Upside

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Assistant Professor of University of Toronto

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Building a secure data platform for sharing deidentified health datasets.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Upside to accomplish?

• Migrate an existing platform to work natively on cloud infrastructure
• Collaboratively develop features which satisfy identified user requirements

SOLUTION

How did you find Upside?

Referral

Why did you select Upside over others?

• Pricing first our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned, Other

What was the size of Upside’s team?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

We hired upside for development of a Django based web application. The application is reasonably complex. We asked upside to:

1. port the current deployment from server based to cloud base (which involved many changes to adopt the paradigm of separating compute and storage),
2. expand upon features in the platform revolving around user management, in particular implementing SAML authentication, and
3. build out audit log and alerting functionality to meet cybersecurity requirements.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Application deployed and available to users
• Users able to login via SAML
• Logging interface complete and viewable by administrators
• List of cybersecurity safeguards implemented

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Upside had excellent project management. We had a 4 hour timezone shift which was handled well, and they were flexible with our desired working style. Their daily updates over messaging were very effective for asynchronous updates. We were also provided with timelines and kept well informed of any foreseen obstacles or changes. The product was delivered on time, and we have had very minimal (if any) issues with the implementation in the year since.

What was your primary form of communication with Upside?

Virtual Meeting, Email or Messaging App

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

Being a bit technical, I appreciate the transparency through which they communicate their development process. I also appreciated that they would critically assess my proposed scope of work and suggest alternatives which often improved upon the design. Many vendors we interacted with simply offered to implement the bare minimum specification we proposed, whereas with upside it felt more like a partnership towards a shared goal.

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

We were undecided on the cloud vendor initially (GCP vs. AWS), and I think we could have done better scoping of the desired features earlier. We ended up swapping from one vendor to the other after 2 weeks, which was fairly inefficient and could have been prevented with better planning.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Score Digital, a digital agency focused on full-service digital product development across multiple markets. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Upside?

We’ve just launched a new concept and needed a company to help us develop a website for it. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Upside designed and developed our website and its UX/UI in Webflow. We provided Upside with a brief highlighting our product and user personas before they began the design process. They offered several designs that they created using Adobe and Figma. We finalized the design, which was then translated into Webflow. 

What is the team composition?

The entire process has been led by a UX/UI designer, although I do have contact with a project manager.

How did you come to work with Upside?

Upside’s services were referred to me. However, we decided to hire Upside because of their portfolio, design skills, and the presentation they gave when they presented their services. Also, their team has an office in our area, which was very helpful. 

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve invested around $15,000 with Upside. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement began in December 2021, and it’s ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The website launched in early February 2022, so we don’t have any specific metrics because this is just the first website iteration of a new concept we’ve just launched. We still have to market the new concept. However, I’m seeing low bounce rates and a high click-through rate — user engagement seems to be relatively high. 

How did Upside perform from a project management standpoint?

The entire project has taken about four weeks, and Upside has made sure to stick to our budget, despite project changes. Their team is very communicative through Slack, email, and Zoom calls. Upside responds well to user feedback. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve been impressed with how well the UX/UI designer has been able to marry our business with a really great design. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have nothing for Upside to improve. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d advise customers to hire Upside. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the manager of customer advocacy for Framebridge. We’re a custom picture-framing company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Upside?

We were trying to address the communication between two of our platforms. We recently switched over to Gladly as our CRM and Formstack as a form-gathering system, and we needed those two systems to talk to each other.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Upside tied the Formstack API directly and custom wrote it for us.

What is the team composition?

We worked with everybody within the company. The founder was part of the calls and the lead engineer. Additionally, we worked with other software engineers along the way.

How did you come to work with Upside?

They came as a recommendation from Gladly. We reached out to a few companies that they recommended and got quotes. Upside had the most competitive one, so we went with them.

Their communication was terrific, and the team got back to us immediately with a full, itemized quote on the work we needed. It outlined how long it’d take to do everything, the cost associated with the work, and a schedule. Overall, we were extremely satisfied with the initial interaction.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $13,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We partnered with them around August 2021 and ended the project in February 2022. However, we've signed on for additional projects.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since it’s a new platform, there isn’t any historical data to compare it to. However, we’ve seen a drastic increase in production in the team that’s directly impacted by the project, as well as an accuracy increase for reform submissions.

How did Upside perform from a project management standpoint?

