XOOR Inc.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director and chief product officer of a software company.

What challenge were you trying to address with XOOR Inc.?

We needed a company that could provide us with custom software development and design support.

What was the scope of their involvement?

I provide XOOR Inc. with the wireframes, requirements, and specifications, and they’re in charge of designing and building the applications to spec.

What is the team composition?

Over the years, we’ve worked with 7-8 people from XOOR Inc. This includes their founder, a partner, and their developers.

How did you come to work with XOOR Inc.?

I found XOOR Inc. through a Google search, and I decided they would be the best fit for us based on the initial work that I had done with their founder.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent somewhere between $200,000-$250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2017, and the engagement is ongoing.

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

I’ve been quite happy with the work they’ve provided. They're very responsive and they stand behind their work.

How did XOOR Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

We handle our project management internally. We primarily communicate through Slack and Zoom, where we have meetings every day.

What did you find most impressive about them?

XOOR Inc. brings an impressive level of customer service that a company their size might not always be able to bring. They stand behind their service even at their own expense, and ultimately, they deliver.

They have the ability to scale my team in a way that a larger agency would, but they still have the mentality of like a smaller, more custom agency, which I really like.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The time it takes for them to turn around certain deliverables depends on the individual we’re working with, so they haven't really been too consistent in that regard.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The clearer you are about your goals and the outcomes you want, the better XOOR Inc. will be able to help you.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the co-founder of a software company, Harlow. Harlow is designed to help freelancers manage their day-to-day and get paid.

For what projects/services did your company hire XOOR Inc., and what were your goals?

As non-technical founders we were looking for a partner to help us build out the v1 of our product so we could take it to market and get customer feedback. We needed a partner that could help us with development, user experience & design and QA.

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

We found Xoor through a referral, and after interviewing multiple firms we decided Xoor was the best fit for us. It was clear to us that they would be a highly collaborative partner and provide input along the way rather than just take a spec and implement it. Additionally, they had very solid references - their customers clearly love working with them.

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

Xoor was with us every step of the way! We came to them with an overview of features that we wanted to develop & brand guidelines but there was a lot of discovery work and design work that still needed to happen. We started the project by digging deep into functionality and working through designs in figma.

Once we had a section complete, we would start development on that section. When all the core functionality was built, we opened the product up to beta testers so we could get additional feedback on usability and work through any bugs. One thing I really appreciated about the team is that during the beta period, they were genuinly interested in the feedback and eager to adjust parts of the app based on user input. They act as a true partner in the project rather than a vendor.

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

The composition of the team has changed as we have moved through the project. Early on there was definitely some turnover on the team, but we finally settled into a good rhythm with a technical lead, a project manager and a designer. Once we had solid designs and moved to development, the designer moved to a different project and we brought on development and QA resources.

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

The product is just about to go live (to the general public) and within the timeframe we laid out at the beginning of the project. The feedback from users has been very positive, and people really love the clean UI and the ease of use.

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

We've been really happy with the project management. Our PM, Pilar, is absolutely fantastic. We have 2 very brief check in meetings a week and do the majority of our communication over slack. We have access to Jira so I can track tickets and development progress as much or as little as I want. The team is very responsive and the slight time difference between us (4 hours) works to our advantage.

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

As I mentioned above, I think the best part about working with Xoor has been that it really does feel like a partnership rather than a vendor relationship. They genuinely care about the quality of work and how users interact with the product.

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

There was some turnover on the team in the beginning and I wish they would have been a little more proactive abut discussing it with us, but in the long run it didn't delay the project or have a material impact on things.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of Lattus, a Delaware-based SaaS company that serves businesses, schools, and member groups. Lattus is all about mentoring people.

What challenge were you trying to address with XOOR, Inc.?

I needed help making my mentoring software product better.

What was the scope of their involvement? 

XOOR, Inc. has taken my existing mentorship product and built it out. It’s a fully progressive web application (PWA) that’s accessible on multiple devices. They leverage Node.js as well as React Native to develop the app and host it on AWS.

The solution itself has four key components. The first is a way to identify topics that mentees and mentors want to talk about. Next, users can check other users’ availability and schedule calls through an integrated calendar. Built-in video calling capabilities eliminate the need for external communication services. Finally, users can take notes and give feedback. All of these components make the app a one-stop-shop for mentoring. 

