Netguru

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the co-founder and CPO at Shepper. We help businesses across a range of industries such as retail, property, media and utilities to collect insightful data on their physical assets using a network of local trusted people that pick up jobs using our app.

What challenge were you trying to address with Netguru?

We’d just gotten our series-A funding, and as a startup, we were always working against the clock. At that moment in time, I couldn’t risk employing a big team internally, so I wanted to rely on a really good partner who could get up to speed quickly and scale the team up and down as the project progressed.

What was the scope of their involvement?

A key component of the platform is the frontend Shepper app, which is the gateway for picking up data collection jobs in the market for our users, whom we call Shepherds. Netguru developed it in React Native. The backend was done by our in-house team.

I created a lot of the wireframes myself, and we kicked off with a UI/UX designer from Netguru. We were mid-rebranding at the time, so we didn’t apply our brand to the app designs. Netguru also helped a bit with the screen design, but we provided most of it.

How did you come to work with Netguru?

They do a lot of content marketing on LinkedIn, and my co-founder at the time knew Netguru through his wife. I thought that I’d give them a go, so I picked up the phone and called.

How much have you invested with them?

The total so far is £425,000 (approximately $566,700 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Netguru in December 2018, and our engagement is ongoing.

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

I couldn’t recommend Netguru highly enough, and I’ve been saying that since we struck up a conversation with them. They’re completely different to work with than any other agency.

Fundamentally, we don’t look at Netguru as an agency. They’re a development partner, and I’m very proud of the work they’ve produced. They’ve done a phenomenal job of creating the mobile app.

How did Netguru perform from a project management standpoint?

We’re working with them remotely, but that’s true for everyone these days. We just wish we could integrate them more into our internal culture, but they’re well-represented within the business. Everyone knows who Netguru is.

Their project management and general team attitude are amazing. They’re the type of team that, if they don’t know something, they’ll find someone internally who does. Everybody supports everybody, so we get a lot more value than just having a team assigned to us. 

It’s been a wonderful relationship. They have their own Jira board for our project, and we have a Slack workspace with them. They’re always there when I have a question, which is fantastic.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of their work speaks for itself. It’s almost a given that we’re going to have good quality work, and it’s in their nature to want to help and make suggestions. Netguru listens very well and always tries to find something to do. 

They can also work autonomously. Rather than having me guide them in the right direction, they’ll come up with their own suggestions and even challenge me. It’s nice to have a team like that.

A traditional agency would just agree to the work but not deliver the desired result because maybe they hadn’t thought about something. It’s the opposite with Netguru. It’s a collaborative effort, and we all work together for a common goal.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I have nothing negative to say. I score them every quarter, and it sometimes seems like they’re doing that too much, but it’s just because they want to gauge how satisfied we are. 

We’ve had a few account and project manager changes, but the project’s been ongoing for two years, so that’s quite natural. The project managers we’ve had have been fantastic.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

What I hear a lot from Netguru is that they like the energy I bring, because it makes them really excited. The client should show that they really care about the product, rather than just giving Netguru an app to build and checking in every once in a while. 

It’s important to have a good kickoff session and to act as a leader in the environment. Netguru will work better if they can see that it means a lot to you as a business.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of product with Newst.se, a B2B marketplace for commercial real estate. We’ve been on the market for about 18 months. We connect brokers and real estate owners with companies looking for commercial property, whether it be an office or warehouse. On top of that, we add tools to the supply side that help them reach out to properties faster and essentially find someone to move into their vacant commercial properties as quickly as possible.

What challenge were you trying to address with Netguru?

In Sweden, developers, coders, and the technical side of things is fairly expensive; there are high costs for that kind of labor. We decided to go nearshore in Poland — we are in Sweden, and Netguru is in Poland — because the costs are very competitive, and they still provide high-quality resources.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Netguru essentially helped us set up our entire online digital product. They’ve touched upon anything from design UX to product management, front- and backend development, and DevOps. They’ve been involved on every level in terms of developing the product.

We came to the partnership with an idea of what we wanted to achieve, and we wireframed that with Netguru. They came up with high-fidelity designs. It’s a very collaborative and organic effort, and the team that we’re working with is very integrated with our team and process.    

The package is hosted on Amazon. It’s a Rails-based stack, primarily, with JavaScript and a couple of React frameworks.  

