Netguru

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of an online education platform for web and mobile. Our platform enables anyone who wants to teach something to teach it. For example, someone could teach English to girls in Afghanistan or I could teach script writing to my neighbor. It works online and offline.

What challenge were you trying to address with Netguru?

I needed a company to develop our website and mobile app following a few unsuccessful previous engagements.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed our website and mobile app. It’s a very complex website with social media features, and it’s in 10 languages. We only connect people to people. Most applications are people to machines, but we wanted to get people together. Sometimes we call our website “dating for knowledge”.

We are planning to work together for another two weeks following our launch. We will pause for three months while we do some marketing and user testing. Then we will continue to develop as usual.

What is the team composition?

We have one team leader.

How did you come to work with Netguru?

I looked all over the world after failing with three other companies. Netguru invited me to go to a workshop for two days to look at the project. They said if we chose them, we wouldn’t have to pay for the workshop. If we didn’t go with them, we’d pay 2,000 euros for the workshop. That was very clever of them and very fair.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over $500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2017 and the work is ongoing.

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

We have a very complex app and web page now. I’m happy with the quality of work. It wasn’t initially clear how much it would cost to finish the project, and we ended up going over budget. It’s like building a house – we changed a lot of things and it became more expensive than expected. I learned it’s very difficult to budget a website.

How did Netguru perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management is outstanding. I couldn’t talk to them like a technician, but only like a teacher or someone who understands what people need. I could talk to them more emotionally than technically, and they were really good at turning my ideas into programming.

I speak with the team lead for 10 minutes daily. We have a team meeting once a week where I talk to the whole team and they report to me what they did the previous week and what they’re planning for the next week. They’re very clear. We mostly communicate through Slack. They’re very clear.

When one developer disappeared and took with him three weeks of work, Netguru didn’t make us pay for it and took it on as their own problem. They’re very fair, and I’m happy even after two years.

We negotiated a certain rate for each programmer or designer per day. The team leader from Netguru and I could decide how many more resources we needed. We could change the workload and the financial load day-by-day, which was very convenient for me in terms of planning the financial flow.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very transparent about where my money goes. I can talk directly to all the developers.

Are there any areas they could improve?

For the amount of time we worked with them, they could have given us a bigger discount. Long-term customers should get better rates.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Know what you’re doing. Plan your website or your project better than I did. Do your homework and don’t rely on your developers to do it for you.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a social shopping application. Users can discover products from real people. We enable consumers to upload a picture and tag the item so others can buy it.

What challenge were you trying to address with Netguru?

Netguru built our entire platform using existing code. We needed their team to develop our mobile app, focusing on performance and features.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our platform is built for iOS. We work with them in terms of developing stories around the features and architecture we wanted to create. They’ve helped our team deal with performance issues and structure to ensure app stability and maintaining our growing user base. Once we decide on business and technical requirements with their team, we work in sprints to develop those components. Those components and features are deployed on a weekly basis. I tackled most of the design but did receive advice from one of their designers.

What is the team composition?

Our team includes a project manager, a QA specialist, two native frontend engineers, and two backend engineers who specialize in React.

How did you come to work with Netguru?

Previously, we worked with another company and weren’t pleased with the results. We searched Clutch to find an agency that would solve a lot of issues we were having. After finding Netguru, we reached out.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement began in January 2018.

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

We’ve been able to deploy a functioning platform that our team is happy with. Netguru has excellent output in terms of their work quality and ethic.

How did Netguru perform from a project management standpoint?

We have several touch points with Netguru. Our stand-ups with their team take place every morning. During those meetings, we spend time tuning, planning, and reviewing our previous sprints. Our teams discuss what worked and what didn’t.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m impressed with the excellence Netguru displays in their work. Their ability to figure out solutions for hard problems and then execute the solutions makes them stand out. We had a frustrating experience with our previous team, and at times, it felt like pulling teeth for every aspect of the project. Netguru came into the engagement proactively, detailing what’s getting done and how. They always deliver.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The hard thing about offshore work was finding time to have those touch points. My partner and I wake up at 6 a.m. to be on stand-ups with them, to make sure there was a lot of time overlap. If there isn’t enough time, you can make do with that. It’s a bit frustrating, but honestly, Netguru has always provided us with the resources to figure everything out. Different people help us think about growth and metrics. We have access to a variety of skillsets. There is machine learning built into our platform. Some of their team members are skilled in that area and algorithms.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I think everybody is different, but I advise customers to create as many touch points as possible. Have those conversations to align properly. Like with any engineering team, you have to make sure they’re focused on what they’re doing and meant to deliver. As with any team, regardless of location, there can be times where things get lost in translation. It’s important to be clear with expectations.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of product for an online estate agency. We provide a software platform for landlords.

