Vault Innovation

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of a small leadership consulting firm. We have three principles as well as a network of consultants that we deploy on projects.

What challenge were you trying to address with Vault?

We work with Chief Human Resource Officers and CEOs on talent issues such as executive assessment, team effectiveness, succession planning and leadership development. Historically we've tailored our approach to individual clients. We originally needed to develop a tool to support this core, legacy business.

Over time, given how laborious that kind of custom work can be, we decided to move to providing scalable services for clients and other firms like ours. This required further tool development. In particular, we wanted to be able to administer surveys based on our proprietary IP.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The initial scope of work was to develop an iPad app that would allow us, while we were observing a team meeting, to code and track what's happening in the meeting. We wanted to analytically code and compile the interactions to share with the client at the end of the meeting.

Over the last year, they’ve been developing a new project—a bespoke platform for survey administration that is available via web and mobile, and that can be customized for new clients and teams. We needed a polished, simple user interface as well as data storage, analysis and report automation on the backend. There was a tremendous amount of conditional logic and analytical thinking that needed to go into how to deal with special cases. We also needed to scale to support multiple profiles and an infinite number of users.

We’ve been testing and using the platform for months with clients. We’re in the next phase now, continuing to add features and new capabilities.

What is the team dynamic?

Eddie Camacho is the day-to-day project manager. I’ve also worked with a developer and, to a lesser extent, with their CTO.

How did you come to work with Vault Innovation?

I heard about them from a respected colleague who is an organizational development consultant and CEO coach. He had developed an app with Vault and recommended them. After our first project together, when we decided to pivot our business to this more scalable, tools-based approach. We selected them to be our innovation partner for that based on the quality of that initial work.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $70,000 so far with them, which is a lot for a small firm like us. About 80% of the spend has been on the platform development.

What is the status of this engagement?

The first project ran from around July 2015 to March 2016. We went back to them in January 2017 for the platform development, which is ongoing.

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

We work with senior executives in high-profile companies. Minimum viable products were not an option for us. The products had to be polished and functional at the outset, which they achieved.

What they produced is better on every dimension than any comparable product I’ve seen. We have a competitor that contracted a software provider to build them a similar tool. They’ve had all sorts of problems, for example, with automating a specific part of the tool. They hadn’t achieved this after nine months whereas, with Vault, we had developed the very same capabilities in one week.

The clients really like it. Anecdotally, I was in an off-site client meeting at which I administered a survey to the team with the platform. The CEO hadn’t taken it yet when he arrived. When he asked his CTO if he could do it on his phone, the CTO responded yes, it works very well on mobile. I couldn't call the Vault team fast enough to tell them about that little bit of client feedback. Everybody was really happy to hear that.

How did Vault perform from a project management standpoint?

Much of our communication has been virtual and phone based. At key milestones when the work is particularly complex, we have alignment meetings to talk through the needs and approach so they can translate that into code. We had 3-4 of those meetings. We also recently set up a private Slack channel to communicate with them.

They have systems to track all of the details of the builds, and they input updates into our tracking software. They definitely exceeded my expectations in terms of how fast they were able to localize problems and fix them. They've been extremely responsive when there were bugs once we went live. Eddie stays on top of things. I don't feel like I have to micromanage or track their delivery. They deliver on time, on budget.

They are very accurate in their budget estimates. They employ a very simple pricing approach that makes things easy for me to estimate on my end as well. There haven’t been any surprises in terms of scope creep or ballooning budgets, which is really important to us as it can have a big impact on our operations.

What did you find most impressive about them?

One of the things I think is really distinctive about Vault is their emphasis on the design aspects. I think a lot of software shops are good at the coding, but they may not have a sense for the design aesthetic or the judgments about what will work with different kinds of users. For Vault, I think this comes largely from Jeffrey [CEO and Founder], who brings that sensibility and embeds it into everything they do. They focus on design while being reliable and solid on the coding. Working with Vault, I know I will get something that’s designed well and works.

They have been very reasonable in terms of their costs given the quality that I've receive. My co-founder worked in India for seven years and always pushes me to offshore work for lower rates. Vault is priced so competitively that I don’t feel a need to even think about that. They run a lean operation and I respect that.

I definitely intend to continue to partner with them. They’re nice people and I like working with them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO and managing member of Fixed Ops Digital, a service marketing and technology company in the automotive industry.