What is the team composition?

We’re currently working with three developers: one frontend and two backend. They’re dedicated to us. There’s also a scrum master on their end. There are other resources that we can add along the way, including QA, design, and DevOps. They are very flexible from that perspective. The core team is always there, and then it’s fairly easy to onboard other resources as needed for certain amounts of time.

How did you come to work with Netguru?

We found them through a recommendation. We had a couple of meetings, and we had a good fit straightaway. They understood what we wanted to achieve and laid out the resources we needed. From there, we initiated the operation.

How much have you invested with them?

Our running cost is around $25,000 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our work together began in 2018, and it’s ongoing. They’ve been with us since day one. Our product has been live for 18 months, but we’ve worked with Netguru for about 24 months.

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

They’re very integrated and forthcoming. We’ve basically been with the same resources since the start of the engagement, so even though they are outsourced, we really feel that they are a part of the team. We try to give them the ability to feel ownership of the product and what they deliver to us, and they’ve taken to that.

They want to deliver a good product with us. Rather than just sending them specifications, they actually come with suggestions, so it’s a very dynamic and fruitful cooperation. It’s very valuable and cost-effective for us to have part of our development with Netguru.

How did Netguru perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve never had any issues in terms of meeting deadlines and communicating.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Having worked with a few other providers, I feel like Netguru has a bit of a different approach. It almost seems like they’re a startup in terms of their roles, like a customer success manager. They really try to deliver a quality product, and all of the resources we need are always available. 

Overall, it’s a very well-oiled machine. They try to not only deliver something to us but also develop themselves, learn new technologies, and come up with new ideas. For them, it’s not just about delivering specifications, but also delivering a really good product for us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing that’s worth mentioning or that affects the delivery for us. You can always get better at different things, but at the end of the day, we’re very happy with Netguru’s final delivery.

Any advice for potential customers?

I don’t know if we just had a great team fit, but based on my experience working with Netguru and learning how they work, I think it’s very valuable to try to integrate them as a team. That way, they will definitely feel more ownership. They have communication skills that make it possible for them to integrate, so if you allow them to, they will, and good things come out of that.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of CRIF Bürgel, a financial services company based in Germany. I’m responsible for the whole architecture, infrastructure, and security in the company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Netguru?

We wanted to develop a new product for identifying fraud. The product would use different strategies, including device fingerprinting and biometrics.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Netguru developed a fraud prevention solution using best-in-class services. They implemented a microservice and infrastructure as code (IaC) architecture. Their team used Redis, CockroachDB, Rancher Kubernetes, AWS, React.js, and Node.js.

What is the team composition?

We started with two developers and increased the team to four developers and three DevOps team members. We increased it further from there, adding a product designer, a scrum master, and a product owner.

How did you come to work with Netguru?

I looked for outsourcing companies on Clutch and shortlisted 10 of them. Netguru ranked well, and we had the best communication with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $300,000–$400,000 on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Netguru in late-February 2019, and the project finished in February 2020.

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

Everything was high-quality and delivered on time.  

How did Netguru perform from a project management standpoint?

While my product owner was in contact with their developers, I was in contact with Netguru’s project manager. Their agility was good as was the quality of their people.

What did you find most impressive about them?

If I had another project, I would directly start it with Netguru and not look for other providers.

Are there any areas they could improve?

One challenge for Netguru may be keeping their team motivated during the coronavirus. However, there was nothing that they could’ve done better. Netguru just needs to continue in this direction.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of elScript SA, a legal annotation service. I’m developing an application that is like a digital document for lawyers or legal practitioners. It allows them to annotate legal documentation.

What challenge were you trying to address with Netguru?

The challenge was with the algorithm running the application. The product works a little differently than others. Most annotation tools detect that your annotations remain the same and are the ones being modified over time. In the case of the application I had in mind, it’s the text that gets changed, and the annotations are there to remain as a knowledge base. 

We needed to develop an algorithm that helped the application to sort the differences between two legal texts and to port over the annotations to the next text.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Netguru built the application. They did design and front- and backend development. They also developed the algorithm.

What is the team composition?

Most of the time, there was a project manager, a frontend programmer, two backend programmers, a designer, and a QA person.

How did you come to work with Netguru?

