MentorMate

Please describe your organization.

My company is a manufacturer of test and measurement equipment.

What is your position?

I’m a program manager within the company.

What business challenge were you trying to address with MentorMate?

In conjunction with the products that we offer, we also offer companion software and previously had only offered it as a native desktop option specifically for Windows. We wanted to branch out into consumer devices, specifically iOS and Android. We didn’t have in-house expertise in that area so we looked to partner with a firm that had that capability, and also just in general the experience and background to help us navigate through the app development process.

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

MentorMate provided us both an iOS and Android application.

How did you come to work with MentorMate?

I was reviewing MentorMate and a competitor of theirs locally. I went through the same process with both. I did some research and reached out, had an initial requirements gathering session, went and did a meet and greet, and ultimately got some proposals back. Both were comparable in terms of what I could view as capabilities, services, and experience, but I chose MentorMate because of a gut feeling and intuition. It felt like our business mattered to them.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

This was a larger project for us and we have over $200,000.

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We average 2,500 downloads a month, which for us is decent for the volume of customers that we serve. We feel that we have pretty good market penetration and utilization of the app.

What distinguishes MentorMate from other providers?

From end to end - identifying the requirements, both business and technical, MentorMate did a great job. They helped us understand what’s important and what’s not from a user experience/design perspective; they had those services as well. They became an extension of our team. From a development perspective, they deliver high-quality all the way around. They did a good job with the project management of the team. 

Some of the team members transitioned over throughout the course of the project and we understand that that happens when outsourcing work. It’s wasn’t an egregious amount of turnover but there was some. They were pretty good about it. It wasn’t seamless in terms of changing out team members, but it was reasonable and certainly within expectations. They did a good job serving us. The project management was outstanding - keeping us in the loop, keeping our team on task, as well as theirs. They’re very transparent with the status of the project as well as with the financials of it. It was all very well done.

Is there anything MentorMate could have improved or done differently?

Nothing comes to mind. We had a positive experience with MentorMate and their team. One nice thing is that we had an opportunity to use onshore or offshore resources which was important to us. Sometimes we used onshore and sometimes we used offshore, and both were done with quality and were relatively seamless to work with.

Please describe your organization.

We are a marketing and development company for brands, retailers, and casinos. We provide marketing materials and branded promotional materials. I work to build loyalty platforms for online sports. We’ve built prediction applications with MentorMate. Currently, we are creating a daily fantasy website with MentorMate, with both free to play and pay to play options.

What is your position?

I am a project manager and work directly with MentorMate.

What business challenge were you trying to address with MentorMate?

What we were looking to accomplish with MentorMate had two parts. The first project we did with them was mobile development for iOS and Android. Our most recent project was a web app with a responsive design across tablet, mobile, and web. We wanted a clean design with good user experience. Both the back end and front end needed to be fully functional.

How did you come to work with MentorMate?

We're based in Saint Paul, so geographically MentorMate was a fit. In the past, we had a relationship with a West Coast developer. We did have success with them, but we wanted someone more local. We interviewed, vetted, and got quotes from five or six candidates, based in and just outside Minneapolis.

We liked MentorMate’s rate structure and generally enjoyed working with them. We believed in what they could develop for us. The deciding factor was looking at their past projects and successes they had in the industry, and the belief that they were the best partner for us.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

Individually, there have been $150,000 to $200,000 projects.

What is the status of this engagement?

This is an ongoing engagement.

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The biggest marker for us with regard to success is having a fully functioning product in the market that we believe is the best out there. One of the biggest things that MentorMate provided was a strong design team along with an equally strong development team. That was important to us. We had previous failures with other companies on the front end.

We felt we were lacking skills on front end design. Our partnership with MentorMate fixed that, and has really driven user experience, especially in our most recent project. Because of that, we had an iOS and Android app that was very successful. We wanted a responsive design that looked, felt, and worked great, regardless of the device. MentorMate did a great job accomplishing that. We have a competitive user interface that functions seamlessly across multiple platforms.

What distinguishes MentorMate from other providers?

Our project manager and developers were excellent. We've had great success working with them. They’re very easy to work with. The relationship that we've built with MentorMate’s developers is extremely strong. Great communication is another thing that has led us to being successful. They're very good at communicating and they're upfront.

Is there anything MentorMate could have improved or done differently?