What challenge were you trying to address with Vault Innovation?

We were looking for a company to build a business and data intelligence platform.

What was the scope of their involvement?

I gave them a 4–5-page document on what I wanted, and they were able to translate that into a working software system. From there, they handled design, execution, and implementation.

Using HTML and CSS, they developed cloud-based platform that houses information on all of our current and prospective clients. It connects to several data sources, including Facebook, Google Drive, and Google Sheets’ Query function.  Now they are working to add enhancements and upgrade the platform.

What is the team composition?

I work with Stephanie (Director of Business Development), Jeffrey (Founder & CEO), and Nikki (Project Manager), but 5–10 people have worked with us at different points in the project.  

How did you come to work with Vault Innovation?

Before working with Vault Innovation, we had worked with another company and the project failed. We were looking for a new partner when Stephanie sent me a cold email that got my attention. We started talking at the beginning of 2020, but everything was paused when COVID-19 hit. Then we reconnected in the fall and began working on the project.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $50,000 initially, but we expect to spend $75,000 in total.  

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2020 and we finished the initial development in March 2021. However, we’re still working with them.

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

Working with Vault Innovation has been an amazing experience. Now all of our employees use the platform when working with clients. It’s a great tool; it has no flaws.

How did Vault Innovation perform from a project management standpoint?

From the beginning of the project until now, it has been easy to work with Vault Innovation. They’re extremely communicative, which has helped us develop a great working relationship with them. We have a consistent project manager who walks us through everything and connects us with different teams.

We usually communicate through email because that is my preference, but we also used tools like InVision to approve changes. They’ve never missed an email or forgotten to follow up on something.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve been very impressed by their communication, but their execution of the platform is astounding. Everything that Vault Innovation has built works correctly and is seamless. We’ve been using the platform for about 90 days, and at this point, we haven’t experienced any bugs or errors.

On top of that, they’ve been able to stick pretty close to our budget. In the past, other developers have completely underestimated the cost to build software like this.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t pinpoint any negative aspects of our engagement.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I don’t have a lot of advice because Vault Innovation did a great job of explaining their process and moving the project along.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO and co-founder of a SaaS company with a mission to bring equal access to college athletics for high school student-athletes.

What challenge were you trying to address with Vault Innovation?

We needed someone to build our MVP’s V 1.0.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Vault Innovation provided us with product management and development and built our V 1.0 from scratch using PHP and Laravel.

We initially provided them with the wireframes and documentation, while they integrated user roles, portals, data security management, data collection and processing, and a user dashboard.

What is the team composition?

We talked with Jeffrey (CEO) and Terry (CTO), but we mainly communicated with the product manager and the developer. We also worked with a designer and QA tester at one point in the development. 

How did you come to work with Vault Innovation?

We won a pitch competition that they partially sponsored and after interviewing them, we hired them based on their pricing, timeline, and culture fit.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested somewhere between $400,000–$500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from June 2020–January 2022.

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

Thanks to Vault Innovation, we’ve had a 600% revenue growth over the past year. We went from having 20,000 users to 80,000 users thanks to the app they developed — it enabled us to provide our service to a large number of people.

Their developers from Vault Innovation were smart, skilled, and always available to resolve our issues.

How did Vault Innovation perform from a project management standpoint?

We initially had a subpar project manager we had to let go of, but the new one who replaced them was great — so in terms of project management, I’d give them a rating of four out of five.

We used JIRA to manage the project and interact. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We liked that we could always be honest with them because they didn’t take constructive feedback personally. Their whole process was very transparent, and they were really flexible in regards to making changes to the development.

Are there any areas they could improve?

A little more big-picture guidance would’ve been helpful, especially since the development was moving so quickly. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

To make the most out of the relationship, be very clear with what you want and don’t make any assumptions that they understand what you want to convey.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a media company that owns newspapers and associated websites across nine markets throughout the U.S., including Chicago and Los Angeles. My team is a consumer marketing group.

What challenge were you trying to address with Vault Innovation?

We were looking to build a web environment from scratch that would host a lot of content and e-commerce elements. It was a departure from the work that we've traditionally done in-house. We needed someone to help us build a CMS that was a little closer to a turnkey model and could help facilitate the backend.

What was the scope of their involvement?