I looked at a review site for developers. I was looking for someone in Eastern Europe because I wasn’t able to afford Western European programmers. I targeted Poland, as I knew they had really good programmers over there. 

I found some good reviews about Netguru. I went on their site and was convinced they were the right company for us because they had a very clear article about how to talk with developers if you don’t know anything about development. It made things very easy for me to know what I had to do to help them understand my project.

How much have you invested with them?

My company spent €200,000 ($237,400 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from February 2019–July 2020. We had an MVP released by the end of 2019 or the beginning of 2020. Everything went live in July.

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

I’m very happy with them. They delivered what I wanted. The application is functional. We’re testing it with users. We’ll be starting a campaign to see if we have more users that will pay to use the application.

How did Netguru perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management was good. I didn’t know anything about this kind of stuff, and Netguru helped me. They were good guides for me. They set the different steps we needed to go through, and everything was clear from the beginning. We had 1–2 initial Zoom sessions, and then we used email or Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Netguru was very helpful in explaining the process and how it was going to work. They were good at designing what the MVP should be. Initially, it was a very broad project. They were able to focus on what would help us to be impactful and leave the rest of the bells and whistles for later. Discussions were good. The relationship was always peaceful and friendly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes the QA could have been a little better. I had to do some proofreading myself.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I recommend working with them. Go to Netguru with some mockups and clear ideas of what you want to achieve. Tell them who your target users are.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chief product officer of a digital wealth management firm based in Berlin, Germany.

What challenge were you trying to address with Netguru?

I had a new project with a significant scope and I didn’t necessarily want to bring on internal resources because it was a temporary change in scope.

What was the scope of their involvement?

 They’re currently working with to provide two React engineers and two Salesforce engineers. They work on our product team as part of a large cross-functional product we’re working on.

They take part in our sprint reviews, retrospectives, and planning. They do provide their input to help make our team and work more efficient.

What is the team composition?

We work with four of them at a time.

How did you come to work with Netguru?

I reached out to a number of companies that I’ve met with before. Netguru pitched to the company in the past. I went through my due diligence and looked at cost-effectiveness and how we would work together. Then I did a technical review of the engineers themselves to make sure that they would meet our technical requirements.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between €50,000–€100,000 (approximately $60,000–$120,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in June 2020.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an engineering manager for a prescription medicine startup.

What challenge were you trying to address with Netguru?

We needed some mobile development done but lacked the internal resources.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Netguru provided a team to work collaboratively with our internal team. They took care of some business requests that desperately needed to be attended to. They also work on development, deliver full-on business requirement features, and do some consulting.

What is the team composition?

Initially, there was a program manager, a senior Android engineer, two iOS engineers, and a QA engineer. Currently, I interact with a senior frontend engineer, two backend engineers, and a QA teammate.

How did you come to work with Netguru?

They were referred by one of our senior directors who had worked with them previously. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together around August 2019, and our engagement is ongoing.

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

Netguru is integrated into our internal teams, so we have monthly check-ins. If there are issues, the team leader addresses them. They are phenomenal engineers and a great asset to our team. They produce high-quality work, and we are satisfied with them.

How did Netguru perform from a project management standpoint?

We don’t fully utilize their project manager because I took on a lot of that role myself. Essentially, she acts as an engagement manager, making sure their engineers are engaged and happy.

She also answers their questions and makes sure that their needs are met. We use Jira extensively and communicate mainly via Slack. We also have daily stand-ups. The team is flexible and available.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They onboarded onto the tech stack very quickly. They took the time to learn our tooling and tech and to comb through the entire code. They do this better than any vendor I’ve worked with in the past.

Additionally, they are leaders in the field regarding the architecture of their code. Netguru constantly looks at new technologies and architecture, as well as new and old principles, and they take pride in being great tech leaders.

They’re also good at pointing out issues and consulting. For example, they helped tremendously with our Android codebase. They integrate well and blend in with the synergy of our team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would be nice if they had a process for their engineers to agree to work a certain time in order to fit their client’s schedule. I asked the account manager about this in the beginning and was told that wasn’t their policy.

Their engineers were free to work whatever time schedule they chose. They were more accommodating in reality when we needed them to be, so it was never a real issue for us.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Treat them as part of your team. They want to provide the utmost integration because they care and want to do what’s right for their client. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the directing manager and founder of The ORIGIN AG.

