Velmie

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of a technology company. We have skincare experts who choose routines for customers from clean, sustainable brands. We track our customers’ success and ship top-performing products right to their door.

What challenge were you trying to address with Velmie?

I had worked with them on other projects in the past when I wasn’t the CEO. I was pleased with their performance back then, and I wanted to see how they did when I started to actually lead the project.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Velmie built out all of the software that supports our business, from consumer-facing apps to what we’re calling the creation portal. The portal is where our skincare mentors go to take the inventory and compare it to the client’s information, allowing them to choose the right products. They also built the backend or admin portal so that we can manage the business.

Velmie used React for the frontend and mostly Ruby on Rails for the backend, as they were most familiar with that. We also integrated with Stripe for our payment system, USPS for our shipping notification, and Bloom for our email services.

What is the team composition?

On a daily basis, we work with 6–8 people. We interact the most with the project manager and the developers, most of whom are full-stack, but some are front- and backend-specific. We also talk to their QA lead.

How did you come to work with Velmie?

We initially found Velmie through a bid that was placed on UpWork.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent a little over $100,000 on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with Velmie on this project in February 2020, and it’s ongoing. We began working with them on another project in July 2016.

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

The quality of service is excellent. I’ve worked on getting multiple startups launched for a long time, so I’m well-versed in managing offshore engineering teams. The team at Velmie is excellent. Their communication is solid, they take pride in what they do, and they’re a lot of fun to work with.

Velmie and my company went through a pandemic together, and I watched the way they navigated that in terms of their leadership and how they treated their employees — it was incredible. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they were not only treating their employees and taking care of them through this, but also how flexible they were with me, because they knew we were going to have to delay our launch. We had a very easy negotiation — they actually offered it to me upfront to ensure that they could keep my business.

All around, the quality of work is great. Because they have such strong leadership, they don’t perform highly when they aren’t being treated well, just like most humans. Watching the difference in performance between this project and the last one, there’s been a solid list of improvements. I don’t think that's necessarily because they weren’t doing well previously, but because they’re more empowered in this project. Velmie is performing incredibly well.

How did Velmie perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate with the team at Velmie in various ways, but we primarily use Slack. If there’s something urgent, I can reach out to my project manager through WhatsApp. We also often do video calls a couple of times a week to check in on requirements, sprints, and that sort of thing.

For workflow, we primarily use Jira within engineering, but we also use Atlassian. We also use Google Docs for all written requirements and Figma for all design requirements. In terms of scheduling and meeting deadlines, they are excellent. I say this relatively speaking to most agencies. I’ve found that I often run into challenges working with offshore challenges, so how that agency manages those challenges is interesting to watch. Velmie does a solid job in managing any challenges they come across.

What did you find most impressive about them?

My favorite parts about working with them are their kindness, understanding, and flexibility. Despite being such a small team, Velmie has done a lot in these past months that we’ve worked together. It’s worth noting that they’re in Belarus. Sometime right after we launched, their internet went out for three days, but they did incredibly well about anticipating that situation and communicating everything to me. We had plans and figured things out, and they’ve done a really excellent job with their communication and setting expectations.

I was so impressed with them because, despite going through so much, they remained professional and on top of everything. They were available and did all that they could during that time, which is a testament to their character.

Are there any areas they could improve?

One area in which I would like to see improvement from Velmie is more accurately estimating challenges. They have a tendency to underestimate things; however, because I have such a strong understanding of the technology, I can usually anticipate it, so it doesn’t really bother me. However, that being said, it’s also hard to give that criticism because it seems like underestimation is a standard across technology. It’s not a light point of criticism to give because, in general, they do a good job. They also don’t get weeks or months behind — if anything, it’s a week or so behind on deadlines.

I’ve watched Velmie grow since the beginning, and I can say that they’ve evolved, and I’m really happy with them. I recommend them to everyone who’s looking for a solid offshore team because I believe that they’re doing it right. I’ve worked with so many offshore teams in the past, and Velmie is definitely the best one.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Take care of them; if you’re good to them, they’ll be good to you. Empower them to do well, give them strong requirements, and help make sure that they understand those requirements.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the communication architect for a high end carwash in Belgium who are standing on the forefront of sustainable carwashes. Optimising technology and communication is my main responsibility.