They delivered under the time and budget. Our lead engineer worked with them, and they used a Trello board for project management. Additionally, we used Slack and Gmail to communicate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their work was outstanding, but the constant communication was exceptional. Upside was pretty much available at any point. When issues arose, they found solutions instead of saying it wasn’t possible to solve. Moreover, they were flexible to our requests.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think I have anything. The project went as perfectly as it possibly could have.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be prepared; have the actual deliverables done ahead of time to kickstart the project and move up the timeline. We got our API done much faster because those deliverable items were already done. Since they had those items, Upside knew exactly what we were looking for, and they didn’t have to do that work themselves.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Yoonema Technologies, an e-commerce startup operating in West Africa. Our mission is to sell high-end and high-quality services and goods for West African customers, some of which are imported and others are local. Our company was created in the US with a subsidiary in West Africa, and although our parent company is in the US, its headquarters are in Dakar, Senegal.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Upside?

We needed web design and web development services. After we found our company, we looked for a developer who could help us build our site. We wanted to create something that approached the same standards as the great e-commerce enterprises like Amazon or eBay.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, we met with Upside to talk about our vision and tell them what we wanted to build. We wanted to build not a Shopify or Wix website but a comprehensive e-commerce platform, so we required them to develop it from the ground up.

After that first meeting, Upside did some research and came back with a proposal. They suggested using Spree Commerce as a framework to build Yoonema from the ground up because it would help us manage our orders and configure our logistics, pricing, products, and catalog. Based on our requirements, they then went in, built our site’s architecture, configured all its logistics, built a catalog, and took care of the different payment processing integrations with Stripe, AWS, Heroku, and PayPal. Their work was basically full-stack development.

It took us about five sprint cycles over 5–6 months to build all of our site’s core infrastructure. Our head of product is also a designer, so he provided some of the design work, and Upside implemented it. After implementing the designs, Yoonema was up and running.

Currently, they’re doing light maintenance and upgrades to our site. Since the start of 2021, we’ve had a dedicated developer from Upside working for us on a part-time basis to do some maintenance work and fix any bugs or issues we found.

What is the team composition?

We had two developers working on our project full-time during development. Since switching over to maintenance services, we’ve come down to one developer working half-time.

How did you come to work with Upside?

Our head of product lives in Poland, and he had worked with Upside on some projects before. When I told him that I needed a software development agency to build Yoonema, he recommended Upside. He said that they were a small and young agency with a lot of talent, which was what we were looking for. He also said that they would be great at internalizing our project, understanding our mission, and building the website accordingly.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent close to $100,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2019, and the first version of the product was delivered by October 2019. In 2021, we had them do more upgrades. We have an ongoing partnership, and we’re about to sign another statement of work with them to add some improvements to the platform.

I really see them as a long-term partner for us. After the development was completed, we could've switched to internal developers for maintenance. However, I prefer to keep working with them because they’ve very technically knowledgeable and very aligned with our values and vision.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In 2021, we had more than 150,000 unique visitors on our website. That's an enormous amount of traffic for Africa because ours is a smaller market. Thus, those numbers have been a big success for us, and our traffic will grow as we continue.

Over the last 2–3 years, we've only had 2–3 downtimes, which has been great as well. Additionally, these downtime instances were due to server restarting and other external motives but never due to any development flaw. I consider that to be the ultimate metric for success.

Additionally, Upside has showcased our project on their website and at many conferences, which I really appreciate. I’m 100% satisfied not only with their work but also with their responsiveness.

How did Upside perform from a project management standpoint?

Upside has performed well, and they've delivered what they’ve promised after every sprint cycle. Now that we’re in maintenance mode, we manage their hours closely because the developer will try to solve a problem without looking at the number of hours budgeted. Thus, we have an internal project manager that organizes Upside’s work in a timeline to help us meet our monthly budget.

Regarding communication, we’ve integrated Upside into our platforms. We use Teams and Slack to communicate, and whenever I need them, they’re ready to answer through our internal communication system. For exchanging statements of work or invoices, we email them. We also have conference calls every six months to touch base.

Overall, Upside has been very responsive, and our level of collaboration is high. Every time we ask them for something, they come back to us quickly and approach tasks in a structured and methodic way. I've traveled twice to Poland to meet with them for a day and have a workshop to explain our vision so that they can understand and internalize it.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Upside’s approach towards their customers is noteworthy. Internalizing the client’s vision is key, and they take the time to understand and learn what a company is about — that’s always a plus. Additionally, they have very talented developers on their team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

In the beginning, we had to lay down a plan because, when we started working with Upside, they were new to e-commerce development. It was a pretty steep learning curve, and we had to teach them a lot of things regarding pricing, logistics, and more.

Next time they work for an e-commerce company, I would like them to anticipate e-commerce development challenges. It would be good if they could help their clients anticipate their future needs and develop their sites’ architecture accordingly. They’re a young company with young founders, so they need to start developing these skills to create products that don’t just serve the clients’ immediate needs but also their future needs.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We initially took the time to be really precise in our requirements, which worked really well for us. Upside’s team members have curious minds and want to learn, so this won't be a transactional relationship. You have to take the time to really create a bond with them, explain your vision properly, and go through the details. They have great understanding skills, which will help you find success.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the sole founder of Holistic Health Collaborative, which is a directory where people can search and find holistic health practitioners.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Upside?