For the frontend, we had a set of UX wireframes that were built but not fully functional. Vault took those conceptual drawings and went to work. They added elements that were missing from the wireframes to fill out the site.

The scope of their work didn't involve as much frontend as might be expected for a full site build, since we had some of the work completed already. They took our work in progress and turned it into a functional web environment over the span of about two-and-a-half to three weeks.

They built out the entire CMS to support what we needed from start to finish. They made sure we were integrating different systems and software well. They troubleshot and managed our implementation of PayPal fulfillment so our cash register worked on the site and could accept transactions. They also worked to ensure that we had a very visual site without hindering the load speed.

What is the team dynamic?

We worked primarily through Eddie, our project manager. We also had great conversations with Jeff [Founder/CEO, Vault Innovations] about onboarding the project and making sure we had the right team in place. I don't know the total team size.

How did you come to work with Vault Innovation?

I’ve known their principal for several years now; we met through networking in the industry. I was talking with him about what they were doing both from a business and entrepreneurship point of view. I felt like they were a good match for our project, in part because they understood not only the web design component, but also the business rationale.

They offered a bit more than straight UX, design, or coding. In our project scope conversation, they weren’t just looking at a spec sheet, but really trying to think through proactive approaches to getting our desired business outcomes.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent about $25,000–30,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2017. They're hosting the site for us now and doing incremental work as we add features. We've had them scope an RFP for a couple other products as well.

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

We’ve gotten good feedback via email. I think that everyone we're talking to is really impressed with the functionality. I’ve been working with some developers on the organization in order to migrate the site to our servers. Even they told us it’s a beautiful site.

As far as the backend, Vault understood what we needed and built it in. It wasn't enough for us to have a site that looked really good. It needed to be very intuitive, and they delivered. The CMS is simple and well-crafted, with some variability that allows us to make tweaks as we go.

How did Vault Innovation perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management was really sharp. I would hire the project manager for my own team in a second. We did a lot of Google Hangouts for face time, even though we were virtual and could communicate via phone and email.

They’re easy to get a hold of, quick to respond, open to our ideas, and diligent with the lists of outputs our meetings generated. They did a lot of follow-up in terms of next steps, even for mere conversations. They’d always incorporate a couple of bullet points into whatever deliverable they were pursuing.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are great at thinking through their role within the broader context of our business goals, rather than just designing what we have on paper. They ask whether their design will truly lead to successful business outcomes, and then proactively translate them into the final product. That helps us work through things and prioritize.

For example, in our initial scoping of the project, we had expected that a lot of the content would be hard-coded. But they were right to move us toward the CMS because we had so much variable content.

Another reason they stand out is that they aren't solely a design company. They often act as partners in an equity capacity or look for ways that they themselves can drive entrepreneurial ventures.

Lastly, the turnaround on the frontend was pretty impressive, given the scope of content we were working through. They saved us a lot of time and headaches by delivering what they’d promised.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don't have much to say as far as ways to improve, based on our relationship. We're really happy with what they provided, and I think they have a really strong framework for their business. Their resources are at the top of their game.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the President and Owner of Wastemaster, an independent 3^rd party waste and recycling broker. We operate our business in a manner similar to an insurance broker or mortgage broker.

What challenge were you trying to address with Vault Innovation?

Vault helped us automate our waste hauler bidding process by developing a web application that allows us to quickly solicit bids from our vendor network and respond back to our potential customers quickly.  Prior to Vault’s web app, we handled all of this manually and now their product has significantly reduced our admin time.

What was the scope of their involvement?

I contacted Vault and met with their owner on a few occasions to go over our business model, and after a few meetings, we determined that this automated database application would make sense for internal use. However, we also determined that although this application is for internal use in the near term, we built it with the future in mind. Specifically, we want to make this application “customer-facing” at some point and Vault was able to make sure the app is able to do this.

What is the team dynamic?

I worked with two people, Jeff [CEO, Vault Innovation] at the beginning and then Andy [Project Manager, Vault Innovation] during the build-out.

How did you come to work with Vault Innovation?

They did a great job understanding my business from the beginning. Jeff, in particular, asked me a bunch of questions to get an idea of how I want to scale my business and how their product would help me accomplish this goal. It was Jeff’s desire to understand my struggles and my goals that made me choose Vault.

How much have you invested with them?

Between $10,000 and $50,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

It began in November 2016 and was completed in January 2017. We use the web app on a daily basis now.