What is the team composition? 

I work with many people, including Mauricio (CEO), Jonatan (CTO), Robby (Chief Business Development Officer), and Kurt (Chief Creative Officer).

How did you come to work with XOOR, Inc.?

I’d worked with some of XOOR, Inc.’s competitors in the past and was unpleased with the quality of the services — those experiences taught me a lot about what I didn’t like in partnerships. Then, I spoke with one of XOOR, Inc.’s customers who referred me to them. After talking to their team for a few months, I decided to work with them. 

How much have you invested with them?

I’ve invested about $150,000 so far, and there’s probably another $500,000 coming their way.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in July 2020 and is still ongoing. I plan to work with them on our iOS and Android apps by end of this year.

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

Overall, I’m pleased with the product. Its functionality has continuously improved over time, and we’re able to grow the business with our product’s capabilities. Now that we’ve developed a better platform, we can sell it to customers and increase its usage to start generating revenue. This will also help us raise capital from investors. 

How did XOOR, Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Jira to manage the project, Slack for general communication, and either Google Hangouts or Zoom for recurring video calls. As a strategic part, we also use Lattus to collaborate, which helps us improve our own product.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s important to mention that they have a diverse background and decades of experience, from front- and backend development to design. They’ve even worked within the public and private sectors. That multinational diversity of personalities is not something that you’d typically get from your typical development shop. It’s a breath of fresh air.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I only have great things to say about them. I enjoy them more and more as I meet their team, and our relationship continues to improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have your product requirements flushed out beforehand, including preliminary sketches, user stores, and user personas. They can help you mature your specs, but they need to understand what you’re trying to accomplish.

You also need to make sure that you’re serious about the work because they don’t just accept anyone who wants to give them money. They’ve often turned down clients because of the quality of their output, and I respect them for that.

Introduce your business and what you do there

I’m co-founder and COO of an arts marketplace. The marketplace aims to connect artists and fine art printers with art lovers.

What challenges were you trying to address with XOOR Inc.?

We needed a partner to build our marketplace’s web and mobile platforms. It was a challenge because the platforms had to handle digital and physical goods.

What was the scope of their involvement?

XOOR developed our marketplace’s web platform and web app. As there wasn’t an existing solution that managed bundled products, their team built a completely customized solution. The platforms are available worldwide.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a project manager and three developers. 

How did you come to work with XOOR Inc.?

We conducted research online and found XOOR on Clutch. Along with other companies, we contacted them. They best fit our requirements for cost, flexibility, and commitment.  

How much have you invested in them?

We’ve spent between $75,000–$100,000 on this project

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with XOOR in June 2020, and we’re now working on adjustments.

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

It’s been a great project. XOOR knows how to work with startups and thinks long-term. That thought process allowed us to save on costs. Their team shows great commitment too. Rather than just executing the project, they constantly give us new ideas. XOOR is an extension of our team.

How did XOOR Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

We mainly use Slack to communicate. They’re great at managing the project. Although there were slight delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they have always been flexible. Their team also communicates well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m most impressed by their commitment and knowledge of how startups work.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of ways they could improve.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO at Virufy, a nonprofit. We’re developing an app that allows users to detect COVID through sound recordings of their cough. The sound of a COVID-positive person’s cough is different because the virus affects the lungs. Our app will use AI to analyze cough recordings.

What challenge were you trying to address with XOOR Inc.?

We needed to build a mobile app. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

XOOR Inc. used React to build out our mobile app. The idea is that users will donate their cough recordings so that we can build our dataset. Eventually, the app will provide COVID detection predictions.

They built the app, and we’re now enhancing it for the next stage. We’re planning to go global, so we have a lot of target countries.

What is the team composition?

I work directly with Jonatan (CTO), and he’s been leading about five people behind the scenes. I’ve met a couple of their engineers.

How did you come to work with XOOR Inc.?

The speed at which they move really matches us as a startup. 

How much have you invested with them?

They offered the services to us pro bono.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our work together began in September 2020, and we’re still working together.

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

XOOR was a great partner in building out our app. We couldn’t have done this without them. I’d previously tried to build the app with student volunteers, but it’s harder than it seems if you want a reliable, robust app that complies with security and legal compliance. XOOR delivered a solid system that is scalable to millions of users, and I’m really appreciative of that.

