TeaCode.io

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a SaaS company. We’re building a SaaS application that provides communication for businesses by automating their incoming messages that they receive through their websites.

We make this available for them through our widget that they can install on their website. From there, they can pre-program the conversation flow by using our platform. After the conversation flow takes place, they also can pick up the conversation, and respond to their users.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with TeaCode.io?

Right now, we only offer our web portal using widgets. We needed someone to help us develop a mobile application tool for the agents of businesses to log in and respond to their incoming messages that they receive through their website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

TeaCode.io is developing our mobile app for us. We started from the basics with them, including the vision and user requirements. We worked jointly with them on developing a low-fidelity wireframe, using a platform called Balsamiq. They were very helpful in bridging the gap here.

They followed a consultative approach with us, going on to build the screens for the platform. They then began developing functions agreed upon like messaging, automation of incoming messaging flow, two-factor authentication, and accessibility. They built the frontend and backend and helped with AWS.

Additionally, their team is helping us with the design. TeaCode.io also recommended someone to create the logo. The logo design was hired through them.

The platform recently launched. We’re still in stealth mode. We’re inviting people to sign up and try it but it’s not been fully launched. We’re testing and making changes. We’re also exploring another project to do with them.

What is the team composition?

We work with a handful of people from TeaCode.io. There’s a person who helped with developing the wireframe. They then handed the work to the developer. At one point in time, we had a lead developer and another developer. There are two developers on average. I’ve not seen more than three developers at a time.

How did you come to work with TeaCode.io?

I found them through an online search. After looking at different companies, I asked TeaCode.io for a conference and we had multiple video calls. They showed interest and were able to nail the requirements exactly.

They showed me a couple of companies that they worked with. They weren’t easy or traditional websites for a regular business, they were technically sophisticated requirements. This is why I decided to work with TeaCode.io. They understand the complexity of building an automation engine for incoming messages. It’s not ordinary web application requirements.

How much have you invested with them?

We have invested $25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2019 and it's ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The application is online and you can sign up and test it, but it’s not the final version yet. There are currently two clients using it. It’s not perfect yet but it’s functional.

We have a scrum approach in delivering our application. We’re always on time in releasing the functions. The quality of their deliverables is always high.

How did TeaCode.io perform from a project management standpoint?

We work in sprints and most of the time, we’re on schedule. Our teams used ClickUp to manage the project. We had a standup meeting on Friday where we review the next sprint and we review the past deliverables of the week.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re a partner, not a transactional agency. They care about our end goal. Whenever we have a problem, they join hands with us, make recommendations, and follow a consultative approach with us.

Sometimes they go the extra mile in recommending someone to work with us. For example, they took the burden off searching for a designer, a logo designer.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Certain functions that I expected to take a shorter amount of time took longer. If I told them to develop a login screen, I think it can be done in a day. I know they do a lot of testing from their side to make sure that things work.

I’ve seen the posts and comments on the Git repository when a junior developer develops code. It doesn’t always get posted in production because the lead developer looks after the quality of the code and rejects it. This might impact the time.

Another thing that could be improved is the price. We got a chance to work with them early. Now that they’re famous, their prices increased but they do have good quality.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Come ready with a full understanding of your business requirements. That way, they can jump into translating these business requirements and straight into building developing your application.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of Heirlume. We’re a legal tech startup with 10–15 employees. We’re disrupting the trademark registration space in Canada and the US.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with TeaCode.io?

As a startup, we couldn’t afford to bring expertise in-house. We needed an agency to provide expertise in web development. Our team needed a partner that’d commit to a 6–12-month term because we wanted to have continuity with our contractor.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The first major project was completely redeveloping our website. The former website had been done in Webflow and wasn’t scalable nor was it performing for us. Our objective was to implement modern technologies into the new website. We decided to utilize React for the frontend and a content tool as our CMS. All of the development happened for both mobile and desktop.

The website is localization-specific. Depending on where the visitor is coming from, the site will load Canadian or US data. That is a prime functionality and it’s quite dynamic. There are a lot of components in each of the locales.

