Zuccotech

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Fundex is a startup that has created a cryptocurrency exchange platform. Customers can exchange digital currencies on our platform, and we charge them fees for every transaction.

What challenge were you trying to address with Zuccotech?

We hired Zuccotech to build our platform. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Zuccotech initially built the backend of the platform. From there, they built its frontend and website. Their team assigned different people on each end. They also worked on QA testing the platform. 

So far, the platform is 70%–80% complete. 

What is the team composition?

Two people work on the frontend, while two other people — who are also the co-founders of Zuccotech — are on the backend. Apart from them, a QA manager is also involved. Another person keeps us updated about the process. 

How did you come to work with Zuccotech?

Since we opened the company, we’d been looking for developers to build the platform and its frontend. I talked to several companies, but their fees were quite high. Then, a friend of mine recommended Zuccotech, and I investigated them. In the beginning, I was skeptical because I’d never experienced outsourcing. Eventually, I chose Zuccotech because of their price; they were at least 4–5 times cheaper than other Swedish companies. 

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve invested close to 200,000 Swedish kronor (approximately $23,000 USD). We’ll probably spend around 110,000 Swedish kronor (approximately $12,600 USD) to continue the project. 

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in October 2020, and it’s ongoing. 

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

I’ve been satisfied with the quality of Zuccotech’s work and team members. So far, we have a test product, and it’s working well. Meanwhile, the website is simple and straightforward; it looks great. Overall, I’m truly satisfied with the exchange platform they’ve built. 

They’ve committed a mistake in terms of web design — one of them has misunderstood my comment on the website — but they have since fixed it. Because of that, I’ll rate their work highly. I can recommend them to any company that wants to hire them. 

How did Zuccotech perform from a project management standpoint?

Since we’re a startup, we don’t have a technical project manager yet; I have to manage the project myself. Luckily, Zuccotech does good project management. They’ve completed the milestones they’ve set, and the team constantly updates me about what they’re doing and how things are going.

We use GitLab to track progress. Through that program, we can see how much work has been completed by the team. Moreover, our communication has been great. We always keep in touch through Microsoft Teams. What I like more is that they’re always available to communicate; the time difference between our locations is only 3–4 hours, so I can call them anytime.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m impressed with their blockchain knowledge. Their co-founder has a great knowledge of blockchain; he knows many things about it. As a result, the team hasn’t had any learning curve. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Two of their team members don’t speak English, so we need a translator. If they’re working with a client who only speaks English, they should hire more people who have English language skills. In other words, their communication skills can be improved.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

When you assign milestones, give them generous time because Zuccotech team members have tight schedules. For instance, if a milestone takes one week to complete, give them one and a half weeks to do it. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the co-founder and CTO of Asora Inc. We're a Silicon Valley-based company that works with social media influencers and creators by matching them with brands and providing influencer marketing services.

What challenge were you trying to address with Zuccotech?

We needed their team to develop a platform that enabled cross-promotion among influencers.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We wanted to create a Tinder-like platform wherein influencers could find other influencers who are actively looking for cross-promotion. Once two influencers match, they can track their progress by talking about what kind of content they want to create, how they want to do it, when they want to publish it, and how often they want to do it. We decided to call it 'Tinder for Influencers' — it was one of the lines that we wanted to implement quickly to introduce to the influencers that we work with. Zuccotech came into the picture when we were trying to execute it as a parallel to our main product, which is an influencer marketplace.

During our initial conversation with Zuccotech, we presented timelines and our proposed design and explained the main features that we wanted to implement through our own main technical stack. We mainly use Javascript, AWS infrastructure, and React, so we wanted to create a new feature using the same stack. Zuccotech has then refined our design and implemented the product based on that and our preferred tech stack. They continue to support us through app maintenance and bug fixes.

What is the team composition?

We've worked with two developers, one project manager, and in-house designers who've helped us refine the product design.

How did you come to work with Zuccotech?

Zuccotech's team was recommended to us by our friends who worked with them in the past. Upon hearing about their team, we reached out to them, and they examined our designs before we both agreed to kick off the engagement.

How much have you invested in them?

We've spent around $50,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

It started around June 2019, and it's still ongoing as they continue to maintain the product while we're still in the implementation stage.

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

We've been very impressed with Zuccotech's steadfast expertise. Our platform currently caters to 5,000 influencers —we're still in our initial beta testing but we roughly have more than 100 matches a day.

How did Zuccotech perform from a project management standpoint?

We mainly communicate via Slack and Zoom, while we use Jira and GitHub to track and manage the progress of our project. Zuccotech established a thorough workflow that allowed us to avoid setbacks during the development stage. They had a dedicated scrum master who helped us determine what we needed to do next. After each sprint, we had a sync-up meeting where we discussed what had been accomplished.

To this day, they maintain a healthy backlog in the Scrum Product Backlog that allows them to quickly apply necessary fixes or modifications. I can say that they're a very dedicated team in terms of project management.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It's their professionalism — Zuccotech has ample experience when it comes to working with the type of product that we have, so their performance has always been top-notch. They came up with solutions, identified missing details upfront, and quickly assembled a professional and functional team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It'll help if they come up with a more flexible schedule that suits both of our time zones. Due to our timezone difference, there were times when I missed a few scrum meetings or had to jump in later in the evening.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a clear vision of what you want to do and communicate that upfront instead of having several kickoff meetings without truly identifying your goals. If you do your part in the engagement, it will be easier for Zuccotech to deliver the results you need.