What challenge were you trying to address with Netguru?

I had an idea for an app that consumers can use to voice their thoughts and feelings without looking at their screens. I wanted users to be able to reflect on their ideas but was a novice in terms of building a product like this from scratch. I needed a partner to develop the product.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Netguru built our app for users to record, store, and analyze thoughts, notes, tasks, and dreams. Their team developed the product for iOS from the ground up. We will build an Android version but believe iOS market segments will be more interested in the tool.

From the beginning, I had strong ideas, which I sketched for their team. Netguru was adaptive throughout the project. I brought them my ideas as to how users could access the different parts of the app, but they ensured we followed best practices.

With the platform, users can speak what they think and feel without having to look at their phone screens. The speech is recorded and transcribed. Their team integrated the app with Apple’s transcription engine, speech2text algorithms, and voice assistants to transcribe user’s recordings into organized notes. Then, the transcript gets stored and sorted in a creative interface. They implemented game mechanics, which enable users to interact with their ideas and categories on the home screen.

We haven’t done a hard launch, so that’s coming next. At that point, we’ll be working to find the sweet spots and pivoting on features if necessary. We’re approaching the process with an attitude of building the app with our users.

What is the team composition?

The team fluctuated between five and seven people. We worked with three developers who supported the main developer. We also engaged with a product owner, a product leader, and quality assurance teammates.

How did you come to work with Netguru?

A colleague recommended Netguru as their team developed an app for him. We decided to visit and appreciated their effort to understand our vision deeply. There was also a large degree of transparency in regard to cost, which I valued because I’m new to this market. At the end of the day, I had a gut feeling based on the in-person meeting

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around €140,000 (approximately $155,500 USD)with them so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Netguru in January 2019, and it’s ongoing. We’ve gone back into development to fix some bugs and upgrade basic features. I don’t see why I wouldn’t continue to work with them.

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

We’ve done a few focus groups. Generally, the feedback has been excellent, and the product’s aesthetic has been a big plus. Users tend to think the platform’s quite fun to use. They speak, watch the app transcribe their words, and then see their thoughts stored. It's a new tool in the market, so people are a bit confused in the beginning. To help users understand the platform, we’re creating a more explicit onboarding process in combination with marketing materials.

How did Netguru perform from a project management standpoint?

They've performed exceptionally well. Usually, we've had stand up meetings every morning via Google meet. Our primary method of communication was Slack. Netguru team was not afraid to speak their minds. We’ve built a close relationship.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their team has been most impressive. Netguru has been down to earth, approaching everything humbly. They’ve spoken their minds throughout the collaboration.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing comes to mind right away. I can't complain.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Go and meet the Netguru team in person. Shop around to compare offerings and teams.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a product manager for Esper, a regulatory software company. We build tools for regulators to use when researching and implementing new rules based on legislation.

What challenge were you trying to address with Netguru?

We had been without a designer for a while. In the process of hiring an in-house resource, we decided to go with an outside firm on a rolling basis.

What was the scope of their involvement?

It was not a particularly well-scoped engagement; we needed help on ongoing projects on an as-needed basis from Netguru’s design resources. We worked with one designer in Poland who participated in our daily team stand-ups. She put together a style guide for us and completed various product design tasks that had been in our pipeline for a while. The style guide was UI-intensive; it specified pixels, colors, fonts, and shadings, among other things. The designer utilized those elements to build out product features and enhancements. This involved thinking through the UX carefully.

What is the team composition?

The primary contributor was a designer, but we also worked daily with a Netguru project manager who kept work organized and on track.

How did you come to work with Netguru?

I previously worked with Netguru at another company that utilized them as one of their primary design and development resources. After working with them for over a year, I can speak to Netguru’s outstanding work and an incredible caliber of talent. 

Working with them was also a very convenient process; I could leave comments on designs at midnight and find the feedback addressed by the next morning’s standup. We had a rapid design cycle as a result.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2019, and the engagement will wrap up by the end of August 2019.

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

Our team and CEO are impressed by their work. Our frontend developers are very excited to start building the new design system that Netguru outlined for us. We’re using the new style guide to reskin our app. 

How did Netguru perform from a project management standpoint?

