Thinkport GmbH

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a co-founder and chief executive of a small startup in Frankfurt. We're working to are compile different data sources to better understand firms, especially small and medium-sized firms that do not publish any turnover figures. We're investors at heart, so we're building a tool that is allowing us to detect and find targets easier.

What challenge were you trying to address with Thinkport GmbH?

We bring more of the business intelligence perspective and needed help with programming skills. The biggest challenge was to get clean database and a working model and algorithm. From there, we needed to deploy all that in the cloud.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They have expertise in modeling as well as developing a clean data set. Their main expertise is in cloud structure and cloud development. They are doing a good job for us in setting up the AWS cloud infrastructure plus the frontend, allowing a good connection between backend data and frontend connectivity.

What is the team composition?

In peak times, we had about four people from their team helping us out. The core team is basically one or two people.

How did you come to work with Thinkport GmbH?

They were recommended to us by an expert in the field. We liked their approach and felt that they had an entrepreneurial spirit. They're a relatively young team with a proven track record with what they are doing. Those were the reasons we considered working with them.

How much have you invested in them?

We have spent roughly $20,000, but the project will end up costing $30,000–$40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

It officially began in April 2020, and it is currently still ongoing. We plan on working together for a few more months, but that depends on whether they have the total skill set we require to complete the project. We are very happy to have them on board but are also evaluating options along with them on how we can expand our work with other partners.

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

The quality is definitely good. They're particularly strong in providing corporate services as opposed to developing products. We feel that there are some limitations when it comes to providing out-of-the-box solutions. The overall quality is very good, and clients seeking the use cases described will be very happy with them.

How did Thinkport GmbH perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management is very good, and they're generally on time. If there is a need to move faster, they can make this happen. They use Asana, which has been great for organizing tasks. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a good mix of entrepreneurial spirit and corporate expertise.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The people we have been working with were sometimes very junior. I think they could consider engaging more senior people. However, their juniors also did a good job. It would also be impressive to see them continue to think creatively about their current process.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure that you brainstorm and scope the project with them to ensure that all parties are on the same page. They're experts are corporate cloud services. Even though they couldn’t support us with everything directly, they were always helpful and tried to provide links to other companies, expand on their network, and those sorts of things.