I was looking for a team that could help me build my directory. It had to be a custom solution because I wanted to include a search functionality rather than listing contacts alphabetically.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Upside has developed a custom directory that allows people to search for holistic health practitioners. The project started with a 5-hour meeting to get everyone on the same page in terms of what we were looking for and which items we wanted to prioritize. It was really a brainstorming session. By the end of it, they had a solid plan on how to move forward.

As for the directory itself, its main feature is a search-by-symptoms function. People can plug in a symptom and find practitioners who can help. There’s also a geolocation component that lets users search internationally. Those functionalities are key to setting the site apart from others.

So far, they’ve completed the first version of the site (including the mobile version), and they’re now working on the second iteration. The main technologies we use are Contentful, Heroku, and Constant Contact. Eventually, our payment processing will be through TaxJar and Stripe.

What is the team composition? 

I work with Kasia (Founder) and Rafal (CTO & Managing Partner).

How did you come to work with Upside?

I’m found Upside through Clutch and went through a 15-minute consultation with a representative. I told them that I wanted to build a site similar to Clutch for holistic health practitioners.

How much have you invested with them?

The initial version of our directory cost about $10,000. The second version will be an additional $3,400.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked on the first project between November–December 2020. I thought that we’d be done with the project in February, but they finished the main development before Christmas. We’re now working on a second project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They got my vision down within the first design session, which was amazing. I’d never seen anyone do that. It showed me that they definitely understood what I was going for, and they even provided a sample site from a different country that looked similar to my idea.

Anecdotally, practitioners have commented on how professional the site looks, which speaks to the quality of Upside’s work. They’re still going through to fix any last-minute changes that I want before we fully launch. The team is mindful of how any new modifications will affect our mobile and desktop versions as well as our SEO.

How did Upside perform from a project management standpoint?

During the main development phase, they were in daily contact with me over Slack and email. They also checked in after each sprint. The team continues to have daily meetings, using their internal project management tool and checklists to stay organized. They get everything done on time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re incredible to work with for so many reasons. The communication and customer support that they provided for our first design process definitely set them apart.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Besides the directory, I wanted to add a few other tabs like “About Me” and other pages, but the topic never came up. I guess I didn’t know that I needed to ask for that specifically, but I wish they would’ve asked in the beginning if I had other tabs I wanted to put in. In the end, it’s only one page, and I’m building it for them to put in.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Ask them about their process in general, including their design and communication approach. The whole time, they were asking me if I had feedback, but I felt like they just moved so quickly. That design process really set them apart. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a software development company and currently, I am working as the Project Manager

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We have reached out to Upside for the frontend development requirement as we don't have enough bandwidth and expertise to do so. Despite a very tight deadline, Upside was able to deliver with the utmost quality.

They did not fail us and our Management team was immensely happy with the outcome of the project.

SOLUTION

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

There were several factors that helped us to decide in choosing UPSIDE as our partner in this project:

1. Very professional - Work ethics is superb!!!!
2. Understood our requirements from the get-go.
3. They always come prepared.

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

They designed the UX and developed the frontend of our application. We were very particular with the UX of our application and they did not fail us. We were very pleased with the outcome.

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

5 CTO DEVELOPER UI/UX DESIGNER MANAGING PARTNER

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It was delivered on time and within the minimum cost- estimate provided. We normally say- we hit the jackpot with UPSIDE! We were very happy with our collaboration and decided to continue working with them for the next phase of the project.

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

They are very collaborative and never had any issues during phase 1 of the project. The project went smoothly and we are very glad to have worked with them. Meeting the deadline was never an issue!

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

Their team was very open to feedback and they are committed to sharing suggestions to better improve our implementation as we progress. They are very professional both the dev team and during our the negotiation stage.

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

None that I could think of!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a senior web developer & consultant for u2i.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Upside?

We're developing a big Rails application for more than 10 years. Not only we regularly add new features but also improve its maintainability and security by doing regular technology upgrades. 

This goal of this project was to upgrade Ruby, "Ruby on Rails" framework upgrades and its sub-dependencies, as well as some legacy code migration. Due to extensive SOW and time restrictions, our client decided to set up a dedicated team that'd work on the upgrades for around half a year.

At this time we had no capacity to create an internal team that opened door for an external cooperation.

What were your goals for this project?

In general the goal was to keep our system healthy and secure by applying necessary upgrades and handling some code deprecations. Together with Upside we worked on a various upgrade tasks but the main focus was on replacing the legacy implementation with modern (and more secure) 'Strong Parameters' architecture.

