Yellow

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CPO and co-founder at CarbonSpace, an IT services and consulting company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Yellow?

We needed help with web design and development.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Yellow has designed and developed our SaaS platform. They do the front- and backend development, as well as the machine learning and AI parts inside the platform. We initially chose the technologies we wanted and sent them the requirements. They helped set up and onboard people to physically help us perform all the tasks remotely. They also provided us with CVs for the people they would engage. We agreed and started working together.

We only had a general concept; they’ve built everything from scratch. They’ve done some Python scripts, frontend development, and AI work. We develop the content in-house. In general, we have the overall concept of how the platform should work, and Yellow transfers it to frontend or backend code.

What is the team composition?

We have two developers now. At one point, we had two frontend developers, two backend developers, and one machine learning developer.

How did you come to work with Yellow?

I found them through my network.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $55,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2021, and our relationship is ongoing.

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

We’re satisfied with their work; their development speed is really fast. 

How did Yellow perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re good at project management; they’ve provided us with a project manager for free. The team puts all the tasks in Jira, so everything is synchronized. We communicate via email, Google Meet, and WhatsApp, and they reply quickly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re flexible to make changes when needed.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could improve the capacity of developers. Sometimes we need more workforce.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The better tech language you speak to them, the better results you’ll have.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO and senior engineer at a fintech solutions startup. We’re trying to tackle the debt issue in the US with our platforms; people with debt and financial problems use our system, and we try to put them in a better financial situation.

What challenge were you trying to address with Yellow?

I wanted to find a reliable agency to outsource my mobile development needs.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Yellow's first task was for one of our Android mobile apps. We started with an MVP to validate our entrepreneur hypothesis. I then asked them to expand the team to an additional two people to move to iOS.

We've also engaged them with UX work as well. Soon after, I needed some resources to fill in for web development tasks, which was very short-lived because I only needed a couple of things to be done with the website.

They also did extensive research throughout the project. Their team would either use the components they had developed for other companies before we engaged with them or take open-source work and heavily customize it to meet our needs.

What is the team composition?

For Android, there were three developers, one architect, and two senior engineers. For iOS, there was one architect, two senior engineers, and one junior engineer. They also provide a project manager and QA engineer to perform daily QA work for both platforms.

How did you come to work with Yellow? 

A person in my network who had used them referred them to me. I made my initial contact with their CTO, and I asked for 2–3 resources to gauge their capacity. They provided me with exactly what I wanted, so I decided to go with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent over $500,000 with them so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in November 2020, and the engagement is ongoing.

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

Thanks to their work, I was able to triple my velocity; I'm now able to push features to market faster than I used to have. They also deliver good quality work, and the amount of code they produce is amazing.

How did Yellow perform from a project management standpoint?

They have one project manager who interfaces with me, and it’s been a breeze working with her because she’s on top of everything and patient — if there are defects, I don’t even have to tell her about it. After all, she's always monitoring. 

In terms of communication, we have a shared Slack channel, Zoom, Jira, Figma, G-Suite, and GitHub.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The correctness and eloquence of their source code make them stand out from their competitors. I like that they bring in an architect who lays the foundation and best practices. They’re also extremely solid, their processes are extremely good, and they’re always improving their quality. In addition to that, their team is always doing research and trying to better themselves, which is apparent in how few bugs they produce — they’re a very good company.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any complaints about their work. There’s a little bit of a language barrier, but I got used to it. The senior folks are a little more fluent in English than the others, and their written English is better than their spoken English.

In addition to that, the website work wasn’t as impressive as their mobile app work. When it comes to native platforms like Android and iOS and backend development, they have a stronger team than their web team.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be patient with communication, have an open mind, and let them provide you with a proof of concept — I gave them a small task to start with. Don’t just throw the sink at them; go slowly, establish a good rapport, and ensure your requirements are as detailed as possible.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the former the chief of staff at a sustainable, socially responsible investment fund with $200 million under management in New York.

What challenge were you trying to address with Yellow?

We had a Wix website that our founder built, and since we were about to launch publicly on the New York Stock Exchange as an exchange-traded fund (EFT), we needed a company to develop a new website for us and do a general website rebrand.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Yellow did front- and backend development for our website. I managed the process, but the Yellow team did everything else.

They started by redoing our website’s UX/UI. We provided them with our initial design and then helped formulate the design in Figma. They helped us flesh out exactly how we wanted our UX to flow. 

We went back and forth with our entire executive management team on the design. After that, there was about a month of UX development — they built out the platform on Contentful and AWS. 

Then, their backend developers collaborated with our data provider to create a platform that would allow users to purchase our EFTs. 

What is the team composition?

We first started the engagement, I talked to the founder, but then Pavel (Project Manager) became my go-to person. 