What challenge were you trying to address with Netguru?

We engaged Netguru to develop our custom platform.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Netguru built our platform using Node.js in the backend and Ember in the frontend. We had an idea of what we wanted to do, and their team helped flesh it out. They found solutions and suggested alternate ways of accomplishing our requirements.

The platform allows landlords to track their marketing efforts. Landlords can see how many people looked at their ads and make adjustments in the ads (such as price changes). They can check property happenings and send messages to our team over the platform. The solution interacts with several external systems to collect and update data.

What is the team composition?

The project manager serves as our primary point of contact. We have direct contact with developers as well.

How did you come to work with Netguru?

We looked at many options for outsourced development. After reaching out to friends and colleagues, we received a referral to Netguru. Their reasonable rates and our initial conversations impressed us, so we chose them to complete this project.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $50,000–$199,999.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2017, and the project is ongoing.

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

Netguru has executed the solution while providing valuable consulting and advising services along the way. We plan on enhancing the platform and engaging Netguru to help us with other technical projects as well.

How did Netguru perform from a project management standpoint?

The team is highly accessible and responds immediately to any queries. They provide summaries and updates of our discussions. We communicate via Slack and coordinate sprints through Jira.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Netguru makes communication straightforward and efficient. Their team is full of knowledgeable people who can answer questions unrelated to our project. Our collaboration works like a partnership.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, it’s been a very positive experience.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure that you fully understand your vision and needs in advance. Netguru can work fast once you give them what they need to execute your project.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior software architect for an online learning platform.

What challenge were you trying to address with Netguru?

We purchased our learning management system (LMS) based in Ruby on Rails, which is more difficult to find talent onshore for. We have no internal development staff, so it had to be outsourced.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed several features, including an active status, which what a student goes through from onboarding until they start taking their first course. They’ve also implemented workflows and done a plethora of bug fixes, both visually in the UI and programmatically in the services.

They do maintenance and corrections to our data itself. We’re going to be moving onto an entirely new platform and will be hiring in-house staff and onshore consulting. While we’re doing that, Netguru will actively maintain and deliver fixes and features on the legacy application.

What is the team composition?

Most of my interaction with them is through the project manager or their technical lead.

How did you come to work with Netguru?

I inherited them. Their skill set isn’t very common anymore, but it was probably one of the reasons my boss had chosen them—they specialize in Ruby on Rails development.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2017 and it’s still ongoing.

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

I’m very pleased with what they do. I’ve worked with other offshore teams and Netguru is definitely the best I’ve worked with.

How did Netguru perform from a project management standpoint?

We have two weekly calls, with ad hoc calls once in a while. I also have an open line for 30 minutes every morning for emergencies, which we rarely use. We use Jira, but most of our document sharing is done via Google Drive.

I bounce ideas off the tech lead who definitely knows what he’s doing. They address on any issues instantly—anything that’s critical, even off hours, they’re right on it and working on it.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their project manager is amazing and is constantly trying to improve her team. I’d recommend her to anybody. They’re constantly tweaking their internal process to make it more efficient, agile, and to suit our need.

They have excellent attitudes and our tech lead is amazing too. You don’t often find companies that are able to retain someone at that technical level. We had an onsite visit to them a couple months ago. They’re super nice, very welcoming, and always very open-minded about changes or doing things in a different way.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s been a significant amount of change on their team. They have a practice of rotating juniors. Though they always ask before they do and don’t charge us, sometimes it takes time away from senior resources. For the most part, we’re happy with what they’re doing and most of our concerns simply have to do with the nature of offshore development.