Such upgrades are always very risky and it was crucial to test verify all the changes, and make sure the application logic is not affected in any way.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We needed to be able to deliver top quality work to our u2i Client through a partner we could trust to carry out the work independently and deliver on time. We view Upside as an extended part of our u2i family. We were aware about their skills, agile approach and ability to work independently, which was also an important factor for us.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Upside worked on a various upgrade tasks, e.g. deprecated 'fakeweb' to 'webmock' dependency migration but the main focus was on replacing the legacy implementation with modern (and more secure) 'Strong Parameters' architecture. They just knew what the general problem is, then analysed, identified specific issues, applied fixes and tested changes on their own.

We just took part in the formal code review process, which was mostly straightforward. Both, the problems and solutions were very well described in the "Pull Request". 

What was the team composition?

We were working with a team of three software developers (including Technical Lead who took part in overviewing the project) and a project manager responsible for keeping track of on-time delivery and budget.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We needed to be able to deliver top quality work to our u2i Client through a partner we could trust to carry out the work and deliver on time.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The team at Upside stayed in close contact with us, providing daily updates and being in touch on Slack and video calls. Kasia organised and ran the project from the Upside end and ensured that any issues were rectified, this made the project run smoothly and without problems.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We were impressed with their open approach, flexibility, and ensuring that everyone is updated.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There is nothing of any concern that we feel needs addressing.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

My company manufactures premium equestrian equipment sold online. I am a Founder and a Head of Marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Some time after we launched our brand, we got the feedback that the look and feel of our online store doesn’t match the quality of our products. Our store wasn’t responsive, while most of our customers use smartphones almost exclusively.

We struggled with usability of our website. We were looking for a company capable of helping us redesign and build a new, modern version of our website.

SOLUTION

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

I knew them through my network and I knew they had the required competencies and experience. When comparing vendors, I really liked their approach to leading projects which was fit to our needs.

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

Team at Upside led us through a process of designing customer journey, defining information architecture and preparing mockups of the website. They also collaborated with our graphical designer to ensure the designs reflected our branding. They also built a custom modern frontend on top of the ecommerce backend that we already had.

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

We worked with their Frontend Developer, UX Designer and Project Manager. We also had our own graphical designer in-house with whom they collaborated closely.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We received a very positive feedback from our customers since we launched the store. Major difference was seen by the significant volumen of mobile-first users (who are about 90% of total).

We moved into being fully responsive and lightweight. Our store finally met the requirements of modern customers.

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

We worked directly with their team and the communication was very effective. They split the work into a few phases, which allowed us to easily keep track of the timeline.

What was very helpful wast that their developer helped us launch a private test version of the website, which allowed us to fix all the minor issues before launch. The work was documented in Pivotal Tracker and divided into measurable sprints.

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

They were very proactive and pointed out details that we didn’t think about. They delivered high-quality work, despite various constraints that we had.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None that I can think of.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a tech and product lead, working for a global E-Commerce company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Upside?

The main challenge we hired Upside for was to build an especially customer-centric e-commerce experience to satisfy and attract a specific niche.

What were your goals for this project?

Make sure to deliver the platform in an aggressive timeframe while keeping central the quality of the client experience.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We first initialized contact with Upside based on excellent word-of-mouth received from partners.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

- Architecture - Backend development - Frontend development - DevOps - System administration - Maintenance - API development

What was the team composition?

Developers, architect, project manager, product designer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After a year of close collaboration with Upside, we couldn't be more satisfied with their professionalism and the quality of their service. Upside provided us a real boutique experience, as they tailored their offer to our needs, scaling accordingly to our challenges. What we enjoyed the most was their ability to internalize our vision and be proactive in their advice and assessments. Building our e-commerce platform and having worked for some of the most prominent technology companies in the world, we knew we wanted a partner that could match our speed. We found in Upside that partner. Our platform is live, growing exponentially and gaining a lot of traction in our target demographic.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We used a rather standard agile methodology stack with great results.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their ability to listen, understand our challenges and, most importantly, ask the right questions.

Are there any areas for improvement?

–

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a co-founder of Product Dojo. We're an educational startup focused on knowledge and management learning.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Upside?

They worked on our MVP, which is a platform for organizing educational programs.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to validate our ideas and test them using the MVP to organize an educational event for a couple hundred people.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We were looking for a lean approach—a minimal formula that would let us verify the idea and provide value in a real-life educational experience.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

Upside took care of proposing the right tools and the development itself. We provided design and HTML templates but the rest was on them.

What was the team composition?

The development team included their managing partner and a senior software engineer from Upside, and me as a UI/UX designer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They proposed the right and realistic scope that made our tight schedule possible.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We worked in weekly sprints using Slack, email, and phone calls, which worked out great. The team was very flexible and responsive.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Despite our tight schedule and sometimes stressful circumstances, the whole team maintained an optimistic attitude and was able to deliver on time.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

I was delighted to work with them. I have no complaints.