For what projects/services did your company hire Velmie?

We wanted Velmie to build a frontend app on a newly created backend for both iOS and Android.

What were your goals for this project?

Develop an app that's faster and more enticing than the one we had.

How did you select this vendor?

After comparing four suppliers, they left the best impression.

Describe the project in detail.

Since I'm a designer and programmer myself, I already prepared designs and a functional analysis. We worked very well together in finetuning backend endpoints and optimising the app until I and my client were satisfied.

What was the team composition?

We were assigned a newbiz developer who handed me over later to two developers and a QA-person.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We had a fully working app within ten weeks.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Weekly update meetings kept everyone sharp and on the project. We worked with JIRA and we were allowed to see sprints and log our own issues.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Very willing to think along and adapt when that outcome is better. We had some discussion on registering inside the app or not and we decided to leave it out. They did not make a big deal out of it but it took them two weeks to create. It's on the shelf now. They are really willing to satisfy the client as much as they can.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Budget follow up. They are on budget, but there was some miscommunication internally.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO at FlipTech. We’re a startup that’s building a social network for local shops.

What challenge were you trying to address with Velmie?

We needed Velmie’s help to build our mobile and web apps.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’re mainly responsible for the development of our native Android/iOS mobile app and a Javascript web app according to our requirements. They also take care of our infrastructure on AWS (Amazon Web Services) and set up a WordPress website for us.

What is the team composition?

Our main point of contact is Carl-Johan (AWS & Microservices Specialist, Velmie). We also work with several different project managers, a backend developer, an iOS developer, and an Android developer.

How did you come to work with Velmie?

They were recommended to us by another Montreal based company who was happy with their work.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested approximately $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in June 2018 and our engagement is ongoing.

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

Although the project is still in the works, they were already able to deliver two large pieces of the project to our satisfaction. Although they aren’t always perfect, their deliverables overall are very viable and clean.

How did Velmie perform from a project management standpoint?

Our project managers are very flexible and easily adapt to our needs. Despite our huge time zone difference, we haven’t experienced communication issues thus far. They take care of any of our concerns fairly quickly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I like the quality of code they deliver and the fact that they work towards ensuring customer satisfaction. They are also very quick to take on work that isn’t included in our original contract.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They are very rigid with their contract hours; once our agreement was set, it was difficult to negotiate further.

Please describe your company and your position there.

TGB Agriculture is an agriculture business that develops new capabilities for Australian producers. We focus on the integration of proven practices, local knowledge, and better labor management systems. I'm the founder and managing director.

For what projects/services did your company hire Velmie?

We hired them to design and develop our web and mobile platform for labor management.

What were your goals for this project?

Originally, we had two projects. We needed a prototype to present to potential investors and an IoT solution for beef cattle operations. Velmie has also developed our MVP. 

How did you select this vendor?

We used online advertisements to find potential partners. We found Velmie on Upwork, but considered companies across Australia, Europe, and India. As a startup, we were keen to find a partner that was patient, flexible, and cost-effective. Velmie's willingness to regularly treat us as a partner, not a customer, was the deciding factor in my decision.

Describe the project in detail.

The app is a labor sourcing app meant to simplify hiring and management in Australia, given the recent changes to legislation that make managing unskilled and semiskilled labour complex. It's a web-based app that also works on mobile devices. We plan to create an Android app after completing the MVP.

We provided the initial diagrams, descriptions, and ideas; Velmie produces the designs and wireframes. As the business evolves, we discuss ideas around our development and business strategies with Velmie. They also suggest improvements to our software and business that help us meet market needs.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We're three months from releasing our MVP. Although the timeline has shifted by a few months, we are building a far better product than we anticipated. 

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Velmie has introduced us to Slack and Jira and moves the project smoothly in the right direction. Their systems ensure that they receive our feedback in a constructive manner and convey it to the relevant team members quickly. 

Velmie maintains an open, flexible line of communication. The language barrier causes issues, but their constructive workflow addresses them in a timely manner. When bugs or issues arise, they create rapid fixes while keeping costs low.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I love their flexibility and willingness to support us. Their suggestions help us succeed and grow. 