The designer used Sketch and InVision. I would write a ticket for her detailing the product requirements. She would then put together a design in Sketch and upload it to InVision, where I’d leave comments if I had questions and tweaks to make. This workflow repeated for every task, and it worked very well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Netguru’s bar for talent is extremely high. In my last role, one of their designers mentioned that they interview 200 people for every design position that they fill. Their interview process is rigorous, and as a result, they attract top talent. In addition, Netguru has an incredible remote culture. It really makes working together easy from a client’s perspective. Lastly, their style is amazingly crisp, clean, and consistent across their work with multiple clients that have different needs. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind. I've been very happy with Netguru’s work throughout the entire engagement. 

Any advice for potential customers?

I would recommend having a daily stand-up. All it needs to be is 10–20 minutes every day. Since I’m in the Central time zone, mornings work best for me. That's Netguru’s afternoon, so every morning I show up and they told me what they just worked on all day. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of Odin Company, a psychometric software company. We develop very innovative software apps that are used mostly B2B. We do a combination of tests on unconscious motives and conscious behavior. It all takes 10 minutes online.

What challenge were you trying to address with Netguru?

We had way too many bugs in our software development. We were looking for a more professional business to improve our software.

What was the scope of their involvement?

When we switched to Netguru, they confirmed that our software needed a lot of work. We started to revitalize our existing software to make it more solid and consistent. Now we’re at the end of the lifecycle of that software because with the new plans we have, it’s better and cheaper to rebuild it. We already aligned that process with Netguru. They’re more like a partner to us than just a software development company. It will be a development process that happens in several phases.

We’re using Ruby on Rails coders and architects. They help with front- and backend development. They weren’t involved in the design­–we already redesigned the complete, new software. We created wireframes and screens. We first have to get out the proof of concept for the new business proposition because that will bring us to the exit of our business.

We’re making our product highly scalable. We’re about to launch 3-4 scrum groups for the end development of our new product. They’re going to build an engine in which we can easily connect many people to jobs or training options. Our software is sort of a black book that combines candidates for training possibilities. Once a candidate takes a test, we match them up with jobs or training opportunities that match the results of that test. It will be a standalone system.

What is the team composition?

The project manager manages the team. There’s an account manager, project manager, a quality manager, two coders, and an architect. I also work directly with coders and designers.

How did you come to work with Netguru?

Someone I know had a warm relationship with them. We asked them to review our software and they were very thorough. We were convinced they were the right partner for us.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent 300,000–400,000 euros ($335,000–466,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2016 and the work is ongoing.

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

We are very happy with their work over the last three and a half years. We haven’t had even one bug. It’s an advantage for us that we can scale the team whenever we’d like.

Our clients are very happy about the percentage of uptime, which is extremely high. The software is very solid. They put in sufficient tests and live protocol to test new software. New releases are very solid and our customers hardly noted anything about maintenance.

The setback is almost all the developers we knew are not available, which is normal because they can’t be waiting for us. Last winter, we had to restart the team. It comes with how we work, but it would be interesting if their backlog for transfer of knowledge to new teams could be a bit more consistent.

I understand if we don’t build anything for a year’s time, they have to move on. My solution for that is that we visit them once in a while. We take two or three days to invest in the time to get it all up and running again. We are very happy with them as partners.

How did Netguru perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management is really good. I’ve been having troubles with account management because I’ve had some account managers who came in after the project manager did her work and started it all over again. I don’t have time for that. I’m very honest about that and am sort of blunt sometimes. They’re very open to whatever we need even if it disrupts their structure.

The core of it all is the project manager. I have a real connection with the project manager and the coders. At first, I didn’t have a bond with the account managers. They were flying in without asking. I didn’t see their value until a few weeks ago when I met the new account manager. He does what he should do and he’s really adding something to the project manager. He thinks with us and helps us to position things. He’s a contextual guy, which is really good.

We started communicating with email, but at a certain point, we had to bring everything into a ticket system. I hate it, so I hired an AI student to take care of my tickets. She’s been the middleman between me and Netguru regarding the ticket system.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I really like that the people at Netguru add some things to the deliverables I want or need. I know quite well what I’m looking for and they come up with the smart solutions to do it so much better than I could think of. They are so solid.

