TanBits

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an executive at JETZY. We’re a lifestyle and tourism company based in New York. We’re led by Shama Zehra, former hedge fund manager and finance guru.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with TanBits?

We needed to upgrade our mobile application. We used almost all our funds, so we needed a finished product to show to our investors for our second round of funding.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

TanBits is migrating our legacy data into a new platform. Once it’s done, they’ll add new features to it. The app is built on C#, ASP.NET on the backend, and Flutter and React on the frontend. We want to move everything onto Elixir and Erlang; we also need Elastic Search and Amazon S3 Bucket.

The product is a tourism app. When people go to a new city and open our app, they can connect with local guides and people in the community. They can see nearby bars, clubs, and other forms of entertainment in the area that offer special discounts to our users.

What is the team composition?

About 18 teammates from TanBits work for us, but we’re only in direct contact with 2–3 of them.

How did you come to work with TanBits?

We posted on Upwork, and TanBits responded. We primarily hired them because they had a top-ranked profile on Upwork, were in the top 2% of best developers in Elixir and Erlang, and had excellent reviews.

How much have you invested with them?

The overall contract is for $200,000. So far, we’ve spent around $85,000.

What is the status of the engagement?

We began our partnership in September 2021, and it's still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app’s speed and searchability are great; it was slow before, but now it’s super fast. We’ve gained a lot of traction, and our daily active users have gone up by 20% so far. Moreover, what TanBits is doing is groundbreaking; the technology they’re using is amazing.

How did TanBits perform from a project management standpoint?

Initially, they were sluggish in getting started; it took them a while to understand our old code because the app had many features and was quite extensive. Once they got the hang of it, they picked up steam. Now, the progress is satisfactory.

They use Jira as a project management tool, and we mainly communicate through Zoom meetings. Additionally, they’re invited to our daily stand-ups.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their major strength is their resolutions; TanBits’ team doesn’t quit. They put in the time and effort to get the job done.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We came close to firing them numerous times due to the non-delivery of work, but they kept reassuring us. Once they understood our code and APIs, they proposed sensible changes and updates and gave a clear-cut plan that allowed us to continue with them. We’re now glad that we didn’t fire them. 

Any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you need Elixir as your technology of choice and have the budget to pay for development.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO of a gym SaaS company that makes AI-powered software for some of the biggest gyms and studios in the world.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Custom software development from the ground up.

SOLUTION

How did you select Tanbits and what were the deciding factors?

Their long history of positive reviews from current and former clients.

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

The software service is an AI chatbot spanning across messaging, chat, and voice that is applied to an archaic industry – the gym industry. Our project is managed on Pivotal Tracker and follows Kanban methodology. We ship software on a weekly basis and have iteration planning sessions. This is an Elixir web application using LiveView, PostgreSQL, and Boostrap.

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

3 people from TanBits – all full stack software engineers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

TanBits' work has helped us onboard new clients and scale dramatically fast.

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

We use Slack to communicate in realtime, in addition to our weekly Zoom calls.

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

TanBits is unlike any other development agency. They are extremely reliable, responsive, and receptive to feedback. They put out high-quality work and will earn your full trust very fast.

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

The quality of work has been great, however, the documentation could be the *only* area of improvement.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO of a software development company, who support enterprise around the world. Our primary clients are in Europe, but are active gloablly. Covid created many challenges, but also an opening to show our customers the potential of high-quality software, and we had a specific set of requirements/technologies in mind to fulfil this, that this collaborator met.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We had to develop a full-stack software solution using advanced methods that experts had pointed us towards, that would support the level of functionality and productivity we - and our clients - required. We needed to deploy an MVP using this technology at very short notice, and iterate from that point.

SOLUTION

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

We found them based on online recommendations, and the deciding factors included an interview/testing process where they were given a programming task that required connection to legacy systems and creating a bridge. Other candidates were unable to fulfil the requirements.

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

They worked with our design and development teams to develop and deploy an Elixir-based web application wtih multi-user interaction and advanced capabiltiites.

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

There were 4 people in the core team, starting with the founders, but they quickly added capacity from their network and then increased headcount over the course of our work considerably - with our support and encouragement, based on quality of results.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Despite over 9 months' delay by the client in starting the project in 2020, once we got the funding the team was able to deliver in 4 months, despite many challenges - including personal hardships like covid infection. They understood the requirements and worked above and beyond to deliver. This positive delivery led to further investment by our client, which has led to a considerably more ambitious project. This would not have been possible without Hammad and his team, and they have our gratitude.

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

The project management used *our* preferred tools and communications methods, and managed to deliver despite the challenges. Over time, as our own capacity grew the tools and quality of management has improved greatly.

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

They have made many efforts to work with our team and accommodate our challenges. Had they been less willing, our projects would have been much delayed, and less successful.

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

The speed of development and quality of delivery was excellent, but documentation was the tradeoff. This is *not* a disadvantage, as it was a conscious agreement we made to dedicate effort toward a huge delivery, and they actually delivered. The documentation and DevOps aspects are now falling into place, and entirely at our own team's pace.