We have been working with MentorMate for about three years now, and in the first six to 12 months of working with them, we had a lot of constructive criticism. In the past two years, they've made quite a few changes which have been successful. For example, they have rebuilt some of their departments and rebuilt their project management structure. They've done a very good job of adapting to the industry and growing as a business. Our relationship and success with them are much better now than it was in the first six months.

Please describe your organization.

We are an international supply chain provider. We're a wholesale distributor of aftermarket parts and components.

What is your position?

I am the Vice President of Technology.

What business challenge were you trying to address with MentorMate?

We wanted to develop a mobile inventory management solution.

What platform is the application on?

It's cloud-based cross-platform service available on iOS or Android.

How did you come to work with MentorMate?

We wanted a local partner, and they were the leader in the Twin Cities. The size of MentorMate was very appealing. We first engaged them several years ago; mobile development was a relatively new and upcoming industry. Because they have offshore developments, it was more cost effective for us. Mobile development is in high demand, so if you're doing it onshore locally, it's more expensive, which was a driving force for us.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The project expense was between $200,000 and $1 million.

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

What MentorMate helped us build has since become an independent and revenue generating business inside of our company.

What distinguishes MentorMate from other providers?

MentorMate was very capable, honest, transparent, and has excellent project management. Those qualities are important to us.

Is there anything MentorMate could have improved or done differently?

I've been developing technology solutions for 25 years and nothing stands out. This has gone as well as anything I've ever done, so it's hard for me to pick out anything.

Please describe your organization.

We're an online financial planning company. We do algorithmic financial planning and investments.

What is your position?

I am the founder of the company.

What business challenge were you trying to address with MentorMate?

I have zero background in development, and I'm a one-man show at this point. I needed MentorMate to help me build a complex financial platform.

What platform is the application on?

It's web-based at the moment but we're also building both an Android and an iOS application for the platform. The full functionality is on the web, with limited functionality on the iOS and the Android platforms. This limited functionality will change once we have a better idea of how people use it.

How did you come to work with MentorMate?

I considered a number of other agencies, a mix of onshore and offshore development. There were a few in San Francisco where they did most of their development in-house. There were a number of offshore companies that I looked at as well. MentorMate was in the middle for pricing, so I decided to go with them. Their hybrid model made me much more comfortable. Due to my own lack of technical experience, I wanted to make sure that communication between my partner and I went smoothly.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The project cost $400,000. The original cost estimates were low because I continued to change and expand the scope of the project. MentorMate came in under budget for everything we’ve done.

What distinguishes MentorMate from other providers?

MentorMate treated us as a partner. From the beginning they seemed to love my project. They really treated the product as if it was their own.

Is there anything MentorMate could have improved or done differently?

If you're focused on start-ups, a development company needs infrastructure to help guide customers. I could have used more strategic advice because there was a lot for me to learn.

Please describe your company.

Our mobile app company is a marketplace for parents to sell preloved or secondhand children’s articles, clothing, shoes, and gear. We are similar to Etsy or eBay, but we just sell kids items. Our mobile app has been available to the consumer since December of 2013. We are based in Minneapolis.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I am the CEO.

What was your goal for working with MentorMate?

We engaged with MentorMate to help us specifically with SEO [search engine optimization] and social strategies. We needed them to help with App Store optimization and SEO work for a new Web component to our product offering we’re releasing right now.  

Please describe the scope of their work.

We are now in the process of rolling out a particular feature we’ve been working on. We’ve engaged them to think about how to architect the Web piece strategically and think about URL structures and other SEO considerations. We’re actively engaged in this project right now. We will continue to use them for short term spikes that we need to handle.

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

MentorMate is well known around Minneapolis and we chose them through word of mouth and feedback from others. They have a good reputation. 

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

We’re one of their smaller clients right now, but we’ve never felt like a small client. I do not want to discuss a specific price. 

What were the results of the project?

We can see their results with the Apple Store optimization campaign. Our app is in the Apple App Store and a lot of the same principles apply as they do with SEO work. As a direct result of their work, we have moved up the daily download rankings very significantly after implementing their recommendations. We’re now ranking ahead of pretty much all of our competitors in keyword search terms. Some of our competitors are very well established and much more mature.

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

I don’t know the exact numbers, but relatively they increased our search rank across keywords. We were anywhere from 100 or lower for important keywords, and now we’re in the top 20. There are many instances where a keyword was in the top 50, and now we’re in the top five after working with MentorMate. It is a free download for anyone to use the app. For every purchase made, we charge a small transaction fee.