Are there any areas for improvement?

As a new player in the industry, we're happy with Velmie. Our only suggestion would be to improve their communication about costs and align our objective with a dollar value earlier.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of a newly-founded blockchain company. We have 10 employees.

What challenge were you trying to address with Velmie?

We had three weeks to implement a digital wallet solution and couldn’t meet the short timeline with only internal resources. Our team outsourced Velmie to complete the project.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They designed and prototyped our transfer mobile app for Android and iOS. We had planned development for Android only, but Velmie persuaded us to include iOS. They used Ionic, React, JavaScript, and Node.js.

What is the team composition?

Paul (CMO, Velmie) was our initial point of contact. We also worked with a designer, a project manager, and front- and backend developers.

How did you come to work with Velmie?

We found them online. After a back and forth on their coding skills and or business, we hired Velmie due to the team’s approach and capacity.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $20,000–$25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2019 and the partnership is ongoing.

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

The team successfully delivered the MVP in three weeks. We’re very happy with their work and have decided to complete the next phase—adding components to the MVP—with Velmie.

How did Velmie perform from a project management standpoint?

We have 15–20-minute standup calls every day and track the work daily using Jira and Atlassian. The team’s weekly ticketing workflow is highly efficient. We also use Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They efficiently allocated resources and established technical goals. We appreciate their quick work.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there’s nothing I’d have them improve at this point.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be in close contact. They’re very welcoming and take time to answer our questions and concerns.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a co-founder of a company that develops sophisticated exercise machines for health and wellness.

What challenge were you trying to address with Goiot?

We needed help with the development of our software.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Goiot developed the software embedded in our exercise machines. It records exercise routines and guides users through them. It also has the ability to identify each user’s level and provide guidance accordingly.

What is the team composition?

They assigned four or five full-time dedicated resources, including a project manager, developers, and designers. We also have a few resources on our side working with their team.

How did you come to work with Goiot?

We went through a tendering process, looking at the pricing and proposed deliverables of each candidate. We also reviewed the representatives of each company at a personal level. Goiot ticked all the boxes, so we chose them.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost of their work has been above $300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Goiot in early 2016. The collaboration is ongoing.

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

We were able to develop a working product that serves our business. There have been over 6,000 training sessions conducted over the last three months on our machines, using the software built by Goiot.

How did Goiot perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve used Jira and Confluence for tracking tasks, along with Slack and video calls for communication. They’re fully integrated into our operation on a remote basis and we have daily interactions. Their performance is excellent; I’ve never had to wait for more than a minute for an answer.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’ve delivered everything we ask for. We care strictly about results and we have seen those from Goiot. The main thing is that stuff works, but the fact that we enjoy working with them is a bonus.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They probably know where to improve better than us. We haven’t experienced any issues in terms of project management or deliverables. Whenever we’ve had an issue on the management side, we’ve told them about it and they’ve fixed it right away. My only concern is that, if Goiot starts to expand, their quality of services may drop.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Clients need to have a good idea of what they want. If this is the case, Goiot will deliver the work without any problems.

Please provide a description of your company. 

We are a used furniture marketplace based in New York City. People list gently used, but high-quality furniture on our site. We also offer delivery services.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I’m a co-founder.

What was your goal for working with Goiot?

We were trying to find the best way to buy and sell used furniture. We wanted to create a website that made the process as simple as possible.

Please describe the scope of their work.

They built our website from start to finish. I worked with them very closely with all the requirements, but they did all of the execution.

Can you provide a ballpark dollar figure for the size of the work that they’ve done for you?

They’re significantly cheaper than most other Web developers that you would find in the U.S. I would say it was a little less than $50,000.

What were the results of the project?

The results have been great. I think they’ve performed very well. Their team is very knowledgeable, especially in the e-commerce space. We’ve been working with them for two years and the project is ongoing.

Do you have any statistics or metrics to track improvement from the project?

 We're just starting our SEO [search engine optimization] campaign, and we’re starting to rank on page one [of Google] after the redevelopment.

Is there anything unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other companies?

