Vention

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the VP of Product of Interactio.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Remote Simultaneous Interpretation Platform

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Improve user interface design
• Standardize design system
• Create user-friendly platform

SOLUTION

How did you find Vention?

• Referral
• Other

Why did you select Vention over others?

• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Vention were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Interactio needed to strengthen the area of UI design, and we were happy to collaborate with Vention. We created a design system together and completed user interface changes in our product, which is quite complex,

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have improved the user experience satisfaction rate by over 30%. Reduced time we work on projects internally (engineering and product) by at least half.

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

All were delivered on time and very much to the point of our needs.

What was your primary form of communication with Vention?

Virtual Meeting

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

People

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

Nothing to mention

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Software Development Manager of Paper Edu

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Support students and school systems across north america.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Bolster engineering resources
• Build prototypes and innovate

SOLUTION

How did you find Vention?

• Referral

Why did you select Vention over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Referred to me
• Other

How many teammates from Vention were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Full stack feature development, Video content serving, Complex logic implementations, Infrastructure as code, etc

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Utilization of features by users, reduction in costs and efficiency gains.

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

The team of 3 developers was amazing, they adapted to any circumstance of more or less guidance, and always delivered on time and within reasonable boundaries. Kiryl, Andrei and Yaraslau were always great at responding to our needs and asked for clarification or pushed back when necessary - for example, when there were perceived flaws in the planning.

What was your primary form of communication with Vention?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The three developers assigned to us were a pleasure to work with

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

Learned much later there was also a 'project manager' assigned to us? Didn't know the use of that.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the VP Product Engineering of Gulf Relay

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are a SaaS provider of logistics services to enterprise shippers

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Create an automation tool to be used by our in-house services division
• Transform that automation tool into a 0-1 SaaS product
• Grow that SaaS product into a mature, enterprise platform

SOLUTION

How did you find Vention?

• Online Search
• Referral

Why did you select Vention over others?

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

How many teammates from Vention were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

We brought the team in to form what at the time was a back-of-the-napkin idea into a real application. We warned them at the time that the whole thing was an experiment, and they needed to be willing to learn alongside us about what about the software worked/didnt work, and be willing to throw away their hard work and pivot with us if we changed our minds. 

From day 1, we knew we had picked the right partner. Tiffanie was relentless on finding us the perfect team, and was very communicative and receptive to feedback. Most importantly, she was persistent on making us successful. We changed our minds a lot. The teams' commitment to the project never wavered. They always showed up, worked hard, and delivered. 

We just launched our SaaS product to a lot of warm reception because we were able to keep trying again and again to get it right. Recently we threw out some very ambitious quarterly goals, encouraged the team to take risks to get there, and to "build the plane as it flew". 

They delivered on every single ambitious goal we threw at them. Anybody in software development knows, that just does not happen. You never hit ALL your goals - you usually just aspire to hit as many as possible within the confines of the constraints you have. Not Vention. They roll up their sleeves, and they figure out how to get it done.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We brought a new SaaS application to the market from 0-1, that now serves many happy customers!

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

The Vention team consistently went above and beyond the call of duty to deliver on time or even ahead of time. Just this week, we mentioned a nice-to-have tool that would make our customer's lives better. One of our engineers produced the tool and deployed it to production in a single day. They are absolute rockstars.

What was your primary form of communication with Vention?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

What makes this company unique is the people. Every person we have interacted with from vention from intake to the lowest-level worker, is all-in on our success. You hear it and feel it in their actions. This is not a job to them. They are committed partners and we wouldn't be where we are today without them.

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

This is a ironic criticism but it looks like they are still figuring out the right format for middle management of their teams. They are trying and I'm sure they'll find the format that works well for lots of different kinds of companies, but in the moment, it's light. This means that as a client, you'll want to make sure you stay involved with the execution. 

The irony is, this creates a lot of great behaviors on our, the client's, side. We SHOULD be deeply involved. Middle management can often be an anchor to productivity. Ultimately this creates a better outcome for the client, and I can testify to those results.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CTO of Blender Networks Inc.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Online Marketing and Search Arbitrage

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Maintaining current codebase
• Create new features and functionality

SOLUTION

How did you find Vention?

Online Search

Why did you select Vention over others?

Good value for cost

How many teammates from Vention were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

The project consisted of maintaining and improving our existing code base. Since this is an ongoing project, the key deliverables would be stability in our overall system and web properties, along with creating new features and functionality in a timely fashion, while self testing everything.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Measurable outcomes were overall performance and stability of our system. Timely releases and overall low number of bugs createad.

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

The team was very auto functioning on its own and our project managers at Vention were very responsive for any of our needs.

What was your primary form of communication with Vention?

Virtual Meeting

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

We've been impressed by their flexibility and response time in finding engineers for us

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

Pricing could be more competitive but they are worth the cost.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

 I am a Director of a Kafene

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Kafene is point-of-sale financing platform that helps offer underserved consumers more flexible purchase options through transparent lease-to-own (LTO) agreements

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Diversify our engineering organization
• Improve our output quality

SOLUTION

How did you find Vention?