With any offshore talent, there’s always time zone challenges because of coordination and logistics. Any delays weren’t their fault though, as the legacy application was extremely poorly written. Most of their efforts involved correcting problems that already existed or trying to understand what a previous developer had done wrong.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Try to understand your needs and make sure that Netguru fits them. They’re strictly a Ruby on Rails and Node.js house. As long as you understand that, I’d recommend them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of a FinTech company. We develop technology for the financial advice sector.

What challenge were you trying to address with Netguru?

Currently, the interactions between financial advisors and clients are traditionally done in person. Advisors visit clients at their home to discuss objectives and make plans. Face-to-face meetings are clearly very productive; however, they’re also time-consuming and costly. We wanted to build a software solution that compliments those in-person meetings, but also provides a channel for digital interactions. We had a clear idea of our value proposition and the features we wanted on the platform, but we needed a vendor to build it.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Netguru flew their project manager and a few designers from Poland for a kick-off session with our team. We first discussed the context of the project and the business challenges we were looking to solve. Then, we provided them with a specific set of requests and some initial designs. After they reviewed that information, they shared their feedback, and we collaborated on a final plan for the software.

Once we agreed on the designs, their team made some final adjustments before handing them over to the development team. The developers started by building the core platform and the basic functionalities. Since then, we’ve brought on more developers to work on creating and implementing the rest of the features quickly and efficiently.

It’s an ongoing project, but the finished product will facilitate interactions between financial advisors and their clients. 

What is the team composition?

I interface with Netguru’s entire team on a daily basis.

How did you come to work with Netguru?

We ran a small procurement initiative where we contacted about six different agencies. We shared the same request with each vendor and analyzed their responses. Some companies seemed to be more focused on marketing rather than engineering, so we ruled them out. Our ideal partner needed to not only have experience in design and marketing but also demonstrate the capability to overcome complex technical challenges. Ultimately, we chose Netguru because they offered a balanced skillset for a reasonable price, and they’re in a nearby time zone.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in November 2017, and the project is ongoing.

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

We haven’t launched yet. They’ve developed a high-level MVP, but we want to add more features before we introduce the solution to the market.

How did Netguru perform from a project management standpoint?

The Netguru team is communicative and responsive. They follow more of an agile approach. We have weekly planning meetings every Monday morning where they share the work they completed in the previous week and establish what they’ll deliver at the next meeting. Every resource on their team actively reaches out whenever they have a question about the scope, features, plans, or any other aspect of the project. It’s been a very interactive collaboration.

I was heavily involved in the day-to-day management in the beginning, but they’ve since found their rhythm. I pulled back a bit, which was very helpful. Now, I can allocate my time to other important initiatives and leave the technical details to them, knowing that they’d contact me whenever necessary.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They offer a good quality-to-cost ratio, which led us to choose them as a partner in the first place. Additionally, they’re fun to work with and approach their work with a can-do attitude. At this point, I’ve developed a good working relationship with their developers. If I reach out to them with an issue, suggestion, or questions, they do the appropriate research and come back with a thought-out response. Even though we don’t see each other on a daily basis, they feel like part of our internal team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes, I feel that the project management is more focused on individual deliverables rather than the project as a whole. Usually, I have to approach them with what I think we need to do, and they help me define the next steps from there. However, I’ve never built a technology-based business before, so they have a lot more expertise in that field. I’d like them to be a bit more proactive and come to me with suggestions for how we should manage the production process. 

Any advice for potential customers?

I think starting with a small team from Netguru worked very well. We settled into a workflow with three developers and a few designers and scaled the team once we found our rhythm and had the core platform up and running. The new resources increased our capabilities and helped us develop new features quickly, but I think it would’ve been a little premature to start with a large team. I recommend other clients consider starting the engagement with just a few resources to get a feel for the relationship.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a risk and compliance manager at a short services organization, which is part of a large consumer products company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Netguru?

We moved to a new office and transitioned from an open-space concept to an open-collaboration space. Before, employees had their own desks but now sat in divided basecamps that fit each group’s function. We needed a mobile app that would enable coworkers to locate themselves in the new office and find colleagues.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Netguru developed the iOS and Android app using Bluetooth technology. The solution let employees not only find colleagues but also explore the various basecamps. Heatmaps identified the high-focus areas and quiet zones where staff could choose to work. Users could also track occupied and vacant conference rooms.

What is the team composition?