When I was looking for development companies, I was looking for a partner who could challenge my thinking and also bring ideas to the table, which is often hard to find in an outsourcing company. Goiot does all of that, which is unique. 

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or something that you might do differently?

There can be a lag in communication, which is very typical of outsourcing companies, I would say. They're very open to that flaw, however, and want to improve on it.

What advice would you give a future client of theirs?

When scoping the project, provide as much detail as possible. I always supply a feature requirements document with flow charts, sketches and so on, so that the room for error is limited. Also, ask for their feedback because they have a lot of really good ideas.

Please describe your company.

Our site is an advertising marketplace. Our primary focus is to provide a place for what I call “second-tier advertising”, this could be anything from space on the scoreboard at a little league baseball field to excess ad space that TV and radio stations can't sell. Our site aggregates these opportunities across a geographic area or a demographic profile.

What are your role and responsibilities?

I’m one of the co-founders.

What was your goal for working with Goiot?

We had a number of initial problems with our company. Although my partner and I are both enterprise architecture consultants and both have MBAs, we’re not Web developers. So, we started working with a couple of developers who had full-time jobs, but who thought they could help us in their spare time. Unfortunately, their day jobs took over, causing us one delay after another. We then bought a software package, which we hoped to modify to accomplish what we needed, but we had problems with that as well. It just didn’t fit with what we wanted to do.

What was your process for selecting Goiot with which to work?

We use a company called Balanced Payments, to handle all of the PCI [payment card industry actions] for us. While looking at other sites that use Balanced Payments, I came across one that had a very similar workflow to ours that was designed by Goiot. I really liked the way it functioned and how it looked, so I reached out to the Goiot team in February of last year. I told them what we needed, and we've been working with them ever since.

Please describe the scope of their work.

Our whole application, top to bottom, was custom built by Goiot. 

What were the results of the project?

We're really happy with the work they've done for us, but we're still a young company. We had a soft launch of the site at the end of July, although we still have some additions and tweaks that we want done. We’re working with Goiot to slowly add more functionality. For example, right now we’re working on pulling demographic information for each of the advertising listings and working out how to attach them to a couple APIs [application programming interfaces] that provide that information. So, we will continue to collaborate with Goiot for support and maintenance.

Do you have any statistics or metrics to track improvement from the project?

Not at the moment. We recently hired a public relations firm out of Los Angles to help with our full-blown launch that should come in late spring 2015, after which, we should be able to begin collecting meaningful metrics.

Is there anything unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other companies?

When compared with American developers, you cannot beat the quality of work Goiot provides for the price they charge.  

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or something that you might do differently?

There are always going to be some cultural differences between here and Eastern Europe, but we worked through those issues with no difficulty. Actually, sometimes when we differed, their input ended up being spot on. 

If I could have found local developers, I would have used them. However, given the aggressiveness of what we wanted, I’m not sure that we could have gotten it done locally, even if we paid 10 times as much.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Hammerfest Corp owns multiple websites sites and software systems.

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

Velmie remade and updated a successful social media posting system.

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

My former partner and I conducted multiple interviews with various IT developers. Velmie was, by far, the best candidate.

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

They developed an custom LAMP stack system running on AWS.

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

We have worked with several members of their team. All competent and professional.

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

The system is up, running and profitable. That's the ideal outcome.

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

We communicate using Viper, Skype and Jira.

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

Their ability to match, in the time specified the promises made in the sales process. Furthermore, they were easy to communicate with and were very responsive.

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

No.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO of an online floral delivery website that services Mexico and the United States.

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

We created a complex back end systems with multiple delivery times, shipping methods and integrations with several other services to deliver same day service to 20 cities in Mexico.

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

Velmie was knowledgable and timely. They created a real partnership where they helped solve all of our development needs.

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

Velmie built a custom made Magento website that integrated seemlessly with our payment providers and delivery providers. There was a lot of customized API integrations.

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

We worked with one project manager and 2 developers.

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

Over 7 years, Velmie consistently met our deadlines and helped us surpass our sales goals through a great UI and back end integrations.

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

Velmie is very communicative and we used Asana to complete projects in a timely fashion.

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

Velmie made themselves available to us day and night when we hit major hurdles.

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

Their work was excellent.