How did you come to work with Yellow?

I actually found Yellow on Clutch! I had some friends who had some success with developers in Minsk, Belarus. I did some research and then reached out to a few developers. 

Yellow was timely in responding, and I had good conversations with Pavel. When talking to them, they were hard-working and communicated well. We were on the same page about the development cycle and expectations.

All of that, plus their price point and efficiency, made Yellow the right choice for us. 

How much have you invested with them?

We invested around $25,000 with Yellow. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from November 2020–March 2021. However, we still reach out to them with follow-up questions on the project. 

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

Our primary metric of success was whether or not we could launch the website the day our fund went public on the New York Stock Exchange. The website was completed right on time to our specifications, just when our fund went public in March 2021.

How did Yellow perform from a project management standpoint?

Yellow had good project management. They were very responsive as we got closer to our deadline, and they did an excellent job balancing some of the bigger personalities in our firm. The Yellow team was great about feedback — we went back and forth on each aspect of the project throughout the project duration. 

Communication was very efficient. The project manager took over the helm of the project and we communicated via Slack — the entire team was very responsive. 

Their team put together a project timeline that outlined when each aspect of the project would be developed. We used that timeline as a project tracker. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

In the end, the website design was excellent. The website’s speed and performance was great as well. 

They were great at explaining everything, even to someone at a non-technical level. Pavel was also a great project manager, and their team was great at implementing feedback, coming back to us with updated drafts, and still meeting deadlines. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Any issues we ran into were from our side of the project. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Clients need to take the design period seriously. Yellow charges a relatively small fee upfront for their design services, but it is the most crucial aspect of the project to do. If you don't invest early, changing the design during the development process can be expensive.

Yellow structures their design process well and they take it seriously — it is critical for success. Clients need to really utilize the design period and provide feedback to get the most out of the engagement.  

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a young technology startup.

What challenge were you trying to address with Yellow?

We needed someone to provide us with cost-effective software development, specifically for chat architecture.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Yellow provides us with the full development of an iOS-based app that deals with encrypted messaging and relationship management tools — from initial mock-up and design to development and beta launch. 

We’re using Native and React for the development, and we’re looking to finish the Android version as soon as we go into beta with the iOS version.

What is the team composition?

I deal specifically with the project manager, but I can talk to the CEO for any larger questions or concerns. We also work with front- and backend engineers and designers.

How did you come to work with Yellow?

I was introduced to them through a friend of mine, who had done some work with them in the past. The majority of their work is centered around US-based government technologies, which is what our company focuses on.

I really liked their approach compared to other app development companies. They have a more unique approach that I initially thought would be a better fit for us.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested somewhere between $90,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The ongoing partnership started in May 2020.

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

I work with a lot of technology entrepreneurs, and they’ve been extremely impressed with the UI/UX design I’ve been working on with Yellow. Everything is done well from a professional perspective, and I really like their style of prioritizing the functionality and end-user experience.

How did Yellow perform from a project management standpoint?

They perform really well from a project management perspective. Communication can be an issue when it comes to overseas outsourcing, but the project manager I have is amazing. They really understand the mindset of the typical American demographics, which is very important to us.

Our primary tools for communication are Slack and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re impressed with their loyalty and honesty. They were able to stay true to their original quote even though we needed to change and add a few requirements. They’ve done a lot of good work for us on all fronts, but it's amazing to see that they’re able to stick to what they initially promised.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I would’ve loved to have stayed with one project manager, but it was my fault due to some changes in the development. Other than that, the process has been really smooth so I can’t complain.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would suggest listening to their methods on how they go about the development process because it works.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of weffect, an employee mobilization app. Our B2B app helps companies implement their strategy more effectively.

What challenge were you trying to address with Yellow?

We needed someone to help us with our development efforts.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Yellow helped us built our web app’s frontend. They worked on adding new features to our existing web app such as users being allowed to add customer-generated content. We also rethought the user profile and what was displayed there. The team also implemented bug fixes and other general improvements.

They then developed our mobile app from scratch. In every sprint they implemented, we gave them our user story requirements. With our mobile app, they integrated push notifications for our users. On top of that, they enabled us to identify which customer distribution a user belongs to so that we could reroute it to the correct distribution.

What is the team composition?

We worked with one developer from the Yellow team.

How did you come to work with Yellow?

They reached out to me on LinkedIn. When we met in person, they had a convincing presentation. About two months later, I needed a new frontend developer because our old one had left, so I contacted Yellow if they could provide a frontend developer that was capable of working in our frameworks. After a short testing period, I started to work full-time with their developer.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $20,000–$40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our partnership ran from February 2019–January 2020.