Referral

Why did you select Vention over others?

• Good value for cost
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Vention were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

Collaborate with different team members across the organization including the business team and closely follow our SDLC to deliver scaleable and performant system made out of micro services with many data sources that flow into our data lake.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

New code vs refactor/bug fixes, output quality that was felt outside the engineering team, communication, engineering culture.

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

The team is always ready to respond to any immediate need including quick time to resolution with impactful production issues. The team is fully integrated in our team and under same project management that helped improved communication and our ability to deliver on time.

What was your primary form of communication with Vention?

Virtual Meeting

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

The ability to find good quality resources matching our need and the flexibility with adding or replacing resources when needed.

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

N/A

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.
I'm the CEO of Bundle Birth, a nursing corporation. We provide educational support for both families giving birth and professionals, especially labor and delivery nurses.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Vention?
We needed help to develop an app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?
Vention has been developing an iOS and Android mobile app for us. This app is being built specifically for labor and delivery nurses, and it has three main functions. The main feature is for end customers, as this app tracks their child's birth and outcome. Nurses have the ability to add details about the patient's experience and the complications they took care of. All the information gets into the birth statistics to keep track of.

Another feature of this app is an entire clinical algorithm. This algorithm overviews all births and provides practical recommendations for the child's care to be as safe and physiologically oriented as possible. This app is to be used by nurses on the job as a reference tool for their practice when they feel stuck or when labor slows down and seems to be moving towards a C-section to help avoid it.

The app's third feature is that it collects data in order to analyze trends. With this feature, we'll be able to gather data and provide practice recommendations based on real-time births happening all over the country.

What is the team composition?
Ryan (Business Development Manager) has been our main point of contact at Vention. We also work with Valery (Senior Project Manager), who then takes our input to the rest of the team.

How did you come to work with Vention?
My director of strategy found them on Google. We were scouting companies and ended up going with Vention. Ryan was the one who convinced us about their product and this project. I'm a nurse by trade, so I knew nothing about app development. However, I felt that Ryan understood that, so there was no stigma. He also listened really well, so I felt cared for and protected, which is rare from a sales perspective.

Ryan offered a personalized approach where, while he was selling a service, he was also very honest and real, which differentiated Vention from the other companies we were looking at. I felt like Ryan was a true partner who really wanted us to succeed. Moreover, Vention wasn't afraid of how inexperienced we were, as Ryan went out of his way to ensure we had the resources we needed and answered a lot of questions.

How much have you invested with them?
We've spent almost $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?
We started the project with them in September 2023, and the project is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Our app hasn't been launched yet, so we don't have any metrics or results. Our MVP version was supposed to be launched in mid-February 2024, but we're pushing the release date based on my decision. However, I know that there's a lot of interest in our app. Nurses are asking for this app and are really excited about it.

As for the quality of their work, Vention is very invested in the project, which has had a positive impact on the quality of their work. They actually care and understand what they're doing rather than just checking the boxes. To me, that sets them apart from other companies and has allowed us to develop a high-quality product.

Vention has understood our vision. Our app is very personable and meaningful, and it can potentially save lives. Therefore, it has higher stakes, and Vention really understands that. Said understanding has been reflected in the quality of their work and their investment in our success.

On top of that, working with Vention has been streamlined because I haven't had to hire internal people to have access to professionals who can fill my different needs to get this project done. There's no way I could have done this project on my own, as I didn't even know what I needed initially. As a result of this partnership, I've also saved a lot of money because I would have wasted a lot of time trying to do it on my own.

How did Vention perform from a project management standpoint?
Vention has delivered on budget and stuck to the timelines we've established. Moreover, the structure of their work is excellent, which is reflected in the Confluence tabs, where they've outlined the different features and the purpose of this app. Our communication is also very good. Although there were some miscommunication issues for a while, I actually don't blame Vention for that; I blame the design team we initially brought into the project.

We have a shared Slack channel, which we use all day to communicate. We also communicate via email and use WhatsApp occasionally if there's something urgent. Additionally, we use Zoom for our virtual calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?
Ryan has been amazing. This is my first app development project. Still, I've learned a lot throughout the process. Ryan has stayed involved and been a really helpful liaison throughout the process.

Moreover, I can't say better things about Valery — he has saved our lives. I've never worked with a service provider who cares more than him. He's very invested, listens well, and goes above and beyond his scope of duty. He works as if he were a part of our team, so we feel very looked out for, which has been essential for our app's success.

Valery constantly brings things to my attention, as he's very forthcoming whenever there's a concern. Moreover, he's very professional. Initially, he didn't want to step on my toes, as I was the CEO. However, I told him that I didn't know what I was doing and to please be my eyes and ears on this project to tell me if I was missing something. Since then, he has taken that feedback and been very present. At this point, he almost knows the clinical side better than I do.

Valery has cut the energy high with the team and advocated for us, staying professional amidst a lot of different personalities. This app wouldn't be where it is without him. Moving forward, Valery being on our team is essential for us to continue working with Vention. I just expect Vention to give him the raise and promotions he deserves and keep him on our project.