Additionally, we have a custom checkout system. TeaCode.io rewrote and redesigned the entire checkout experience. We wanted it to be very customized and tightly integrated with the website. The checkout connects with our Stripe API.

We integrate with HubSpot for customer emails after their purchase. Also, we have a trademark search that TeaCode.io developed. We also have a SharePoint system for the legal operations team.

After that project, our engagement progressed with several other projects related to web development and web application development. These projects included backend work with connecting database APIs. This work is on an hourly basis.

What is the team composition?

The initial meeting was with Jakub (Co-Founder & CTO) and Michał (Co-Founder & CEO). From there, we were assigned Gabriela (Software Developer & Project Manager) and primarily worked with Patryk (JavaScript Full Stack Developer). There were periods where more individuals were working on development with Patrick.

How did you come to work with TeaCode.io?

We found them on Clutch, they had fantastic reviews.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested between $25,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement was from August–December 2020. We’ve paused the engagement but are hoping to bring them back soon.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re very happy with the website. It’s faster and the code is professional. The website is properly set up so it can scale as we grow. It’s maintainable, and we can add to it easily. TeaCode.io did an excellent job designing it. Their team met our designs and functionality requirements. I was able to interact with them and get feedback from and to them in a responsive way.

How did TeaCode.io perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management was great. They performed very well considering we changed our scope throughout the engagement because things are dynamic. Their team pivoted very well. When we had a tight deadline, they added resources to the team to get things done faster.

Communication with Gabriela was effective and on a regular basis. We used Trello to complete the work and held video meetings as needed if something was too complex to explain over email or Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was most impressed with their responsiveness. If I ever had a concern, I immediately heard from the CEO, CTO, or Gabriela, and things got addressed right away.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The QA wasn’t very good or effective on the first project we had together; I found a lot of issues. As a CTO, I didn’t have time to do their QA efforts. I brought this up with them and they changed things because that didn’t happen with future projects.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Communication is very important. Be sure to check in every couple of days on Slack or through a weekly video. I made mistakes in terms of communicating requirements and feature details and how they should work. That’s on me, but having clear documentation would’ve been helpful for them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Surplus Marketplace. We’re a full-service online auction company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with TeaCode.io?

We needed support and guidance with development and deployment of a web application.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

At the start of the engagement Teacode was priceless.  They answered every question and doubt we had regarding pricing, time frames, and which technologies would be best for our app and why. The team developed the application using Node.js, MongoDB, React,js, and Websockets and the result was a lightning fast and rock solid platform.

What is the team composition?

When we first started out, I was working primarily with Mike (Co-Founder & CEO) and Jakub (Co-Founder & CTO). As the project picked up, I started working directly with the developer. 

How did you come to work with TeaCode.io?

After many hours of research and many more sleepless nights, we found Teacode on Clutch. We interviewed about 5 companies and Teacode were the ones that stood out to us.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $50,000 so far and feel it was a great value.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since March 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The application has been rock solid from launch. We have received nothing but positive feedback from our clients. Teacode tested the application before it was pushed to a staging server then tested again by them and us to make sure the code was 100 percent correct before pushing into production. This saved us time to develop our core business.

How did TeaCode.io perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re excellent. Every deadline was met and in most cases ahead of schedule. During the development we met twice a week and after launch we meet once a week and it has worked out great.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They do everything they say they’re going to do, and they do it on time. Most people overpromise and underdeliver, but TeaCode underpromises and overdelivers. I wouldn’t hesitate to work with them again. We picked the right team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not that I can think of. Everything’s been smooth.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Ask a lot of questions up front and let them know what you are trying to accomplish.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Pilates studio targeting online customers who need do pilates online

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire TeaCode.io, and what were your goals?

They created our website

SOLUTION

How did you select TeaCode.io and what were the deciding factors?

we found them selecting between two companies as a highly professional and highly recommended by customers

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

1. pilates-online platform development including project & design
2. wistia integration regarding video hosting
3. stripe integration regarding payments provider
4. mailer lite integration

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

2 people

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

within first 3 weeks we gathered 40 subscribers what is really high score and big success of a common work

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

• fantastic communication with the customer
• transparent way of working on every step
• answering every question and proposal of changing the project
• they are flexible and cooperative
• very often suggesting new, better solutions

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

Their flexibility, knowledge, and professionalism stood out to us. They also work quickly and communicate well.