The project manager was our main point of contact. We also interacted with the developers and one designer.

How did you come to work with Netguru?

We considered cost, quality, and innovation during our search. We knew the concept of the app was new and some vendors may have challenges building it according to our vision. Netguru’s amazing portfolio and reasonable prices stood out from the other vendors we considered.

How much have you invested with them?

The amount is confidential. We split the cost with another part of our parent company.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2017, and development ended in June 2018. Netguru completed the app’s final version, and we are now discussing next steps for delivery.

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

Netguru’s agile methodology had a positive impact on our team. The project was our first time using the approach, and it changed how we do things in the company. We also shared the same values as Netguru. During informal talks, the team was engaged, honest, and helpful.

How did Netguru perform from a project management standpoint?

As the client, we were responsible for ensuring that Netguru had as much time as needed for the project. We used Jira and Slack for the first time with Netguru; both tools were very helpful. As an alternative to email, Slack made everything easy to find. We had weekly calls and spoke with the team as needed. In addition to being available, the team had good information flows and effective sprints. The designer’s work was particularly amazing.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We had a positive experience. Although I don’t have experience working with other app developers, I would confidently recommend Netguru because they produce quality work. Besides quality, the app’s visual and responsive design distinguished it from others.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The first project manager didn’t calculate the cost properly and the price appeared higher than what we had agreed. Although this was a one-person issue, Netguru as a whole deserved some blame.

Even though we had some serious discussions about cost, they were never on a personal level. We disagreed, but the conversation never became aggressive or impolite. The team had good values and a positive environment; everyone seemed happy.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Clients don’t have to worry about quality or timely deliveries. Netguru will professionally fulfill their promises. However, all prospective customers should discuss cost because vendors make their proposals as attractive as possible; the prices may not be realistic.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Alteos GmbH (Axa Konzern AG) is a software company that develops insurance platforms that allow multi-digital e-commerce and other partners to quickly launch their insurance products.

What challenge were you trying to address with Netguru?

We needed a development team to work on the backend of our platform.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provided us with a resource that met our requirements. They became a part of our team remotely and worked on the backend development.

What is the team composition?

We have one backend engineer, one project manager, and one QA manager.

How did you come to work with Netguru?

We did market research into software houses that could support us in the early and later stages. Out of the six we interviewed, Netguru came first.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2018 and the work is ongoing.

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

The onboarding process went well and they’ve done a good job. They’re an extension of our team and are fully engaged in what we do.

How did Netguru perform from a project management standpoint?

Their responsiveness is really great. There’s almost no difference between working with our team members in-house and them being remote. For engineering, it’s really straightforward.

We’re satisfied with the project management process. We’re in touch with them ten times a day usually, and receive direct feedback from everyone on the team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're able to quickly onboard. They have a good preselection process for the people they employ—everyone is very high level.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could be cheaper.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s important to stay in touch and be in the process together. Otherwise, the results might be disappointing. Communicate often.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of product for a technological company. We’ve developed a personal robot product for domestic use. It’s a telepresence device that functions as an autonomous personal assistant.

What challenge were you trying to address with Netguru?

When we established our company, we lacked the employees needed to build the product. However, we didn’t want to waste time waiting until we'd recruited all of our in-house personnel to start the project, so we approached Netguru. Initially, they served as our development team to execute our concept. As we amassed an internal team of qualified developers, they continued to work with us, providing a range of mobile app development services.

What was the scope of their involvement?

As I've mentioned, we contracted our work to them while we were building up our in-house team. However, it was such a comfortable partnership that we decided to continue the engagement for the entire project. They currently serve as an extension of our team, doing mostly Android development and QA testing, though they’ve also done some iOS work.

Recently, we’ve become large enough to bring the project in-house, so we’re changing the nature of the relationship. We're going to keep all the core assets and intellectual property internal. However, we plan to continue contracting them for stand-alone projects unrelated to the core software, which they would manage themselves.

What is the team composition?

We typically work with four people, including a project manager, a lead developer, and an iOS developer. Their resources are talented and trustworthy, so it's fun to work with them. They’re always curious about emerging technologies and are really cooperative.

How did you come to work with Netguru?

I joined the project after they’d started working here, so I'm unsure about the details.