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

I liked working with them because they were good. With their work, we increased our mobile app’s user usage. We also got reviewed as one of the top 10 employee engagement services in Europe.

How did Yellow perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management was really good. They worked in sprints, and I always communicated directly with their developer. There was a minor inconvenience when he didn’t respond immediately, but it didn’t affect the quality of his work. We communicated through Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were really good at understanding what type of developer I was looking for. More importantly, they were attentive to our project's details.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The developer could’ve been a bit more responsive.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Start with small tasks so that you’ll feel secure that you have the right developer for your needs.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of QKSS, a software consulting company that specializes in bringing in nearshore and offshore labor when and wherever needed. We connect American and venture capital businesses with software companies, which is basically a Fortune 500 service at a much lower cost.

What challenge were you trying to address with Yellow?

With Yellow, I was trying to hire a fairly hard-to-find technical skill set. It was a data engineering role and React Native development role for some of my clients.

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Yellow has filled our two roles with excellent people. Data engineering is a sought-after skill that’s a mix between a data scientist and someone who can organize data. As for React Native development, their resource works on Android and iOS projects. We’re actually going to hire another person for a web-based development effort.

What is the team composition? 

I’ve worked with four people, so far: two developers, a data engineer, and Dasha (Head of Business Development). Outside of that, I’ve been interviewing for several different roles that we’re trying to sell for some of our customers.

How did you come to work with Yellow?

My language skills are Russian and Spanish, so I was looking at countries that spoke either Russian or Spanish — that way, I could more easily understand the vendor’s culture and how they’d work. Also, for the positions I was looking for, Belarus and Ukraine tended to be areas where one could find affordable but skilled resources. 

I came up with a list of companies in Belarus that I wanted to call and interviewed them for quite some time before I hired Yellow. I’d interviewed companies for quite a bit of time, so I knew what to look for in a solid company. They had to be of a certain size and quality in addition to knowing what they were talking about. Their points of contact also had to speak English fairly well.

How much have you invested with them?

We subcontract Yellow, so I’ve sold about $40,000–$50,000 in projects with them, which translates to purchasing $30,000 from them. The project is going to go on for six more months with additional people, so that’s probably another $150,000–$200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started speaking to them around March 2021, and the project is ongoing. 

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

Mainly, I go by client feedback to judge Yellow’s performance, and the clients have been very impressed with their work. The team is exact in what they do, their delivery has been good, and they’re on time and budget. 

How did Yellow perform from a project management standpoint?

The project management is on our side, but their developers are great at overseeing their personal time. They’ll let us know when to expect something and will finish within that timeframe. Since we use an agile methodology, we work in 1–2-week deliverables and track them in Jira.

Yellow also has good communicators. One thing people might find with companies where English isn’t their native language is that they’re typically not willing to speak up when there’s an issue. However, Yellow is willing to speak up, which helps make sure that problems get solved quickly. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re able to give me people so that I don’t have to conduct multiple interviews for a role. If I tell them that I need a certain type of developer, then they’ll give me a good developer. I might go through 1–2 people — maybe three, tops — but that’s about it. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’ve exclusively had good experiences with them, though it’s only been about four months, now.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Work with Dasha to get their people. She is impressively up until odd hours of the night her time. I might send her a message at 3:00 in the afternoon my time, and she responds. Dasha and her team are very attentive to American time zones.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Dropby Inc. We work in access management for property managers.

What challenge were you trying to address with Yellow?

We needed a consistent, reliable, and reactive engineering company with whom we could get resources very quickly and achieve a predictable outcome.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve used Yellow on a consistent basis for multiple different projects, not just one at a time. The team works on both back- and frontend development. Some of the features Yellow has worked on include segregated building, so our customers can build each property individually. They work in Twilio. 

What is the team composition?

We have two or three engineers working at a time, depending on the project. We also have a project manager. 

Our CTO works with more members of the team on a regular basis.

How did you come to work with Yellow?

We’d tried one or two other companies before Yellow, but they weren’t a good match. When our CTO came on board, he’d had experience working with Yellow, which is how we started working with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $50,000–$60,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since July 2020.

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

With Yellow, the features are getting done. If we ever have an issue with one of the features, they quickly fix it. 

We had one issue with an engineer who wasn’t up to par, but Yellow quickly replaced him for us. They have a database of engineers for us to choose from, which is great. 

In terms of feedback, people like the platform so far. It’s been a help to our business.

How did Yellow perform from a project management standpoint?

The CTO is using tools with Yellow more than I am, but I use Slack with them, which is really nice.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m most impressed with the fact they have many engineers, and they’re willing to change and adapt to our needs. 