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

Their team is really smart, and they know their craft in their specific discipline areas. They offer good service, even though we’re not a big client.

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?

I don’t even have constructive criticism because I can’t think of anything they did incorrectly.

Could you describe your organization?

I work for 3Wire Group Inc. We are an international supply chain solutions provider for aftermarket parts, focusing on the food and beverage equipment industry.

What is your position?

I’m the vice president of technology solutions.

Could you describe the business challenges you were attempting to address when you initiated the relationship with MentorMate?

Our end customers are ultimately service agents or service technicians that are the guys in the van similar to [the] HBAC [Group]. If you’ve ever had a furnace, I’m not sure where you live, furnace air conditioning, that type of thing. Half of the time when they go on a service call, and they need a part to fix an issue with a piece of commercial equipment. This kind of equipment is in commercial kitchens, restaurants, and commercial beverage devices. Those customers, there aren’t very many because in the beverage side of the world, instead of the restaurants calling the service agent, usually it’s either Coke or Pepsi that comes and fixes their own equipment. Ultimately, the service agent is the end-user. They were experiencing some pain points that we wanted to solve, specifically around visibility and control of service parts in their vehicles and their peripheral locations. We had identified these pains and felt that a Web service with a corresponding mobile application would be a perfect way to solve the issues.

Think of it as launching a new revenue-generating service. We’re launching a new business product. Think of it as a software service. It is something that we will sell. It is available on a Web browser for log-in. Service technicians will download the app either on Android or an iOS device and use it to manage their inventory. All of that activity rolls to a backend website where the manager or the owner of the company approves and manages different inventory levels for each of the trucks and then does automatic electronic ordering to various suppliers. All of this is integrated into one backend system and process seamlessly, which makes it easy to track, monitor, and organize.

Could you describe the scope of the project?

We provided them with our requirements and the scoped the project out for us. We started from scratch. They have built all of the entire solution in collaboration with us from conception. We’ve basically launched the system, including the marketing site. The tool is called 3Plenish.com. You can go check it out. They built the marketing site as well as the native applications for iOS. We’re about to release an Android version in about a month, and then the entire backend of the SaaS [Software as a Service] offering, too.

How did you select MentorMate as your solution partner for this endeavor?

We operate out of Minneapolis. There really are only a few companies that are strong in this particular area. If you pay any attention to mobile development, which I do in the Twin Cities, MentorMate is near the top or is always in the top tier because they sponsor MobCon. If you Google it, you’re going to find them at the top. I have also some friends of mine that are CEOs of companies that MentorMate has done a lot of work for. Their reputation really precedes them in this area, and since we were searching for a local vendor, it made perfect sense to go with them.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in monetary terms?

I’d rather not disclose that information, but it was a substantial investment for us.

When were the Web and mobile applications completed and launched?

The application was launched around the first of April [of 2014]. We started the project about nine months ago.

Honestly, I’ve been head of technology organizations, and I’ve been responsible for development of a variety of different ways. I’ve been on the marketing side of software companies. I have been extremely happy with MentorMate. I have no trouble holding them accountable.

A lot of times you need to measure how good somebody is by how they respond to your concerns. They’ve been fantastic. I’m not just saying that. I’ve used other vendors for similar types of projects. We use another vendor in town for a very significant website and mobile app projects. It’s not necessarily an apples-to-apples comparison. MentorMate is the shining star in my mind.

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or anecdotal feedback you’ve received from end-users that would demonstrate the effectiveness of the work delivered?

We’re literally in the very first stages of launching this, and we haven’t made it public in our marketplace yet. We’re gearing up for that. It’s hard for me to give you metrics other than all of the big potential clients and customers that we’ve demonstrated it for throughout the deployment process have been very excited and impressed.

When working with MentorMate, is there anything you’d consider special or unique about approach or development methodology that distinguishes them from other vendors?

They have a very effective model for offshore development. They’ve managed to eliminate the language barriers that would typically arise during most offshore scenarios. The leadership that we liaise with face-to-face are located here in Minneapolis, which means we receive great project management attention in addition to high-quality, cost-efficient custom development.

In retrospect, are there areas you think MentorMate could improve on as a service provider?

That’s a good question. I don’t want to throw anything out there that’s unjustified. There’s nothing significant at this point. My relationship with them is only less than a year old, but I’ve been very pleased with the experience and the work they’ve delivered. I’ve got an internal team of developers that I didn’t use for this project because I knew MentorMate would be able to deliver.