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

The results have been very positive. I would guess that the time of our bidding process was cut in half as a result.

How did Vault Innovation perform from a project management standpoint?

I think they were very communicative, and we had scheduled “catch-up” meetings where the Vault project manager would provide updates and allow me to start using the app to work out any bugs. In addition, we have found a few issues since going “live,” and the Vault team quickly looked into the problems and corrected them in a very short time.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Ideally, I would have liked to know exactly how much I needed to budget, but I understand that as we got started, I asked for a few changes and it was probably impossible for Vault to be able to provide an exact estimate.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder of ClassCrasher, an online children’s activities marketplace.

What challenge were you trying to address with Vault Innovation?

I needed a developer to build a website for my company.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The ClassCrasher website was built to be like a marketplace where businesses that cater to children’s activities are listed in a way where parents could search through and find the best class that fits their family’s needs.

Jeff [CEO, Vault Innovation] and the team took care of everything from the ground-up. Initially, I had put together a PowerPoint of the way I wanted it to look and the way in which things interact with one another. I don’t have any technical skills to speak of, so he designed the wireframes and hired the graphic designers to do the design as well as the logo. The website was built on PHP.

The website listed all the classes in the database with a filter, so that parents could sort through by using a keyword search for activities based on age, time of day, day of the week, and proximity to their location. Once they clicked on an option, more information would be displayed about that particular class, and they then had the option to register and pay directly via our site. There was also a calendar integration where the information could be added into a user’s personal calendar upon registration.

What is the team dynamic?

I interacted with Jeff as well as the two project managers. However, there were a number of people they worked with to complete the project that I didn’t necessarily interact with.

How did you come to work with Vault Innovation?

I found Vault through an internet search. I had interviewed approximately 10 different developers, and felt that Vault, and Jeff in particular, had a really good feel for what my vision was. He has kids of his own and he understood the space. He was very honest with me and was a good advisor in general, and not just on the technical specifications of what needed to be built and how, but also on why we should build certain components and not build others.

I didn’t pick Vault because they were the cheapest, it was more that Jeff understood my vision more than other developers. He was very willing to let me know where I should spend money, and pushed back on a lot of the business decisions, which was a very healthy debate. I really appreciated that. I feel the price was a good value for what they could build, and the cost came in much lower than a lot of the other bids that we had.

How much have you invested in them?

I spent around $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2015, and the project was complete in October 2016.

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

I was really happy with the way the site turned out. I think our users were really happy. Vault built out a really robust partner portal that was very user-friendly, so the businesses could add their own activity in there. I had unanimously positive interactions from our partners.

Ultimately, I ended up selling the business to a different company in the United States and they have since rebranded it, but the site is still in use. I think they were very happy with the way the site worked. Their developers have taken over the maintenance of the site, but they felt that everything was well-documented and well-designed.

How did Vault Innovation perform from a project management standpoint?

I think they did a great job. Jeff was very involved at all stages. We met in person once a week, and we would exchange emails throughout the week as well. We had two other project managers that were under Jeff, and both of them were great and very responsive. They did a good job of understanding what my vision was and bringing that into the tech.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I feel as though Jeff was really invested in the business, and wanted it to succeed. He went out of his way to introduce me to other entrepreneurs, and was willing to give his advice on all that he had seen throughout the project, not necessarily just on the tech aspect. Jeff and the team were a great partner to have, and they had a lot of insight for me. This was my first business, and I was just getting started; he did a great job of being a good advisor.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I was very happy with my experience with Vault, and I don’t have any complaints. The team was really strong, the tech came out great, the budget was on point, and things were on time. All in all, it was a very positive experience

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO of an on-demand lead generation software company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Vault Innovation?

We were looking to build out the mobile app of our software.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Vault Innovation was with us every step of the way from planning, helping to be soft partners in the development, as well as actually doing the development work itself. The app is more of a tool and was built for iOS. I had a vision of what I wanted, and there were aspects that required someone to think through the whole process of how it would work within an application. We are always enhancing and creating new details.

What is the team dynamic?

There were around three members of their team assigned specifically to our project.

How did you come to work with Vault Innovation?

I was referred to Vault Innovation by a friend of mine who had worked with them previously. I considered a few proposals from other firms, but Vault approached it from a partner perspective. This manifested itself in so many ways as the project progressed. Jeff, the CEO, has been very flexible in working with us and the Vault team members became members of our team. Other developers I have met gave the impression that they didn’t really care about the project once it was sold, and this is definitely not the case with Vault.