Overall, Vention's entire team has been very responsive, respectful, and excited about the project. Moreover, they work hard and get things done, so I'm very pleased with them. For example, Vention recently brought on Hanna (UI/UX Designer). Although she has been working on the project for about a week, I've been very impressed with her skills. Additionally, she's great at delivering hard news, which is difficult to do.

Based on my experience, most service providers don't listen once they're doing their job. Still, one of Vention's strengths is that they really listen. Valery, in particular, has taken incredible ownership of the project and really listens well. He also does his own research and reaches out when he needs to.

Are there any areas they could improve?
Looking back on the experience, I feel like Vention was initially trying to be more professional than needed, so they saw me as the boss and didn't want to offend me. Therefore, it took Valery a little while to gain some confidence to tell me things as they were.

Initially, I brought an outside design firm, which they recommended, but we then had some concerns with our designs that would potentially cause us to redesign the whole app. It would have been great if they hadn't held back on the feedback and told me about their concerns even earlier than they did.

Although they provided me with the feedback, I didn't really understand how much impact the designs would have. Therefore, adding more context as to how my decisions would impact the future would have allowed me to make different decisions.

Nonetheless, I can also see the silver lining. Those challenges got us where we are now, which has been part of the process. Everything has gone as well as it could have gone, and I'm realistic in knowing that no project goes perfectly right away.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?
Trust your gut along the way. Moreover, I've learned that your project manager can make or break the scenario. Thus, you should evaluate who your project manager is and have them reiterate back to you the purpose of what you're trying to do to ensure that they've done their research. If your project manager is invested in and excited about your project, you'll get a better result. Additionally, ask a lot of questions.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CTO - CPO of Iziwork (acquired by PROMAN)

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Digital temp work staffing

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Help us with great developers
• Add resources on-demand

SOLUTION

How did you find Vention?

I had worked with them in the US previously

Why did you select Vention over others?

• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• I knew their performance

How many teammates from Vention were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Implement Apps, Web Apps, scalable backends and data systems to produce full cycle semi-automated staffing services for temp workers in France, Italy and the rest of the world next. This involves workers looking for a job, staffers and staffing agencies looking for workers and placing them and all types of customers (small companies and institutions) who want to hire these temp workers. This applies to all industry. The excellence of the matching, delivery, admin, job search functions is paramount to success. AI is of course heavily involved.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Consistency in quality and deliveries from team members from Vention. They are fully embedded in our development teams and are managed exactly as in-house developers. Therefore we get to know and invest in them pretty consistently.

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

They have become high quality contributors who are respected as top developers and team members in our organisation.

What was your primary form of communication with Vention?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

We can always count on them to partner with us at the right level. Low-key, humble and dependable. Their people are good and get the job done with no drama. I love it!

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

Maybe but honestly that doesn't keep me awake at night cause I got what I signed for.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the frontend work of cognizant

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

frontend

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• frontend work

SOLUTION

How did you find Vention?

• Other

Why did you select Vention over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget

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

the amount of frontend work done here is beyond expectations

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

profit and balance

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

yes

What was your primary form of communication with Vention?

• Email or Messaging App

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

their on-time deliveries were impressive

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

nope

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the founder of an experience management company for the luxury hospitality industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Vention?
We hired Vention to provide us with engineering and consulting services. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?
Vention has provided us with two full stack senior lead engineers. Apart from engineering, they’ve also done some design work for us. They work remotely for us but in-office for Vention.
What is the team composition?
I work with 3–4 teammates from Vention, including their CTO and Ryan (Business Development Manager).
How did you come to work with Vention?
We found Vention through Google. I interviewed them and talked about how they selected their staff and arranged their services. After that, I introduced them to our CTO, who had a lot of experience selecting engineering teams. He interviewed them and liked their team, so we brought them on board.
How much have you invested with them?
Our investment has been between $100,000–$250,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working together in April 2023, and the engagement is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Vention has saved us time and money. The quality of their work has been fantastic, and they work together as a great team. The fact that they work together in an office is a huge advantage because it enables us to have a lot of collaboration.
How did Vention perform from a project management standpoint?
Ryan has been fantastic. To communicate and collaborate, we use Jira, Slack, Zoom, Notion, and email.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Their team and leadership are impressive. Their organization is far better than the other organizations I’ve worked with before.
Are there any areas they could improve?
It would be awesome if they could change time zones.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Talk to Ryan. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Principal of a consulting company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Business consulting, helping our clients sell products and services to the United States federal government.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Create MVP of new software product

SOLUTION

How did you find Vention?

• Referral

Why did you select Vention over others?

• High ratings
• Good understanding of problem

How many teammates from Vention were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

Version 0.9 of new product, from scratch. Biweekly sprints. Agile development, with a fair amount of changes en route, as we learned.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Features developed every sprint.
• Working application that we demoed to prospective customers along the way.

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

Very responsive. Often responding to questions and issue asked late at night for them.

What was your primary form of communication with Vention?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

• The team had strong software skills.
• High integrity.
• Recognized problems early.
• Asked the hard questions.

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

Nothing significant