TechPods

Please describe your company and your position there.

Mr & Mrs Smith began life in 2003 with two adventurous hotel lovers (our real-life Mr and Mrs: James and Tamara Lohan) and has evolved into a global travel club with a million like-minded members in more than 100 countries. Every club has a purpose. Ours is to knock your socks off, with help from the world’s best bedrooms. We don’t want this to be a one-night stand or a quick fling; we’re in it for the long-haul. I am the CTO for Mr & Mrs Smith, dedicated to providing a technological advantage to the travel club and enabling the best experience for our members

For what projects/services did your company hire TechPods?

We hired TechPods to work alongside our in house development teams to re-write our Rates and Availability engine, the core of system for receiving all prices, room availability, types and offers and making them available to our members.

What were your goals for this project?

The goals were to enable us to receive more updates from our hotels and make them available sooner and more reliably to the members. In addition we were looking to work alongside an outsourced team, provided by TechPods, to provide additional expansion capability when required.

How did you select this vendor?

We looked at and talked to a number of near shore development partners, who had experience in our preferred technologies and agile working practices, and TechPods came out on top as the most aligned to our culture and requirements.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

TechPods provided us with a number of potential developers that we were able to interview and test to find the most suitable. For this early stage we selected a single developer who has worked alongside the team on the project

What was the team composition?

A single TechPods developer working remotely alongside an in house team of three back end developers, a PO and QA.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

At this stage it is too early to demonstrate the value provided.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The TechPods developer worked as part of the team, fully integrated into our ways of working and developing stories as any other internal team member would

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They have been committed to providing us with the right developers for our project, working alongside us to interview and test a number of candidates and have been incredibly flexible as our needs have changed in the last couple of months. We have a high benchmark for quality of work and they have found us a team member who met that benchmark.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the managing director of Kodal, a software digital agency. We specialize in mobile app development, web-based development, platform development, and e-commerce development.

What challenge were you trying to address with TechPods?

We needed an additional resource with experience in React Native and mobile development.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They found a resource for us very quickly and efficiently. The resource works remotely.

What is the team composition?

I worked with Benjamin (Co-Founder & CEO) during the recruitment phase. They provided a dedicated React developer. 

How did you come to work with TechPods?

I worked with Benjamin previously. I liked his model of providing designated resources. It’s not about outsourcing, it’s about expanding our in-house team.  

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in November 2019, and the work is ongoing.

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

The candidate they found is great. She’s very proactive and easily joined project meetings. We’ve gotten amazing feedback. We’ll work with them for a long time. They’re very professional. The quality of the resource is very high. 

How did TechPods perform from a project management standpoint?

They delivered everything on time. We manage everything from our side. We include them as part of our team. We do standups with them daily. It’s a very transparent process. We use Slack or Zoom calls. It’s very easy to communicate with them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Our resource is very good at communicating. She’s very easygoing. Software developers aren’t always easy to communicate with. TechPods is very easy to work with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We have a relationship directly with the developer. If we have a problem, she’s been very reactive to solve any issues. We've always been able to resolve problems. I don’t have any negative feedback.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don’t treat them as a separate entity or a silo. Bring them into the team and treat them as part of the in-house team where they communicate and build a relationship with the rest of the team members. It’s fundamental to the success of your project.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Almond.org, an ethical rewards program.

What challenge were you trying to address with TechPods?

We were looking for help developing out our technology and product.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve done both mobile and web for us, creating our website and our cross-platform React Native application. We also have a backend system database. They also JavaScript.

We’ve built a whole IoT coding system where you can scan data matrix codes and QR codes, a brand management system where we can manage a directory of the brands we work with, and a system that links people’s credit cards to our application to reward them for spending money.

What is the team composition?

We work with Ben (CEO, TechPods).

How did you come to work with TechPods?

It was through a colleague at the time.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around £400,000 ($492,000 USD) so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since August 2018.

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

We’ve achieved a lot. We have a team of four at the moment, so I’m happy with what’s been done for the time spent and money invested. They hit our roadmap and the key milestones we’ve been working toward. We’ve got 200,000 users on Visa, and we’re in the information gathering stage right now. There’s been a lot of positive feedback from users though.

How did TechPods perform from a project management standpoint?

We took a few weeks to get into a rhythm but we’ve got a good system. We live on Slack, and it works well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their speed in recruiting people and filling roles with high-quality candidates stands out.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not that I’ve seen. I’m pretty happy.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Launch with the right processes and structures in place. With any distributed team, it’s important to have the right tools in place to work efficiently together. Have regular meetings and speak to team members on a daily basis.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I work for a UK energy supplier and I'm responsible for a couple of teams dealing with client facing services.

For what projects/services did your company hire TechPods?

To help with the rebuild of the Pay as you go energy marketing website

What were your goals for this project?

building the major 3 sections of the marketing website while the internal team was dealing with other priorities.

How did you select this vendor?

It was suggested by my manager who already worked with this company.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

A Web Developer worked closely to the internal team: UI Designer, UX and other Dev to redesign and re-platform the current marketing website.

What was the team composition?

A Web Developer working independently with small support/guidance from FTE of the company

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

The Web Developer was able to quickly understand the requirements and working alongside our internal UI/UX team to delivery the requested pages in a timely manner, freeing our internal developers that where able to focus on other priorities.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project was managed from our UK Product Manager

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was looking for a developer for a short time project. TechPods have been able to quickly understand technical and business requirements and provide a top candidate in a very short period of time.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not that I can think of.

Please describe your company and your position there.

My company is a UK energy supplier. I managed the business unit responsible for pay-as-you-go products and services

For what projects/services did your company hire TechPods?

TechPods helped us spin up a team in no time to work on some important regulatory compliance projects

What were your goals for this project?

To deliver a solution in time for a deadline in order to avoid hefty fines.

How did you select this vendor?

I previously worked with Ben and knew his strong work values aligned really well with what I needed

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They hired an entire team, provided them with offices to work from, IT required, training and development opportunities and regular trips to the UK as part of the standard agreement.

What was the team composition?

Full stack developers

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

This project was very time sensitive and the team has done an impressive work to deliver on time and meet the requirements.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project was managed from the UK with a mixed team of IT resources in Bulgaria

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The speed to hire and the caliber of developers

Are there any areas for improvement?

Nothing I can think right now