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

no 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the director of engineering at Webley. We are a communications company, primarily building mobile and web applications for communications.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with TeaCode.io?

I needed a progressive web app (PWA) version of our mobile application to be done with a minimum set of requirements provided because they already had an example of a native iOS app we had developed with someone else.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They get the spec and UI design from me. The code is in the React framework and a TypeScript frontend code that talks to our backend API with is a RESTful API.

They were able to complete the progressive web app as per the original spec in a shorter time frame.

Currently, we are working on an R&D project where we are using a lot of AWS native tooling including the latest serverless technologies. The current stack is AWS native, Amplify, AppSync, Lambda, X-Ray for monitoring, DynamoDB for data storage, S3 Buckets for asset storage, and CloudFormation for the CICD pipeline.

Before I engaged with them on the original project, the big question was with the progressive web app and poor support of that technology on the iOS platform. They had a very specific deliverable to prove to me that audio can be recorded from a Safari browser just using JavaScript and submit it to the backend. It was a proof of concept with a very specific deliverable.

Currently, we are in a model where they also get very specific deliverables in terms of success criteria. For example, I told them I wanted a GitHub repository that will include instructions on how I will be able to stand up the entire AWS stack on my own account. They are developing on their own AWS stack and the handoff is using their CICD pipeline to stand up a new stack straight from GitHub as well as getting updates later.

What is the team composition?

I started the project with one senior developer and one mid-level developer. My interaction was primarily with the senior developer. Since then, I have added one more developer to the team.

Typically, when I work with offshore shops, I do the project management, QA, and release. It is all handled by my team in Chicago. I only engage offshore teams specifically for development only. I did not use any project management or QA resources of that sort.

How did you come to work with TeaCode.io?

I found them on Upwork and then we completed the original project through Upwork. We concluded that engagement on Upwork and then because I was pleased with their performance, we engaged directly and signed a contract.

How much have you invested in them?

We have spent almost $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in September 2019, and the work is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

With the original engagement, the estimate was four months to completion, but they were able to complete it in three months. Overall, they did an excellent job and had a very good follow-through which was unusual actually.

They exceeded my expectations in terms of a timeline and the quality of the code that they delivered. I was happy with the quality and ever since then, I have engaged with them in additional projects where there is a lot more flexibility and autonomy.

How did TeaCode.io perform from a project management standpoint?

We are agile so we mostly used a scrum methodology. We communicate through Slack. They are actually located in Poland, so I expected the time zone is an issue, but to my surprise, they were responding to my communication in Slack all the way through 5 pm CT which is midnight their time. In addition to that, we also have weekly meetings where we catch up on any items where they might have had a hard time getting my attention on through the week.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality and performance is really where they shine. I have worked with other shops as well, and none of them compare.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t really think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Just like any project, be very specific about what is needed upfront as well as the deliverables and timelines and they will nail it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the founder of a data integration software startup.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with TeaCode.io?

They were helping us code our platform, the foundation of our company.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped build our data integration engine.  Our software helps databases talk to each other, integrate data between cloud systems and on-premise databases.

What is the team composition?

Jakub (Co-Founder & CTO) was our project lead. They had 1–3 people working with our team.

How did you come to work with TeaCode.io?

I found their website online, contacted them, and gave them a small project to see how it went. That first project worked out well, so I gave them bigger projects.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with them in January 2020 and we wrapped up in June 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The software works great. TeaCode.io was great. My team lead loved working with them. He said they have good ideas and the code they write is very high quality.

How did TeaCode.io perform from a project management standpoint?

Jakub in particular was excellent. They’re probably the best outsource team I’ve ever worked with. They were great. We could Slack them at any point during the day. They were always online and eager to communicate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were more proactive than other service providers we’ve worked with in the past. TeaCode.io actually contributed ideas. They became part of the development of the project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I just wish I had room in my budget to work with them more.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We really enjoyed working with Jacob, and we would recommend him to anybody.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I was the Ceo and co-founder of Skydreamer an Tinder inspired application for group travelling

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire TeaCode.io?

