is a social media platform where you can gain fans and followers. The app has options to do preset movies that we do or options to do your own content in an independent format.

What is the team dynamic?

We had a designer at Swenson He doing the design and outline of the look and feel of the app. We originally had a three or four person team doing the frontend and backend development; now that we are a month into beta testing with 400 people in the app, we have a two person team. We don't have anybody on our end doing development because all of the development work has been done by Swenson He.

How did you come to work with Swenson He?

We met with eight different teams that we found on Clutch. We interviewed all of the companies and were most impressed with what Swenson He had to say and what they put together for us, which made us excited us to go with them.

When comparing the eight companies, a lot of the previous work was equal across the board; all of their finished products looked great. One thing that stood out about Swenson He was that when we first met with them, they had their developer build a rough version of the app to present to us with their concept and vision for the app. We had a working demo when we came in for the initial meeting which was very impressive.

How much have you invested with them?

We have spent around $600,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2017. We just engaged them to do a second app for us, which they just started.

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

In the first week of beta testing, there were 1,000 videos made and 9,500 videos viewed by 200 users. Those numbers were beyond anything Swenson He had ever seen which is pretty impressive.

We're still refining the app. The look and feel are off the charts and that was our mandate. The app has facial recognition filters like Instagram or Snapchat, and our mandate was that it needs to look on par with these apps. Swenson He has accomplished all that we have required within our budget and our timeframe, which is impressive.

How did Swenson He perform from a project management standpoint?

Fantastic. Our point person keeps me updated daily and on weekends. If I ever need anything, it is addressed immediately, which is incredible.

They have project management tools. However, I prefer our weekly meetings and our daily phone calls. If I need an answer to something, I pick up the phone or I send an e-mail and I have an answer immediately.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are full service without going overseas or farming out to subcontractors. Because of this, you know that your project is safe and secure. They provide one team and that team stays with you. Even as people dropped off of some of the other projects, there has been one specific developer that has been our point person throughout the entire project, and he will stay with us throughout launch and maintenance. It is important to have the same team dedicated to you so you never have to figure out who to contact; you have your team, they're solid, and you can rely on them. That's really important to me. They have been fantastic collaborators and perform more like partners on the project than a dev shop.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We sell high-end household wares and goods including trash cans, mirrors, shower caddies, dish racks, etc. I’m the senior programmer web developer primarily focusing on the e-commerce website.

What challenge were you trying to address with Swenson He?

Originally, we hired Swenson He to build our mobile app which involves liners/soap and subscriptions. Customers who buy our cans and pumps can receive liner and soap that goes with it. We have a subscription program for this that works mainly through our mobile app. Since they were involved with that and it was integrated into our Magento e-commerce cart, they also helped us with some Magento development work. Swenson He is helping to build out extensions and features for our website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Swenson He built an IoT [Internet of things] app that can be downloaded from the App Store and that links our product with the type of liner code that it’s for. Then it will send off the subscription. The user can set how often they want to be reminded about buying a new liner. Swenson He helped build the ability for the app to interface with our e-commerce web store such that orders are handled seamlessly on the backend. Swenson He also helped with our new sensor mirrors which are Wi-Fi capable. You can control lighting through a smartphone. In the future, we want to incorporate a more mobile friendly payment like Apple Pay on our website.

Magento is built on PHP, so Swenson He is developing using that and HTML, SQL, jQuery, JS, and CSS. I also use them as a resource for database and server optimization and troubleshooting for both of those. They’re knowledgeable in both architects, so I lean on them for second opinions. They also help interface with our managed hosting company. We use GitHub, and we’re going to be switching over to a more streamlined deployment through Capistrano which they already use for their stack. They seem well-versed in the latest technologies. I communicate with 3–4 team members from Swenson He.

How did you come to work with Swenson He?

