Vaporware

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the former COO of a telecommunications company.  

What challenge were you trying to address with vaporware?

My company wanted to create an app that simplified and automated quoting for our channel partners while tracking hundreds of variables and tens of thousands of permutations.

What was the scope of their involvement?

vaporware developed the frontend of a web application that provides online quotes of telecommunication services. They gathered requirements, designed project blueprints, and then built the prototype and first-stage MVP.

What is the team composition?

I interfaced with a product lead, a design lead, and a developer.

How did you come to work with vaporware?

A local developer that was consulting on the initial phase of our project referred vaporware.

How much have you invested with them?

My company spent around $250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project took place from March–October 2018.

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

The product was not fully released when I left the company, so I can’t comment on the impact. However, I can say that vaporware designed an intuitive UI that guided users through a logical progression of decisions.

How did vaporware perform from a project management standpoint?

Our companies were in different US states, so we used web-based tools like Asana to collaborate. vaporware always kept us well-informed with real-time information. They gave my team with access to the project plans. We could review the progress of the project at any time and from any device, which was very helpful.

What did you find most impressive about them?

vaporware did a phenomenal job at capturing a large number of varied requirements. The success and adoption of a complex product like this relied on ease of use, which vaporware delivered with the UI. Technology can’t just be good; it has to be intuitive and easy-to-use, and vaporware did well in this regard.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t any I can think of.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Imurj is a collaborative art and music space opening in Downtown Raleigh. Imurj develops, promotes, educates, and empowers artists and musicians. I am a founding partner.

What challenge were you trying to address with Vaporware?

We needed to build a custom web application serving as a member directory and event calendar. We also wanted to build an online radio where local members could upload songs and have them curated by others.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Vaporware built our application using Ruby on Rails, also giving us the ability to integrate it with WordPress and create our own pages. There were 2 developers assigned to our project.

How did you come to work with Vaporware?

I had been through several developers and was having a hard time getting a result. We had tried building the platform using PHP initially, but the work was going nowhere. I am a member of the same co-working space as Vaporware. We have set hours during which we can talk about tech issues. I attended one of those sessions with Vaporware's principal, who seemed to know his stuff. We needed help, so we connected with Vaporware and had them work on our site. 

How much have you invested with Vaporware?

The cost of Vaporware's work has been between $50,000 and $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Vaporware 6 months ago, in 2016. The project is ongoing. There is always more to do.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We are reaching the end of the development phase, and are getting ready to launch the test version in a couple of weeks. We're happy with what we've seen so far. 

How did Vaporware perform from a project management standpoint?

Vaporware's team is communicative. They're using Asana and Slack in order to organize themselves, provide accurate project timelines, and have been good about completing the work. Vaporware is also using a wireframing tool, through which we can see the work before the coding is done. We're happy with Vaporware. 

What did you find most impressive about Vaporware?

I appreciate Vaporware's honesty. Even though we could be willing to spend $10,000 on a feature, if Vaporware's team doesn't believe that it will benefit us, they will let us know. Even though it would be money going into their pocket, Vaporware has been very forthright regarding feedback for our work. They have very good insight, so they've helped us stay on track.

Are there any areas Vaporware could improve?

When programming something new, there will always be little bugs popping up. Vaporware has been good about fixing them, and, even though they're not very good at UX [user experience] design, they never claimed to be. It could benefit Vaporware to have a UX division, rather than having us use a consultant.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Vaporware?

Vaporware's team are backend programmers, not designers or UX people, so it's important to find those resources available for a project.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

SERVUS is an enterprise apartment and property management software-as-a-service platform aimed at optimizing on-site maintenance operations. I am the chief executive officer of the company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Vaporware?

We were trying to salvage a previously poorly-written piece of Ruby on Rails software, as well as all the APIs necessary for supporting an iOS app. We are a startup, so we have outsourced our product development to Vaporware in order to get an early prototype to market.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Vaporware helped revive our code, salvaging what we had on the backend, and also developing a front-end mobile web platform which complemented our iOS app. Vaporware assigned 2 developers to our project. 

How did you come to work with Vaporware?

I ran into Vaporware at an entrepreneurial networking event in Rollins, North Carolina. We had a good conversation, and I met with Vaporware a couple of more times to discuss our projects and philosophy around lean prototyping and software development. We got to know Vaporware, liked their approach, and saw that they had references indicative of a good pedigree. We quickly established a level of trust and have been able to work together well.

How much have you invested with Vaporware?