What is the status of this engagement?

Their work lasted from January 2016–June 2018.

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

Beyond being capable developers, they’ve brought a strong work culture to our organization. We’ve even implemented a few of their processes, benefiting immensely from their QA procedures. Every 4–6 months, one of their professionals would review our apps and provide an external analysis of our code. This allows us to gain invaluable perspective into our work.

How did Netguru perform from a project management standpoint?

They're cooperative and flexible with our schedules. Here, in Tel Aviv, we rest on Fridays and work on Sundays, so there’s always a two-day gap between us and the rest of the world. Despite this, our schedules are well synced.

Their developers are committed to our project, which speaks volumes about their character. Over time, we’ve developed a good personal relationship with the team. If I need them to work a few extra hours on the weekend, they cooperate with us. We have daily meetings and use Slack and other tools to communicate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I appreciate that they’ve maintained the same key personnel throughout our project. With outsourced work, the vendor often moves people around assignments. However, it was important to me that their developers didn’t move to other projects while working with us. If a developer needed to leave the project, Netguru made sure to bring in a replacement as early as possible. That way, the next person would have enough time to learn about our objectives and methods.

I also value their breadth of expertise, ranging from their QA services to their project management. Whenever we have a problem, we know that we can ask a number of people to find a solution. They have a vast and knowledgeable community of developers that offer crucial insights into some of the new technologies that we’re experimenting with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Due to the nature of our project, we sometimes have to send them custom hardware to facilitate development. However, because their developers work remotely all over Poland, we need to send multiple devices to various locations. If we were working with a more centralized team, this wouldn't be an issue.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

At the end of the day, it’s the customer’s responsibility to ensure that the product is developed correctly. If there are discrepancies between the product requirement documents (PRD) and the final outcome, the customer still shares some of the culpability. Customers should work closely with the team to make sure that the project is moving in the expected direction. Having regular check-ins also helps mitigate misunderstandings.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the founder of Kuingia, which is a business news and information service, giving revenue generators and owners of large companies the ability to access and capture relevant information that can be retained within the organization to allow everyone access.

What challenge were you trying to address with Netguru?

We had no technical resources in-house to build our platform.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They gave us a wireframe well beyond our budget, which was enough for them to determine our concept, then they simplified it. This version allows us to put our own architecture around it.

They developed an MVP from scratch. The product was simple in delivery and function but provided a solution. It was more scalable than we'd envisioned it being, which allowed us to get clients. We were also able to sell it, which was the important thing. The product was meant to be a proof of concept for one customer, who ultimately didn’t work out, but we ended up selling it to nine other companies in three different industries.

We’ve now engaged Netguru to build a second version. It will have enhancements that will allow us to scale with our existing customers and capture new ones. The product is still budget sensitive, but I've given them the go-ahead to build.

What is the team dynamic?

On the 1st version, there were two developers and a project manager. When I met to do the project planning, there were three developers and a project designer. The next version will have three developers working on it. 

How did you come to work with Netguru?

We tendered around four companies. For the first iteration, Netguru was the most competitive in price and delivery and came highly recommended.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2017, and the work is ongoing.

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

The feedback has been good. Netguru is the first company we’ve outsourced to.

How did Netguru perform from a project management standpoint?

I manage the project through their own project manager. We've done weekly sprints and used online communication tools to talk to developers if there's a specific question that needs to be resolved. They've been on time and within budget.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They've delivered when asked. They’re competitive on price, even giving me an initial build price, so I know my money is going toward building the product and not on soft issues like discovery.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I would've liked the period of the turnaround for version two to have been quicker, but I knew they were busy.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They're very good for people who are less experienced. They have all the software development skills in-house, and they don’t just build the software for you, they also help you understand that there are things in the industry you need to know.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We operate networking dinners for the technology community and people in business so that they can expand their networks. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Netguru?

I was looking for a Ruby developer. Our team operated remotely, so I was quite interested in a remote solution because it would fit in with how we were already working.

We hadn’t done any development for a year or so. I’d always had a developer in-house, and now we had that gap. I had someone who could accomplish things here and there, but we didn’t have someone working on the technology full-time.