Could you give me a brief description of your firm and your role?

Sales Fitness is a scenario-based, e-learning, sales training, and product-training platform. We use a mobile app to access the cloud-based platform. I’m the CEO and president of the company. 

What was your goal for the work with MentorMate?

The ultimate goal was to develop the mobile app and the backend content management system for the Sales Fitness app. We actually used MentorMate from the initial storyboard design all the way through MVP completion. 

Can you describe the scope of their work in more detail?

MentorMate had a unique approach to the way they design and develop an app. They started with a storyboard session. That actually helped us lay out the system architecture and the initial concept of the user interface.

What made them unique is that they actually priced that separately; you had to pay for the whole project before you could start. We like MentorMate because they actually did the storyboard phase as a separate contract up front. After that meeting, we decided to engage them for the full project build.

What platforms were the app developed with?

For the minimum viable product, it’s just available for the iPad. It uses iOS 7. At some point in the next year, we hope to roll it out to Microsoft and Android.

What was your process for selecting MentorMate?

My business partner and I are familiar with the development shops here in the Twin Cities. Their name came up frequently in conversations as a key company in our area. We probably spoke with nine or ten different firms and then selected MentorMate.

Could you provide a sense of the size of the project with a general cost range or the amount of work hours they dedicated to the project?

I don’t know the specifics on either of those. It’s in the $100,000 range.

What were the results of the project? Do you have statistics or metrics you could share about the development?

They came in on time and slightly under budget. They have a unique approach in that their design work is done in the U.S., but the development work is generally done in Bulgaria. They manage that process very well. We are very pleased that we used the agile product design methodology since it worked very well.

We’ve had some experience with other firms that had done a little bit of offshore development and the communication was difficult. It was not so with MentorMate, they communicated very well.

How did MentorMate perform?

There were several things that we felt were particularly stellar. Their systems architect, Stephen Fluin, is a sharp, bright guy. He did a really nice job in helping us architect the solution. Because this is a sales/product training application, it’s a B2B [business-to-business] solution that we provide, their VP of sales was involved in a lot of the discussions and almost became an additional internal consultant that I could bounce ideas off of during meetings.

The project management was one of the best things they did. They just kept us informed and kept their teams informed. I just talked with the project manager recently and told her we felt like she was an advocate for us and yet, we also knew that she had to be an advocate for MentorMate. She was so dedicated to us as a client that it almost seemed like she worked for us rather than MentorMate.

Looking back on the project, is there any area that you think MentorMate could improve upon or something you might do differently?

Not necessarily, when you’re managing a project that was as complicated as ours, the communications were sometimes a bit delayed. It could be difficult to ensure we had everybody on the same page. But that was really quite minor.

One of the things we may have done differently had to do with the platforms that we chose. We realized that when we came up with our long-term systems, the systems architecture, and our porting process, the project became quite complicated. We didn’t understand the whole process at first.

Please describe your firm and your role.

We are a wine, spirits, and cheese shop. We started operations in 1959. We’re more of a specialty store. We’re not your everyday store. We have everyday items, but we really specialize in boutique wines.

We have a brick-and-mortar store and then an online store as well. Our online store is a really small portion. Our brick and mortar is what makes the business. We’re working to make the online business bigger and stronger. We are located in Minnesota.

I am a marketing employee that was primarily responsible for managing the project with MentorMate.

What was your goal for the work with MentorMate?

Our first goal was to build a mobile app. We have a rewards program called Club 44. Our club members receive a $25 gift card for our store in the mail, but most people forget them and put them aside. So, we wanted to build an app for them, which tracks all of their sales, their purchases and has gift cards appear on their phone. We looked at our clientele, and about 80 percent of our club members have iPhones, so we started with an iPhone app. It’s really brought in a lot more money because people are finding cards from three years ago on their phone. It’s phenomenal because they come in and spend more.

The other goal is it tracks everything you buy. We also created an online marketplace that gives suggestions and reviews like Amazon. Users can search for wine, beer, spirits, or cheese; whatever products we carry that are similar. We did all of that on our point-of-sale system. We put attributes for every item we have. It’s really nice for people to have this feature in case the wine they want is no longer in production, they can hit more like this, it will bring up other options, and gives them a nice way to try. That was the main goal. We also like that users can use the app at the register, and it’s easier than remembering a gift card or having to find it at home. 

