Tech Comradery

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder of LinkedUpLearning. We are a small start up that was formed to develop educational game apps for iOS, Android and Web, mostly covering mathematics. We have designed, developed and launched two game app’s thus far, MathMetrics (Web, iOS & Android) and SCUBE (iOS & Android), with intention to develop more game apps with Tech Comradery in the future.

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

The development of cross platform app’s, utilising development assets that would operate across OS platform that would integrate seamlessly with a total backend management system to take care of our users on an ongoing basis. They were to move our web servers to the AWS cloud to enable easy access for our users (Pupils, Parents & Teachers) to avail themselves to the powerful diagnostics of the system and then take over the management of our servers and website.

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

We were very satisfied with our web developer, so we approached him to develop this project, he however declined as he felt that the project was way to large for him to handle. He however pointed us to Tech Comradery as someone that we could trust with a project of this magnitude.

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

Tech Comradery were tasked to develop the total development of MathMetrics, the educational game app including the full backend administration system to be tied into our website. Their purview was to also and get the apps through the “grueling” process of launching the app’s in the Apple App Store and Google Play. They were also tasked to move our servers to the AWS cloud servers.

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

I work with the owner, he does all the scheduling, planning, etc. with his developer team.

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

We are still presently working with them on planed updates to improve MathMetrics by adding more modules and features. We are also in the process of a major update to SCUBE, to ready it for the massive Chinese app market. As soon as these updates are complete, we will have them start development on another of our new games.

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

We deal directly with the founder, he then discusses how, what and when the team will schedule the development and get my buy in to the plan. All of the project is liaised through him.

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

Tech Comradery understands the game app market and were able to assist us in understanding what was important to get the game to market and get the app approved by the app stores. They are willing to accommodate budget and timing constraints and share experiences with us.

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

I think that being able to simultaneously communicate directly with the owner and designated developer, would sometimes cut down on unnecessary work and take a load off of the owner would be beneficial. I have directed development teams in the past, but also understand that all team leads have their own management and development styles.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a co-founder of Funparey, which is currently one of the biggest handicrafts stores in Pakistan. We elaborate crafts from raw camel skin and many other materials. We produce our own products, but we also have ties with different manufacturers. Also, we export locally and worldwide.

I’ve run the store for about one year.

What challenge were you trying to address with Tech Comradery?

We had everything set up regarding production and manufacturing and had two options: we could go to an existing marketplace to sell our products or create our store. We also wanted to establish our brand, and that was our challenge at the time.

We wanted the site to list everything that we make and present ourselves to represent our culture and the sophistication we offer. Moreover, we wanted it to be easy to navigate and showcase our catalog to sell to consumers and collaborate with other businesses.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Tech Comradery is our technical partner; they do everything tech-related for us. In the beginning, they provided the design for the website and showed us how everything would be displayed on it. Now, they handle all of our updates; all we have to do is handle procurements and fulfillment. They also do all design work, social media management, and marketing for us. 

For the first phase, the team asked us many questions about what we wanted to do. We explained how we work and shared many ideas; then, Tech Comradery kicked off with the design. Once they delivered the design, we approved it and moved on to development. There were a couple of reviews in the development phase, and they were mostly in charge of creating the basic layout.

We started with 80 products, and the biggest challenge was to come out to market. We had our own network and started from there, but then Tech Comradery told us that they also did marketing, so they helped with that while populating the site with more products. They added all the products along with their related text and categorized them; we just provided the pictures.

Every month, we have like 10–15 new products, and they upload everything to the store. Additionally, they’ve changed our hosting due to the size of the website and the number of products we have. The team recommended switching over to cloud hosting, so they handled the setup.

For marketing, we’re primarily focused on Facebook advertising. Everything we add to our store gets automatically uploaded to our Facebook page in the shop section and our Instagram shop.

What is the team composition?

We mainly talk to their founder; he provides reports on everything. There’s a person in charge of hosting and another one in charge of development. We’ve spoken with all of the team, but there are more people involved.

How did you come to work with Tech Comradery?

I don’t remember how I found them, but I believe I saw a catchy banner ad on social media. It was back when COVID-19 was starting to shut down all the physical stores. I filled out their form, they called me after, and we started speaking. 

How much have you invested with them?

We have them on retainer. Up until now, we’ve spent between $35,000–$40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in late October 2019, and we had a live website with our initial 80 products by February 2020. Now, we have close to 950 products in our store, and we’re still expanding.

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

We had a set target in mind; we wanted to make at least $20,000 for our first quarter after launching the website, combining both local and foreign sales. We pretty much nailed it by the third month.

Moreover, we’ve had great conversions and are meeting all our targets. Now, we’re striving to meet the demand that Tech Comradery creates for us, but it sometimes comes down to production. Having too many orders is a good problem, so it has worked out really well for us.

Tech Comradery understands us, so we don’t have to worry about minor details with them. If there’s something we want to see in the store, they add it and adjust it to appeal to the masses while also giving us an explanation for it. In summary, they get it done without us having to point it out to them.

We haven’t had any issues regarding delays or things being overlooked. They give us the whole nine yards of professional IT services, and we have nothing to complain about. 

How did Tech Comradery perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve been using Trello from day one because that’s where they manage their to-dos, and we have access to it. We can see what they’re working on, what’s planned for the next 5–10 days, who’s involved in a specific task, and more. I stopped checking that once development was completed, but they continue to use it, and we still get emails from it. 

Overall, we haven’t really experienced any performance issues with them. We mostly communicate over Google Meet and emails. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They really understand us and what we want. Tech Comradery makes sure that our bias doesn’t get in the way when we want to add something new to the store and always gives us a reason if they think something shouldn’t be added to the website. In summary, they know what they’re doing and understand us as their client.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could bring us fresh ideas. We have competition here in Pakistan, but we do see other stores doing cool things. We’d wish Tech Comradery could come up with more ideas on how to keep on innovating and becoming more unique. We don’t want them just to fulfill deliverables; we’d like more design suggestions based on what’s trending and how to make it more engaging for customers.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you’re contacting Tech Comradery, you should be as transparent as possible and share all of your ideas. Tell them what you’d like to see so they can implement it in the project. Also, mention your competition and what they’re doing. We were very hesitant and scared to undertake this project, especially after making our first payment. However, we were very satisfied at the end of the day.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am Business Development Director at my company with a technical background

For what projects/services did your company hire Tech Comradery?

We collaborated and shared information to grow our sales and marketing team, they helped us in building the team and also designing our marketing strategy.

How did you select Tech Comradery and what were the deciding factors?

Their industry experience, also the wealth of knowledge they had helped us allot.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

First we worked together on a plan. Divided it in to different milestones most almost all of them were quarterly targets and goals. Then on end of each quarter we sit together and figured out the issues we had, added those in to our processes and then worked on new challenges.

How many resources from the Tech Comradery team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Their director was our point of contact, and they were 4 members earlier and then latter on they we needed 3 members.

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

Meeting our targets was our success at the same time learning new things was a plus.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The team coordination was on point.

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

Their work ethics and ownership were notable in the partnership.

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

I would have worked with them for longer term.