Our company’s team is small, and they don’t all work from the same place. It made sense for us to find a remote solution that could scale up and down as needed. We could do that with Netguru.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They took over the management of the site. We hadn’t done any development work for about a year, so they gave a lot of advice about things we should be updating, like new versions of Ruby. They did that initial review to pinpoint main concerns. At the same time, they allowed me to make comments and request some of the things I was more interested in, like the features and everything we ultimately wanted. It was a balance between the two processes. They took on everything and we started from the beginning in terms of objectives.

We totally changed the flow of our signup process, including all the data fields that we collected and had structured into profiles. We did lots of work on reporting so that I could actually extract the information I needed in order to run the business well. It was a whole different way of looking at the data.

We also added various payment methods. We added description options, bundles, and did an overhaul of some of our regular scheduled emails, optimizing and speeding them up. Netguru did lots of refactoring.

There was tons of old code that they audited, picking and choosing what was worth keeping. They made the software a lot simpler. Prior to working with Netguru, we didn’t have automatic tests or scripts. So after each feature, they put in place automatic testing. Now, instead of us having to manually test, those key features are automatically tested to see if anything is broken. They focused on the user, especially making sure nothing broke during the payment process. We are now having a bit of a break from development and they are helping with maintenance.

What is the team dynamic?

We had two senior developers, one junior developer, a designer, a project manager, and a tester. That was the maximum that we had at any given time.

They have a rotation policy at Netguru. After a certain period of time, the lead developer will be changed so that everything is seen by more than one developer. This method ensures there’s more than one person working on the code, giving a different perspective. We had a project manager that I couldn’t stand, but she left the company, so we ended up with a new one. There was also always a backup project manager that knew the project to a certain level, which was useful. If someone was on a day’s leave, the backup person would always be available.

If we wanted to add or remove anyone on the team on short notice, that was always very easy for Netguru. An in-house team would’ve been a different commitment. I like the flexibility, the availability, and the cost savings of office space.

How did you come to work with Netguru?

I spoke to various freelance developers and contractors; I was looking at all the options. There was one other remote company I was considering, but they didn’t compare when I spoke to them about how they operated. Wiktor [Schmidt, Co-Founder & CEO, Netguru] reached out to me via email just in time, told me a bit about what they do, and we began the engagement.

What is the status of this engagement?

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

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

We introduced the new payment options in January, and our revenues doubled overnight. That was the most significant thing that we did. The other thing that was really useful was getting the deeper insights into data, how people are using the site, and the customer behavior. It allows us to adapt our marketing and our commercial strategy.

How did Netguru perform from a project management standpoint?

Netguru is extremely thorough and quite strict. Strict is good, though, because all I want to do is work on the stuff that I can see—I don’t care about the tests running in the background. I know they’re important, but I want to move onto the next thing. They tell me the things that we need to do and they make me stick to it. They got me to be much more structured in running this technology project. It was strict in a good way.

They make me stick to the rules and processes that they’ve developed over time, with a lot of projects and a robust development team. We use JIRA or Atlassian as a project management tool, and Slack to keep track of things. We talk on Google Hangouts every week.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re based in Poland and I’m in London, but it doesn’t feel that way—they’re always present. Almost every week, I’ll get an email from someone saying, “Do you want to grab coffee? I’m in London.” That's not what you expect from a remote firm. They’re very hot on customer care.

There’s always someone available to talk to me, or someone checking in. That was way above what I was expecting. They’ve done a really good job with communication. Having a QA tester was also amazing. When features were shown to me, they had been tested thoroughly, and truly worked. My experience in the past was getting a feature that was 97% there. With Netguru, when we did find a bug or a problem, they would get right on it, which I know is very time-consuming.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing that comes to mind; their development was good and I loved how the team was put together. I liked their availability and their customer care as well. I can’t imagine wanting to go back to using in-house solutions. I’ll be comfortable using Netguru for future projects. I would use them without hesitation.

What tips would you share with less experienced buyers that come to Clutch and hope to use our platform to find a vendor?

The thing I didn’t know a long time ago was the difference between programming languages and the availability of developers. There are certain programming languages that have a lot of developers available, and you’d have more of a choice in the market.

Some programming languages, though, don’t have as many developers. Supply and demand dictate the price and availability. I’d get a handle on the actual options and what that means for your project, especially if it’s ongoing.