How did XOOR Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very good at communicating and meeting deadlines. They’re very reliable, and they do good, quality work. Jonatan is a great project manager; he acts as a gateway, so I don’t have to work with the developers directly. He’s always willing to make time when needed.

They’re really good in HTML and CSS. They’re also well-versed in the tools many people use in Silicon Valley, like Slack and Trello. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They went beyond the extra mile and thought of things that I hadn’t even considered. For instance, they have empathy for and understand the Latin American market, and they recommended designing the screens in certain ways. In general, everything else about the engagement is really good.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re really good at communicating. Sometimes, it seems like they over-communicate, but that’s actually important for the app in the long-term. If we don’t talk it out, we might miss something.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a product manager at an app growth platform offering global services.

What challenges were you trying to address with XOOR?

We needed a partner to create an invoicing solution for us.

What was the scope of their involvement?

XOOR developed an invoicing platform for us. We had different invoicing processes for our different global invoicing entities and were looking to automate and unify our processes. They used JavaScript, SQL, and React Native.

What is the team composition?

We worked with 4 to 5 people.

How did you come to work with XOOR?

I started a web search on agencies in Argentina that could do this development for us, and I found XOOR on Clutch. They have very good references so they seemed like a good choice for us.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent about $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January 2020 and the project lasted about 6 months.

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

The quality of the platform is great; we’ve tested it several times and it works just perfectly. Whenever we encountered any setbacks they were there to solve problems. 

The impact on our company has also been great. This used to be a manual process and required a very large amount of time and human resources — with the platform, we have saved a lot of time and resources.

How did XOOR perform from a project management standpoint?

We used Slack to communicate, as well as Zoom and Google Meet. We used a Gantt diagram for project management and everything went very well. They were very flexible and we achieved very good results.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were always pending on every detail, and the quality of their work is just great. XOOR was very engaged with our project and had many innovative ideas.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The conclusion of the project lasted a bit longer than it was initially expected, it wasn’t a big issue and was a natural consequence of changes but maybe they could do a more precise estimation of the length of the projects.

Introduce your business and what you do there

I’m the CTO at a development company specialized in IoT.

What challenges were you trying to address with Xoor?

We developed a new product that required a mobile app for its use. We created the hardware, the product itself, and needed to outsource the development of the mobile app.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They used React Native to create our app. The team created both iOS and Android versions.

What is the team composition?

Three people worked with us since the ideation of the project and during the development, another 3–4 people were involved.

How did you come to work with Xoor?

They are based in the same city as us so I heard about them in the local technology scene. They seemed good for this project so we met up with them, we really liked their proposal so we decided to work with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in December 2019, and our work is ongoing with the final details of the app.

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

The general results of the project are very good, we are even planning to continue with a second phase for this app and later on to work in a web app. They met our expectations even when there were changes the scope; the team was able to adapt perfectly.  

How did Xoor perform from a project management standpoint?

They adapted to our own project management tools, we used slack for communications and everything was very fluid. We also met in person a couple of times and the team was very timely.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I am pretty happy with the results, so I couldn’t say anything.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head engineer of an ed-tech company in Los Angeles.

What challenge were you trying to address with XOOR?

As a startup, we needed extra help on the engineering end. The main project they were tasked with was building out an internal tool that would allow us to quickly generate educational content.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our contact took on the responsibility of building the solution front to back. Developing entirely in React while using Polaris, he was focused on both the UI and the back-end of the work. The back-end work was handled through TypeScript and graphical API. 

What is the team composition?

We had one contact and contributor to this project. 

How did you come to work with XOOR?

I started after the engagement with their team began, but our COO knew of their company through another contract. We wanted to keep costs lower, and they seemed like a solid option.  

How much have you invested with them?

He worked with us for about 5–6 months, and his annual salary was $80,000. So, we spent around $40,000 in the end.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with him in August 2019, and he finished up in April 2020.

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

He built an internal tool that we can confidently say has increased the speed by which we can produce content. We were impressed with the speed at which they could tackle problems with academic tools. It was great to work with him. 

How did XOOR perform from a project management standpoint?