How much have you invested in them?

We have invested around $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August 2015, and the work is still ongoing. I would like to stay with them as long as I can.

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

The business users of our app love it. They love the simplicity and design. Vault really executed my vision. The app works smoothly and seamlessly, and users have only had positive feedback. It does exactly what we designed it to do, which is the best compliment I could give. Vault has never been completely stumped or unable to figure out an alternative work-around.

How did Vault Innovation perform from a project management standpoint?

The project management has gotten a lot better. Initially, it was a little rough, but that project manager isn’t working for them anymore. We try to meet weekly with the CEO directly because we have built a good relationship, and we speak with the team as well. Jeff is amazing in terms of making sure the right things get done and focusing on the right problems. This has been something I really appreciate about them. There was a level of personal ownership in projects that they took on right from the beginning.

They are a U.S. based company, and there are huge advantages to that in terms of saving time and energy. When working with Vault, you are working with a company that understands the consumer level, perhaps better than foreign companies can.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The most impressive thing is that their goal isn’t to become a 500-person dev shop or just to scale for the sake of scaling and gaining more business. They are very selective of what they want to take on, and they turn down clients that don’t fit their criteria.

There is no functionality that we wanted that Vault was not able to do. Their team was able to handle everything I threw at them and more. As we went through our iterations, they are there with us along the way. They were part of the team, and it didn’t feel as though they were vendors that were looking to just make money. They gave us options that would save us money and get the same results we wanted to achieve. They are advocates of not spending money on tech before you need to. They think like entrepreneurs versus someone who is just trying to grow to be a bigger and bigger business.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I could have improved by scoping the project and driving higher expectations for the initial project managers. This could have gone out of scope, even more, had they not helped tear things back. With anyone building a business or an app for the first time, it is so important to scope it properly. Any business should really understand their consumers and test things out before building. We all want to jump into the tech build to see our vision in action, but in hindsight, there are a lot more things to be done before building out tech.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder and CEO of GamerzArena. We are a daily video game competition platform.

What challenge were you trying to address with Vault Innovation?

I am a non-technical founder. I'd envisioned a project, and needed developmental resources to help bring it to life.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Vault Innovation developed the product from the ground up. I came up with the idea and scope, but we worked together daily on every step as we went through what may or may not work. We used PHP, Python, as well as JavaScript2, and there’s also some Bootstrap framework, along with CSS. The primary is PHP, and it’s web-based. We are now partners.

We went through a discovery phase that lasted 5 weeks after we kicked off our project in June. We discussed what we were going to do, and how we were going to make it work, then decided to incorporate streaming aspects into the app.

Vault allows me to not worry about the technical aspects at all. I’m able to relay my ideas in simpler terms, while working with product managers who then take this information to the developers. Vault works to optimize the technical aspects so we can put together the best product.

What is the team dynamic?

There are usually six team members. They’re able to bring people in if a project calls for additional or specific resources. 

How did you come to work with Vault Innovation?

I was introduced to Vault through a friend. I went through an extensive, 5-6 month vetting process with 8 different development shops in the Chicagoland area, and Vault was one of them.

Vault shared the vision that I had for my business. They’d done something similar in the past, and had a passion for the space we were looking to work in. I needed a team who could work with me to make my vision a reality, and could also figure out the best path to success for our product.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2016, and the relationship is ongoing.

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

Our users love the interface and its ease of use, which is tremendous for us. Our platform is unique, and we’re doing something nobody else is doing right now, which gives our user base a sense of excitement.

There’s a streaming app that allows users to simultaneously play video games while competing on our site. The steps beyond initial use are minimal, and the setup is also simple. The core of our business centers around wanting to create the most positive and inviting experience for our users. We’ve accomplished this, and we continue to improve upon it constantly. We also continue to improve upon the physical appearance of the site due to great feedback from our users.

How did Vault Innovation perform from a project management standpoint?

They do a great job. There is a product manager specifically assigned to my company, and I also regularly communicate with Jeff [CEO, Vault Innovation]. Terry [CTO, Vault Innovation] is also available to me. We communicate through Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Vault is looking to help build businesses that will succeed rather than simply finishing a product and moving on. They are there to communicate through a business perspective as well as a technical one.