Please describe the scope of their work in more detail.

They developed the iPhone app and will do an Android app at the end of 2014. MentorMate redid our entire website last year, too. We’re doing a lot of projects with MentorMate. We’ve had such a good experience that we don’t need to go anywhere else. 

Why did you select iOS and Android as the development platforms?

Not many customers have Android, but we’ve had a lot of complaints, so we will port to Android later. We’re only going to do iPhone and Android. We’re not going to do anything else.

What was your process for selecting MentorMate?

One of the owners decided that I should find a mobile app developer. I Googled mobile apps in Minneapolis, and we met with MentorMate and with one other company. The third company never got back to me. We were really impressed with MentorMate right off the bat, and that’s why we went with them. They were very professional and very easy to work with from the get go.

Could you give us a sense of the size of that initiative with a general cost range or the amount of work hours it took them to complete?

I want to say the app was about six weeks and around $100,000.

When was the project completed?

March to May of 2013. 

Do you have any statistics or metrics you could share about the project?

I can tell you that people who are using the app are spending more money. We have 908 people, and you do not have to be a club member to use it. Anybody can download it and just use the app. It’s not strictly for Club 44 members. It does encourage them to become a Club 44 member, but you don’t have to be. You’ll get a record created for you. You can come in and shop, and it will still track your sales, but you’re not getting rewards points. Some people just like to play with it, just look at it, and find different recommendations, just see what we have. I can tell you that the people that are using it love it. In the fourth quarter of 2014, we’ll be doing an Android app.

How did MentorMate perform?

We are very satisfied. On a scale of 1 to 10, MentorMate is an 11.

What is unique or special about MentorMate that stood out as different from other companies?

They’re very receptive to our needs. That was really important because I’m not a technical person. I can run the mobile app and the website, and they made it very user friendly. Everything they do, you’re with them every step of the way. You have weekly meetings with them. Sometimes, more than weekly, but weekly with their whole team, and I’m included. Everyone was on the same page as to what our expectations were and they always met or exceeded our expectations.

Can you describe the meetings?

They were remote meetings because a big part of their team is in Bulgaria. There have a few employees here, but Bulgaria is where most of their developers are. We met with GoToMeeting. It worked out fine, and we used screen share. They’re very easy to work with and very receptive to every one of our needs. The changes that we made were not easy for MentorMate, we always had complaints and changed our minds.

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

No. There is nothing that I can mention.

Please describe your company.

We are a retailer in the TV and online home shopping space.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I am the vice president of e-commerce, and I oversee our website, all of our mobile, customer analytics, and our IVR [interactive voice response] voice recognition or capture platform.

What was your goal for working with MentorMate?

This was to create a mobile app. We’ve been working with them for two or two and a half years. Initially, we started out developing an iPad app that was a content-only app that we were building to support one of the segments of our business that has a large collector base of very loyal customers. That was our first foray into tablet app development. Since then, we've built two additional apps, one for iPad and one for Android tablets.

We’ve worked with them on quite a few projects during a long period of time. The goal for all of them was to create engagement for our customers, and there was a commerce component to it as well. One of the key factors was just to engage our customers with different content specific to the tablet form factor.

Please describe the scope of their work.

From the beginning, they were great in terms of coaching us on best practices, going back two and a half years when we didn’t have a lot of development experience in tablet applications. They were great in guiding us and in developing a scope for the initial project that wasn’t too broad and expansive. They built a core set of capabilities and a roadmap for feature enhancements. Frequent updates and enhancements tend to work better with applications. They guided us on building that core set of capabilities and whiteboarding that out.

We have our own creative team, and we thought we would have them do most of the design. As we got into the design piece of the project, we started going down that path. But, MentorMate started showing us some of their ideas. Their creative was so good, and their UI [user interface] was so good that we eventually decided to go with their creative. We have worked very closely with them, but at the end of the day, their creative has turned out to be just outstanding.

They always come to the meetings with great ideas, great solutions, and they’ll present multiple options or suggestions that they have. They tend to be very innovative and, at the same time, they don’t sell you a Cadillac when you need a Chevrolet. Or, maybe you start with a Chevrolet, and they build a Cadillac in time.

In addition to the applications themselves, they’ve built us a content management system to fuel the content into the apps as well. They’ve really built us an entire solution: A content management system, and we're using racks-based servers. At this point, it's all done outside of our firewall. They’ve really provided us with an end-to-end solution.