The cost of Vaporware's services has been between $50,000 and $75,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Vaporware in April 2015. The project is mostly completed, but we are discussing adding on certain features with Vaporware. They are engaged on a weekly basis for maintenance of the platform.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We've had a great experience with Vaporware, and felt that they challenged us to take the work that was being done, bounce it off of our customers, and come back to them. This way they would have a full cycle of development, user feedback, and product improvement. Vaporware did a tremendous job with this approach, helping make our early prototypes better, to the point of having a nice, iterative solution which hits the mark with customers.

How did Vaporware perform from a project management standpoint?

Vaporware performed well. We've had a great cadence with how we worked together on a weekly basis. We used Asana and Slack for everyday communication and project tracking. We had an efficient communication and prioritization system in place.

What did you find most impressive about Vaporware?

Vaporware has a lean approach, and the team challenged us to consider whether features were customer-driven requirements, or simply something that we would have liked to see built into the software. It was a unique approach on Vaporware's side. We felt that instead of coding everything we wanted, they would rather try and help us prioritize based on our customers' needs. This helped us save a lot of money and get a more customer-driven product to market.

Are there any areas Vaporware could improve?

Our first experience with another local development firm was very bad. We have been very pleased with our experience with Vaporware.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My company is Security Journey, and I am the CEO.

What challenge were you trying to address with Vaporware?

The project that they worked on for us was to create our initial web application.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The web app is a security training delivery platform. It provides video and all the tracking for a learner that goes through the security learning experience. The primary technology was Ruby on Rails. There was one primary developer assigned and an architect.

How did you come to work with Vaporware?

I was looking for someone in the local geographical region from where I live. They are one of the companies that are local here in the Raleigh, North Carolina area. I began to look at the different options that were available as far as app development providers. That’s how I got to them.

How much have you invested with Vaporware?

I have invested between $10,000 and $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started talking to them in March 2016. The project finished in July 2016.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Because it was an MVP [minimum viable product] style development effort, I don’t have any metrics per se. The goal of this project was to prove the concept that the security training platform was actually viable.

How did Vaporware perform from a project management standpoint?

I thought there were very good. The gentleman who was acting more as an architect was also the primary project manager, so they used Asana boards to track all the activities and things for which I had full visual. I could see into that. They included me inside of that environment so I could see what was happening on a day-to-day basis from the development process. Even though we were local, we did use Google Hangouts to do a weekly status update. They were able to provide the details about what was happening. We did some additional design through that process as well.

What did you most impressive about Vaporware?

I think they are very good at taking my requirements and turning that into an MVP. Because as you probably know, the idea of an MVP is not to overdevelop everything, it’s to boil down to the basics that you need to actually launch the application and try it. So they did a great job of understanding the requirements and then turning that into truly the bare things that I needed to launch the app.

Are there any areas Vaporware could improve?

I don’t have any areas of improvement for them at this point. There’s nothing that stood out to me that I would say I want them to get better at.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Vaporware?

I think they are certainly very good at what they do and at understanding the technology. I was not a Rails expert during this development process, but yet they were still able to translate what they were trying to do. I didn’t have to understand Rails to work with them. I think they did a great job at communicating even though I’m not a developer, explaining to me well enough so that I could help make the decisions of how I wanted something to work without having to be an expert.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We help the people communicate better at work. Founder

For what projects/services did your company hire vaporware?

They developed our prototype!

What were your goals for this project?

The solution we needed to was to convert our alpha product into a deliverable prototype. I, at the time, didn't have a CTO on board yet and needed to build something quickly to get to market.

How did you select this vendor?

They were highly recommended by a colleague. I knew we wanted to work with an on-shore team and one which could expertly build a prototype.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They helped us plan, design, configure, and develop our prototype. We have a highly differentiated product and so we had to work through several unique use cases that would meet the needs of our users and clients.

What was the team composition?

Dan and his co-founder as well as a dedicated engineer. Dan led a lot of the strategy, while Jeff and their engineer led day to day decisions.

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

When you have a solution and are eager to get it out there but don't yet have the tech team or funds to bring it to market, a dev shop is the answer. Dan and his team were professional and quick to help me get our prototype out; knowing that staying ahead of the competition was our main concern. When we did hire a CTO shortly thereafter the transition was seamless.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We worked through Asana and email mostly which synced up well with our own internal communication systems. There was an AM standup and weekly or biweekly calls to re-tool key milestones if we needed to.

VW was highly organized throughout the process, project managing along the way. That allowed me to direct development at a high level. I was able to continue reaching our goal of hiring an in-house team and selling our product rapidly.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They are able to work fast and deliver on what they say they will deliver. Good at prioritizing and being honest about what they can and can't do within the timeframe you have. That's a blessing as an early stage founder. Looking back, it couldn't have gone any better.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Everything was great!