We brought him into our communication and project management systems. It felt like he was a team member from the beginning. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was most impressed by how quickly he was able to understand the tasks we assigned. Without much guidance, he was able to deliver a very functional product that perfectly met our needs. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

He was more of a junior engineer, so some of his work required code reviews for quality. There wasn’t anything serious, though.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the product manager and owner of a lot of products we have. We're a mobile app development agency and we specialize in apps for healthcare, government, e-commerce, and consumer-based apps.

What challenge were you trying to address with XOOR?

We needed an offshore development team for use in our ongoing projects.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Whenever we need additional resources, or if there's a special skill we can't do, for example, React Native, we look to XOOR as our React Native subject matter experts. We leave it to them on how to implement it on a mobile app project, and how to structure it code-wise and how to deploy it.

There are several projects that we're currently working on together. One was the BeanStalk App redesign. We took the app, which was really old and outdated, and it also wasn't optimized for the latest and greatest iOS version. We worked with them to help upgrade the app and update the design, to make it more modern, and sleek, and less buggy, and also to provide a seamless onboarding UX for existing and new users.

Another app they built was for a healthcare app for gynecological oncologists. We built the app from scratch and it's a mobile app that arms oncologists with tools, such as listings of regiments for a specific disease, with their associated toxicities, that a dozen medical calculators that users can access at the palm of their hand, instead of having to manually calculate dates.

What is the team composition?

Mauricio ( Founder & CEO, XOOR ) is my main point of contact. From project to project we typically have the same supporting team.

How much have you invested with them?

We've invested at least $250,000 with them thus far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in 2015, and our engagement is ongoing.

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

We do a release retrospective, where we look at how many bugs we're having. When it comes to working with XOOR, I never have worries that there's going to be a lot of bugs, just from working with them previously. When we do go to launch, there's never really any bugs that get launched with the project. Of course, there's always some things we didn't think to check, but there aren't usually any issues. We actually had another vendor we worked with last year that delivered a project with a lot of bugs, and we had to take them off and XOOR came to the rescue to salvage that relationship with that client.

How did XOOR perform from a project management standpoint?

Usually, they take initiative upon themselves and assign themselves tickets, or if there's a bug or an issue, they'll create a ticket for themselves for us to review. Of course, before they start working on anything, they ping me or ping whoever the project manager is at the time to get approval. For the most part, they're very self-sufficient and autonomous. They're very reliable in making sure that if something's left with them, they take care of it.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a unique tech stack, with the capabilities to work on a wide variety of projects, whether it's mobile, React Native, or even web and dashboard-type projects. Every time they work on a project, they also keep attention and detail to quality control, which is something we like. Unlike a lot of other offshore development partners, where there might be language barriers, everyone does speak English very fluently and they're really good about communicating the problem that they're having. They're very transparent about conveying progress, cost, and timing.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I wish I could clone Mauricio and his team so we could have more of them. We have a lot of projects and there's always a lot of work to get done. Other than that, there's nothing I would have them improve on.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Because XOOR is a development shop, when you come to them, make sure you have your product specifications written out clearly as far as what you want and what you're trying to achieve. That way you can quickly execute and save on time and money, on the budget and project scope. Additionally, if you have a project, and you're working with them, make sure you have all of your assets and your copy all ready to go because it might result in a delay on your project.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CTO at Central de Ofertas, a software solutions company in Argentina.

What challenges were you trying to address with Xoor?

We only had a native Android app for our clients, which was leaving us out of many business opportunities. We looked for an agency to develop a multiplatform app so we could attract iOS users and use the same code base across the apps.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built an iOS app and worked on Android, both in React Native.

What is the team composition?

We worked with three or four people.

How did you come to work with Xoor?

I found them through Clutch. I contacted four different companies, and among the proposals, the one that best fit our requirements was Xoor’s.

How much have you invested in them?

We expect to spend about $20,000 in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

They started working on this project in June 2019 and the engagement is ongoing.

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

The project isn’t finished yet, so I couldn't mention any metrics. It was very important for me to find a company that could work with great autonomy and keep the various projects flowing and they did it. Working with them has been a great experience.

How did Xoor perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate through Slack, which has worked very well. We also have weekly meetings to discuss the project’s progress.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are very good at understanding Android behavior. They exceeded my expectations on that. I thought that in changing technologies, some things would be hard to explain, but they have done incredibly well.

We still have to see how the app reacts on an operational level, but so far, I am very happy with their technical abilities.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We haven’t had any issues so far.