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

We found several different companies that we brought it in pitch us. We didn’t go through a full RFP [request for proposal] process because it wasn’t that large of a project at that point. We settled on them because we liked their working style very much. They guided us as they operated, and we are both based in Minneapolis. That was great because they could come out for an onsite meeting, and we could discuss things face to face. That was helpful. We interviewed four or five different options and settled on them.

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

The projects that we have done are anywhere from $100,000 to about $300,000 on each of the various apps. We are constantly making enhancements to them.

When was the latest milestone completed for that work?

We launched two new apps in the fall of 2013, which was a major milestone. We worked on that for about six months, maybe a little longer to get done. There has been constant work on enhancements since then, and that’s been ongoing. They have been mostly large enhancements to the functionality. We launched our initial apps in September, and then we launched some functionality. We're like QVC; we're live TV retail 24/7. We have live streaming video in all of our mobile applications. We launched some functionality in November, a major release that we call Second Screen. That allows us to deploy synchronized content in the app, and it's synchronized with what is being broadcast on our TV network at that time. That was a large release, and now we're working on some enhancements to that functionality.

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

We have full analytics in all of the applications. We can look at downloads, and we can look at page views and type of thing in the apps. We can also measure the revenue coming through the apps. I can’t share the figures with you, but we’ve been very pleased with the results.

How did MentorMate perform on a day-to-day basis?

MentorMate's performance is outstanding. They are probably about the best vendor that I’ve had the opportunity to work within this space.

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

Their speed, responsiveness, and innovation are unique.

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

No, they were good. Anything I might have done differently would be on our side as opposed to theirs.

Please describe your company.

We are an advertising firm for mobile apps based in the United States. We help mobile apps sell and market their advertising space. We offer the leading mobile app advertising platform. We have about 100 employees.

Our job is to help companies monetize their apps. We have offered these services for 14 years or so, a very long time in this space. We have three offices in the U.S., but are based in Minnesota.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I am the CTO. I am responsible for leading the engineering group. I also oversee many MentorMate resources that staff different internal teams at my firm.

What was your goal for the work with MentorMate?

We needed to add staff members for a variety of different work teams we have. We decided to do the staff offshoring route for a number of reasons; the first is cost. Also, our business fluctuates every month. It would be difficult and costly to hire people since we don't always need a larger team.

MentorMate offered skilled resources at a lower cost since they are based in Bulgaria. They also have a tremendously diverse skill set and service line offering. 

Please describe the scope of their work.

They do a lot of different things for us. At first, we gave them simple projects to assess their skills. After they completed those with ease, we decided to work with them as an ongoing partner on an indefinite basis. They provide resources for our BI team, software development, backend coding, and other groups.

They actually changed their office hours to accommodate our work. They start work at noon in Bulgaria, so we have four hours of overlapping work hours each day. This is a major engagement for both companies.

What was your process for selecting MentorMate?

We did a lot of research before we landed on MentorMate. We needed a very diverse team that could offer resources in mobile app development, BI, software, and many other areas. We also liked their pricing. They also have a large office in Minneapolis, near one of our offices.

Can you give us a sense of the size of the initiative in dollar terms or personnel work hours?

I cannot give a dollar figure. I can share that the resources are scaled up and down depending on demand. Some months, we have $100,000 in business for them, but some months less.

How has MentorMate performed so far? Do you have any statistics or metrics to track improvement?

They have performed very well. Most of my feedback comes from other employees here. They all like working with MentorMate resources in the U.S., and the Bulgaria-based team as well.

We don't really track metrics like ROI or anything like that. I know that they are professional and skilled and can complete all of our projects on time. Our working relationship is strong, and we have grown with them as partners. They are more than a vendor at this point.

What is unique or special about MentorMate compared to some other companies that you may have worked with?

They are professional and skilled. They always work hard and work long hours to help us. They don't let the time difference affect their deliverables or timeline. They also are great about expanding their service lines. They know how to recruit the best developers that graduate from Bulgarian universities.

They even put their new hires through a boot camp of sorts. They want to make sure that all of their new employees can handle typical projects. They are great at producing new talent for mobile app development and .NET programming. They have a really strong pipeline of talent overseas. They keep adding quality resources.

Looking back on the project, is there anything that you think MentorMate could improve upon, or something you might do differently?

I am trying to think of something, but I really cannot. They seem to be competent in every aspect. Of course, they are not perfect but I am really satisfied.