What you see is what you get. They’re really young and are so good at this–they never make promises that they can’t keep. Estimations are secure.

We had a workshop with them last winter. We were visualizing the customer journey of the new software to be built. One of the coders asked us to take another 30 minutes to guide him through the process. It was a courageous thing to do rather than just pretending to get it all. Through that, we found out we missed a few things too. We’re very happy with them as a partner.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The account manager should be aware of how a customer works. I’m a content person and I like to know all the details because I have to sell it to my customers. The project manager is key for me. I don’t feel the account manager needs to be the person in charge. If I were Netguru, I’d reconsider how they divide responsibilities in their company.

Everything they do is highly protocoled, but it would help them to have cultural awareness of how other countries function.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO & founder at SixEye Limited, a remote management platform for lighting and AV control systems. We’re unique in the fact that we support devices from multiple manufacturers and allow system integrators to have their own portal with their own branding. We can manage the projects of multiple manufacturers that have integrated with our platform all in one place. The devices connect directly.

What challenge were you trying to address with Netguru?

We were struggling with hiring developers. Initially, our team was developing our server application, but we needed a frontend developer. With two others not working out and a deadline approaching, I started looking for outsourcing firms that could provide developers.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started with a frontend developer, and eventually added a backend developer. We kept the front- and backend arrangement, although the developers rotated after a while. We also added a QA, who also covered our own developers' work. The frontend developer used React with Redux and other JavaScript libraries. The API was developed with Ruby on Rails by the backend developer.

It’s a multi-tenant application so the front- and backend need to manage the concept of multiple customers interacting with the same application and support custom domains. The front end supports theming for each customer. They implemented a frontend design that we created. We needed to display data, sometimes in real-time. The frontend had to know which device it was rendering. On the backend, permissions have been a huge feature over the past year. It’s complicated because each device has different abilities, and each ability has a permission. The backend developer was instrumental in the design of our permissions system, designing a significant part of it herself.

What is the team composition?

There was always one frontend developer, one backend developer, and one QA. Each developer comes with a code reviewer, and I’m in contact with the project manager.

How did you come to work with Netguru?

I searched Google for outsourcing companies in Europe because I wanted to be roughly in the same time zone. We talked to Netguru and another company. While Netguru wasn’t the least expensive, they were well set-up. From the first interview, I got the impression that engagement with them would be smooth. While we didn’t end up using them for this, they also had a lot of design experience and had won several awards. They found a developer, and they subcontracted, which didn’t make a difference to us. The process was completely seamless.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested between $50,000–$199,999.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from November 2017 until May 2019.

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

It’s easy to work with them. The frontend developer was skilled in JavaScript and the flows of developing a frontend app. Netguru helped us learn that we could have an entirely remote team. We now have the confidence to have employees working entirely remotely. For example, our developer based in Uruguay. We met her once for two days. Two years ago, I wouldn’t believe that was a possibility.

We simply wouldn’t be where we are without Netguru. We’ve matured as a company, getting through initial milestones such as showing at tradeshows and demonstrating the unique features. People are now prepared to back us financially for a bit longer. We now have a remote team that’s less expensive than outsourcing. Netguru will be our first choice if we decide to make a mobile app. We would happily hand over a chunk of work to their team. If money were no object, we’d continue with them.

How did Netguru perform from a project management standpoint?

The project manager was excellent. He came to visit us in London and was communicative with his developers and our team. The project manager made sure to find out if anyone had concerns, and would even give me a hard time if he thought I wasn’t managing things well. When they rotated a couple of the frontend developers, it felt like losing our in-house staff because of how closely we worked together. The code reviewers take the additional burden off of our team. It was well-managed, and they delivered a great service.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Netguru looks after their developers. They evoke the sense that they enjoy what they do. The developers aren’t only talented but motivated. Despite growing as a company, nothing was ever too much trouble, and they were never too busy. Their team was readily available. If a particular skill was needed on a project, they could find someone to do it within two weeks.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Before you hire Netguru, being able to talk to the incoming developer would be nice. I have to temper that with the fact that a lot of their clients come to them with specs and money and perhaps are less concerned with who their developers are. I’m an engineer along with my lead developer, and we know what we’re doing, but we’re only two people and care who we're working with.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Give Netguru a spec and have them deliver on it.