We hired Teacode to rewrite a big portion of our React Native app that has serious problems and wasn't even working. We had very few weeks in order to be able to launch for TechCrunch Disrupt Sanfrancisco! One of our co-founders was indeed a backend developer they worked together with

What were your goals for this project?

Our app was making easier for groups to decide where to go . The app operates in travel industry, mainly low cost.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Before Teacode we collaborated with a dozen different developers we found on Upwork, Facebook and Freelencer.com. We spoke with very few companies as software houses are usually very expensive and we wanted to interface directly to the developer/s doing the project. We found Marcin Walendowski through Upwork and I got a very nice impression of the person reliability and portfolio.

Describe the project in detail.

I worked as product manager, defining the features and roadmap of the project, I worked together with our UX UI designer to the wireframes. The app was developed in React Native Only development of the app development was asked and it was for us more then enough

What was the team composition?

They involved a total of two persons, they were both React Native developers, working on different aspect of the app

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Our positive outcome was that the app was ready for market and we were abel to present it at Techcrunch Disrupt. Our product didn't really take off anyway. Users didn't need such a product. The app did not have bugs or flaws

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was very effective and fast although being remote and offshore. I'm an italian co-founder, speking english fluently we didn't have any problem understanding eachother

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their very high reliable skillset and knowledge of various technologies. Their reliability and transparency were valuable assets. Their genuine in making fully working products

Are there any areas for improvement?

There is always for improvements, the hourly rate could be lower but that's a common problem among software houses

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a senior data engineer at a European ride-sharing startup that focuses on micro-mobility.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with TeaCode.io?

We wanted to have some internal web applications developed. We were at the startup stage, so it wasn’t feasible for us to onboard people for one internal project. We started looking for an external company that could do the work.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’re using the applications to organize our scooter fleet. TeaCode.io is creating a planning tool with a map interface, through which we can plan where we want our scooters and e-bikes to be distributed in the city.

We also do some light-operation dashboarding and so on, mostly visualizing geodata. The team is using Google Maps visualizations, and they built the app in React.js to work on mobile platforms as well.

We provided them with wireframes and user stories in the planning stage, and they made recommendations from their side as well.

What is the team composition?

We mainly worked with Mike (Co-Founder & CEO), and there have also been two other teammates involved. We work with about one individual at any given time.

How did you come to work with TeaCode.io?

After doing a web search, we talked to some companies. We wanted someone who would have a very lean project approach. The issue with most companies we talked to was that they wanted to have UX designers and product owners in place.

We wanted engineers who could plan sprints and also do the development. TeaCode was perfect for that.

What is the status of this engagement?

We first spoke to them in January 2020, and we started development in March 2020. It was a small project in terms of total hours, but it took a few months to finish because we also had some changes. The project is still ongoing, and it’s getting there. Most of the work is done, but we’ll constantly need them for other things.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I don’t have any metrics, but we’re extremely happy with our collaboration with TeaCode.io. They’re reactive and they know their work.

The price could be a bit lower, but I don’t think we usually get this level of quality for this amount of money on the market. There’s nothing to complain about. It was probably a side project for them, but TeaCode.io was never late on anything.

How did TeaCode.io perform from a project management standpoint?

We had two-week sprints, and we had a planning session in the beginning. We had small update standup sessions on Fridays and sprint reviews at the end of the two weeks.

We provided them with user stories before the planning phase. They came back with a review on those, we had more sessions, and then they created tickets on Trello.

I like the way they do the accounting. TeaCode.io has a time system, and they give us incredibly detailed reports on how many hours they worked on each task. I’ve seen a lot of big companies that didn’t work on that level.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their approachability and process of working are impressive. We talked to several other development companies, and we always got the feeling that they were trying to pack something into what we wanted so that they could sell us more hours for things we didn’t actually need. 