I wasn’t involved with hiring Swenson He for the app side. We have recently gone through a couple of companies on our system integration side for our e-commerce cart for Magento, and none were able to meet all our needs. Swenson He has now taken on more of the load for e-commerce development, and they’re ramping up their staff to accommodate us. We look forward to continuing our relationship with them. One of the reasons we continue to work with them is they’re very accessible and responsive. Their team is very smart, and they are very flexible in doing research if there’s something they don’t understand. They’re very friendly and good to talk to. They talk to us in a way that we can understand and explain anything we don’t understand. I really like that about Swenson He.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in 2014. The work is ongoing.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

I don’t make the decisions of who we hire, but I know if we don’t think Swenson He's team is doing a good job, we wouldn’t keep using them. They did a good job with the mobile app as the first project, and then we moved into other projects including the e-commerce side. We like their speed and quality of work. They seem to have fewer hoops to jump through to get work done compared to other companies. That’s a testament to our close relationship with Swenson He as well.

How did Swenson He perform from a project management standpoint?

Swenson He is able to meet our deadlines faster than the other companies we’ve tried. We communicate through Slack on a daily basis and use GitHub and Asana for project management and weekly meetings.

What did you find most impressive about Swenson He?

I’ve been impressed with how smart they are. Anything that Swenson He's team isn’t expert at, they find a way to learn or hire the right people to get it accomplished. When it comes to the things that they are well-versed at, they know what they’re talking about. They’re always striving to get better and willing to learn new things. With development of new technologies, various issues will arise, and so one needs to be able to rely and depend on their developer team to resolve them. If a developer leaves you hanging, it’s not a good feeling. Swenson He not only has accountability for the things they’re building, but they also help interface with other third party developers as well to get the support we need. We’ve worked with many firms who don’t provide support once the project is complete.

Are there any areas Swenson He could improve?

One thing we noticed is that in their effort to stay highly efficient, they are on rare occasions too quick to deploy certain features. For example, we might see something on our test server that’s not where it should be, or they jumped ahead of where we thought it should be. While we appreciate the gusto of getting things done, that can cause some confusion. Swenson He has already recognized this, and they are working to improve it.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a venture-backed startup in stealth mode that is planning on selling internet connected, high-end massage chairs.

What challenge were you trying to address with Swenson He?

Our internet connected massage chairs needed an app to control, schedule, and customize massage programs. We also wanted a website with a management dashboard to be able to offer customer support and simplify updating processes for our engineers. 

What was the scope of their involvement?  

Swenson He handled app design, graphics, and functionality (UI/UX), and interfacing with Centurian’s hardware team. They developed all the iOS/Android software. The apps are designed to control, schedule, and customize massage programs. Currently, Swenson He is building out a website management dashboard for customer service agents to help customers fix problems on the phone as well as for engineers to update their products. 

How did you come to work with Swenson He?
I met Nick when we were students at MIT and we have stayed close since. This was a great opportunity to mix business and personal life.

How much have you invested with Swenson He?
After 4 months, our billable to date amounts to $300,000 - $350,000.

What is the status of this engagement? 
We started working with Swenson He four months ago. The full length of the project is expected to be 8 months. We're currently engaging in building the website management dashboard.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement? (key results, successful metrics, or notable achievements)
The Swenson He team worked fast and well. The UI/UX for the mobile app was simple yet functional. For the backend part of this project, they provided a custom solution based on their Zip Network, a fast, reliable, customizable, and scalable network that determines which server is closest to our customer so that they can connect to their device no matter where they are. This will allow us to provide a long-term, reliable solution as our business grows.

How did Swenson He perform in terms of project management?
Throughout the project, onsite meetings between the engineering teams and project managers ensured quality development, follow-up, and management. We interfaced using JIRA and other project management tools. 

What did you find most impressive about Swenson He?
The most impressive/distinguishing factor is that they never outsource their work: the entire team is in the LA office. Not only that, but the team is highly qualified with experts in best practices and the ability to deliver a simple but highly functional mobile app paired with a custom backend solution.

Are there any areas where Swenson He could improve?
Swenson He did a great job owning the project, but that sometimes meant that we weren’t always aware of project status in real time. Swenson He was always responsive when we asked, but they could communicate more consistently and proactively.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Swenson He?
See above: make sure to proactively communicate with Swenson He.  Swenson He is also very receptive to feedback throughout the development process, so don’t hesitate to engage with them here.