We didn’t engage as partners at first because we had a contract, but then there was excitement on both sides. We were extremely pleased with their work, so a partnership made sense to us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’ve addressed some of the concerns I had before. When I first started engaging with them, their website was not clear concerning their focus on building businesses outside of tech. Their website made them appear to be purely mobile-based, which isn’t the case. They do work with mobile development, but they are very involved with web as well. After I talked to Jeff, they updated their website to reflect their services more accurately.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the owner of a subpoena service. We issue subpoenas for records in these industries: medical, bank, school, police, and others. We also issue subpoenas on behalf of lawyers.

What challenge were you trying to address with Vault Innovation?

We initially hired them to perform some development of our website and interactive client portal. In the end, we partnered with them further to continue building the portal.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We needed a client portal that allows lawyers to provide us information on what subpoenas they need issued. Then, it would allow the lawyers to track the status of their subpoenas.

Vault Innovation built this portal from scratch. They had to learn how every step of the subpoena process worked, so it could be properly and legally tracked through the portal. The design of the portal had to take into account the different actors, vendors, and the issues that can arise with the various groups involved in the process.

They built the frontend for the clients and the backend for the administrators, and they made both interact properly. They also built us a mock-up of a sales portal, which was actually the first thing they did for us.

What is the team composition?

There were 3–5 working with us.

How did you come to work with Vault Innovation?

They’re in the same building as us, and I believe we first connected through mutual connections in our building.

How much have you invested with them?

We probably invested somewhere between $10,000–$49,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working in either late 2017 or early 2018 and the project was mostly finished by the fall of 2019, although our relationship is ongoing as they continue to make updates for our site.

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

Amongst the users we’ve demoed the project to, the reaction is nearly universally positive. We’ve had several clients looking to use our service more because of their work.

How did Vault Innovation perform from a project management standpoint

We communicated via email, video conferences, in-person meetings with their design teams, and web meetings with screen sharing. Other members of my team might have met with them more frequently and in other ways.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The amount of time they spent to understand our business before they even started to design anything impressed us. If you just jump in and start trying to design a client portal without understanding the business and the legal side of things, you’re going to have an inferior product. They spent a lot of time with us getting into the weeds and they fully understood the project by the time they began designing.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I have nothing.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Spend the time upfront so they understand your business. I believe people don’t spend enough time explaining their business model. Explain your business model, and you'll get the product you're looking for.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president and CEO of Endoscopy Now. We focus on medical education for professionals in the gastroenterology space. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Vault Innovation?

We had worked with two previous developers but needed a higher-end, professional app than what they had delivered. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed iOS and Android applications using React Native. They assisted us with the design portion. We took about two or three months collaborating to flush out what the app looks like today. Their team also integrated several third-party tools including Opentalk, Mixpanel and Google Analytics.

What is the team composition?

We’ve had two main points of contact: the president and the lead developer. However, there have been an additional three or four people that we’ve interacted with over the course of the projects including a few different project managers. 

How did you come to work with Vault Innovation?

I believe we heard about them through a referral from a friend. We had interviewed three other vendors as well, but we didn’t click with them in the way that we did with the team at Vault Innovation. They understood our company, our budget constraints, and what we were trying to accomplish. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested around $200,000 with them for this project. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in late 2017 and are still working with them for support and additional updates. 

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

At the beginning of this year, we had about 800 users. Now, we’re at around 32,000 subscribers. We also brought in about $300,000 in revenue. While this can’t be exclusively attributed to Vault Innovation’s work, they’ve certainly had an impact. 

How did Vault Innovation perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve had some ups and downs with project management, but we are in a good place right now. There have been several project managers that we’ve worked with. Our company is typically more fluid with our management while Vault Innovation likes more structure. 

Overall, we’ve had a strong line of communication with them through weekly phone calls and emails. We also use Slack and Jira. It’s been beneficial for us to move towards having weekly sprints on Fridays and applying a more agile approach. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

One of the most impressive things about their team is how collaborative they are. They listen and can turn things around quickly if there’s a problem. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only issue we’ve had is a bit of misalignment with communication about priorities and project timelines. It’s an evolving process and we’re constantly working to improve. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s been very helpful for us to come in with clear requirements and walking through it all ahead of starting the project. It’s important to implement structure as much as possible.