We didn’t necessarily need a UX designer, as we had someone in our company for it, but some providers weren’t flexible about their configurations. TeaCode.io was flexible and took a look at what kind of project we wanted to do.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re all strong engineers, but they could improve on UI/UX design. We built an internal application, so it doesn’t need to win beauty awards. Other companies might want flashier work.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

It’s easy to work and communicate with TeaCode.io’s team.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and product manager of a marketing automation platform. Connected to third-party apps, our platform is easy to use and allows users to drag and drop visuals for lead generation, email, estimates, and retargeting ads on Facebook and Google.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with TeaCode.io?

We wanted to integrate our software with additional third-party apps. Our internal team is focused on scaling growth, so we needed to bring in another team to work on time-consuming APIs.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I provided wireframes and specifications, but they conducted the research to ensure my vision for the APIs were possible. They then implemented everything, going back and forth with us, to make sure it worked nicely. They also found opportunities to add additional features that would improve UX.

After the success of that project, we started working on another integration project and began building out a core feature on our platform.

What is the team composition?

They had five people working with our team.

How did you come to work with TeaCode.io?

I found them online and then used Clutch to verify their team.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $100,000–$250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from January–September 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

These integrations are used a large scale and they’ve performed really well in production. We haven’t had any major problems. The product meets customer expectations and people have been satisfied with the UX. We halted our third project with them because of an internal business decision, but would be very excited to work with TeaCode.io again in the future.

Their team definitely became a part of our planning because they found creative solutions before we even realized there could be a problem. They don’t sit around waiting for instructions, they’re always pushing ahead.

How did TeaCode.io perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re incredibly well organized and transparent with their workflow. Working in an agile method, they planned proactively before meeting with me every week to review what needed to be accomplished in each sprint.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their problem-solving capabilities are very impressive. There's a big difference between developers that wait to be told what to do versus those who will create a solution and build it. TeaCode.io helped us discover even better solutions than what we would propose. Their solutions were creative, simple, and helped us get to the end result faster.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything critical.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The best way to empower a good problem solver like TeaCode.io is by trusting them. Be transparent and share the problem you’re trying to solve. Their team could surprise you.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the tech lead for Daydream Education. We’re developing apps to accompany books with interactive features such as digital assessments.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with TeaCode.io?

Our backend required a complete redesign because we were growing. We handle frontend code in-house but needed a partner to develop a server backend for the digital books on our app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

TeaCode.io created a server that can handle user management and content distribution for our apps. Their team recreated the backend logic to completely overhaul our existing platform. Running ExpressJS, they developed a NodeJS server, which was all built out of a MongoDB database. Their team set-up server clusters for load balancing, too.

What is the team composition?

We mainly communicated with the company’s two founders, but we’ve been doing more work with other teammates.

How did you come to work with TeaCode.io?

A couple of years back, we contacted many development companies, which were all huge. We were drawn to TeaCode.io’s smaller size. Their team was willing to work with us for less than a month, unlike the larger firms. We ended up working with them for three months on the server backend.

How much have you invested with them?

Since we started working together, we've spent between $6,000–$10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began collaborating in November 2017, and they’re doing another project for us now.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The number of app users has increased significantly since beginning our collaboration with TeaCode.io. Their team created a stable server with sound logic. Before our engagement, the platform would go down quite a bit. Now, the only time our product goes down is when the hosting people have problems. TeaCode.io improved our reliability, security, and speed.

How did TeaCode.io perform from a project management standpoint?

Like most development companies, TeaCode.io works in sprints. We give them a bunch of tasks, which they’ll schedule and complete by the end of the next sprint. Their team uses Trello and Slack for communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It sounds weird, but they don’t just do exactly what you tell them to do; their team thinks about the problem, too. TeaCode.io shares their expertise to guide the project in the right direction. Rather than making features exactly as requested, their team gives recommendations for building them out, which is really helpful; sometimes you need expert help with problems. We’ve developed a really good relationship.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re growing, so they have a larger workload. We were giving them projects as they were cropping up, but their team needed more time to plan. After they asked, we began giving them tasks earlier. TeaCode.io has really good communication, so any challenges have been resolved along the way.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Plan things out.