I also like the fact that they’re always very open and honest about hiring their resources if we’re particularly impressed with them. We can hire them directly, and Yellow will charge us a hiring fee. The option to do that is pretty impressive and unique. It gives me confidence that if I work with an engineer directly, I might be able to bring them onto my own team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think so. Any issues we’ve had, they’ve been very quick to react to and solve them. There’s nothing that’s been consistently bad that we haven’t been able to deal with.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I recommend working with Yellow. If, along the way, there’s anything you don’t like, they’ll be very reactive in fixing it. They’re always on top of making changes to make us happy.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of an e-learning company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Yellow?

We needed someone to develop a custom learning management system (LMS).

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed our LMS. Users can go to the homepage and create an account. From there, they can view video content and participate in tests. They’ve focused on creating a simple interface so it’s easy for the user to navigate.

Yellow asked what we wanted and they delivered a prototype. After that, they made adjustments to the design and developed the final product with us.

What is the team composition?

I worked with the CEO, CTO, a project leader, and an accountant.

How did you come to work with Yellow?

I knew of them, so I reached out to have a conversation about my needs. After talking to them, I had a good feeling. They were very helpful and extremely precise in their vision. They said they wanted to make things simple and easy to understand, which is what I wanted. On top of that, their pricing was good compared to their competitors.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $10,000–$49,999.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from May–September 2020.

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

They worked very hard to deliver a solution quickly, and in the end, they designed a great LMS. They’re very skilled and extremely precise. As a result, the quality of their work is very good. They’re the best. They’re very helpful and over-deliver. I’m very happy that I decided to work with them.

How did Yellow perform from a project management standpoint?

Our original idea was too complicated to code, so they built a prototype to see if the optical view would work. From there, they planned deliverables for every two-week sprint and completed each task on time.

We had a weekly call with the project leader, and then he relayed our requests to the coders. We communicated via Slack, email, Skype, or whatever was the best option in that moment.

When we asked for feedback, Yellow responded honestly if they thought it would overcomplicate the product. They also asked several times a week how they could improve the prototype. This was very helpful because we were able to describe what we wanted the LMS to do and our project leader conveyed the technical details to the programmers.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Yellow put everything into layman’s terms so we could understand what they were working on even though we don’t have a background in coding.

They listened to us and brought our vision to life. They included every detail in the LMS that I wanted. It’s were very professional and always thought outside the box.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing they need to improve.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of Engineering for an app development firm. I match talent with software development projects we take on.

What challenge were you trying to address with Yellow?

Yellow is my go-to resource for software development. They’ve done a few projects dealing with Twilio.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provide expert services and help us configure Twilio products for our clients. Recently, we started working with them on more development work. Yellow is helping us with a contact center solution with Twilio at the core. Our customer gives us tasks and we deliver on a two-week schedule. It’s very scrum-oriented. We’ve done several similar projects as well.

What is the team composition?

The largest team we worked with had two people on it, and then we usually interface with the CMO and project manager.

How did you come to work with Yellow?

We met them at a Twilio conference a few years ago. We have similar values and we got along well, so it was very natural for us to start working on projects together.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $25,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in November 2019.

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

I’m happy with the quality of their work. They’ve bailed us out when the expertise and skills required for a project have been outside of our wheelhouse. In those situations, it was great having them.

How did Yellow perform from a project management standpoint?

We work directly with their developers so we can manage and oversee the project. They’re very flexible and adaptable to our working style. They’ve been very patient with us on each project we’ve worked on together.

They’re very transparent and I haven’t had any issues. If anything was delivered late, it was our fault for not giving them requirements soon enough.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their engineering is exceptional.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything they need to improve on.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The better prepared you are, and the more defined your requirements are, the smoother the project is going to go. They’re pretty good about making sure you have clear requirements ahead of time.

Additionally, if you’re based in the US, you should be aware that they’re located in Eastern Europe, so you should be prepared to arrange your schedule around when you can reach them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of a security and IT solutions firm.

What challenge were you trying to address with Yellow?

We needed help with software development.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They develop Android and iOS apps and the backend for web applications. We provide them with mockups and wireframes ahead of time for some of the projects. The majority of the time, they help us to put everything together.

What is the team composition?

There’s a project manager, a backend developer, an iOS developer, and an Android developer.

How did you come to work with Yellow?

I met one of them at a tradeshow in Toronto. Then I visited Belarus and had a meeting. We decided to use them as a subcontractor for our clients.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested $70,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2019 and it was ongoing until the Corona Virus hit. We’re postponing it until further notice.

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

I’m really satisfied with the work they did for us.

How did Yellow perform from a project management standpoint?

Their communication has been excellent. We got weekly reports with a timesheet of how many hours have been spent on what. Every 2-3 days we communicated over WhatsApp. Everything is well-documented.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communication and creativity stand out.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we’re very satisfied.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to be very specific about what you want to do.