Very Good Ventures

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of a watch company. We are an online business and sell through many retailers around the world.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CreateThrive?

We don’t have an in-house tech team, so we need to outsource that work. We were looking to build a new e-commerce platform that could handle the volume of sales we were making and connect everything to one place. Shopify was the best option, and we needed someone to help manage and design that.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They set up Shopify for us, designed the website, and handled all the backend editing. They did any coding or plug-in installation that needed to be done. They used a Scrum methodology in all software development.

What is the team composition?

CreateThrive had two people working on the project.

How did you come to work with CreateThrive?

They were recommended to us by a friend who had worked with them in the past. After an introductory Skype call, we got to know them and decided to move forward. They walked us through the work they’d done in the past. It was clear their team had a good idea of what we wanted and they were very knowledgeable.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested somewhere between $10,000–$25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project began in October 2018 and ended six months later.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The platform is up and running. I don’t have any specific metrics, but everything has been smooth. Everything was delivered on time and the quality of the work compared to the price was excellent.

How did CreateThrive perform from a project management standpoint?

Everything was great. We communicated through WhatsApp, Skype, and regular email. They also had a Slack workflow that we could check out.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed that their team can handle several languages. I’m bilingual—Spanish is my first language and English is my second—and they were able to effectively work with that. I’d recommend them to international clients as well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, the project went great.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would say you should listen to their advice. You hire them for a reason, and they are the experts on the topic you should trust.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a co-founder and the CEO of ChillTravel, a company based in Uruguay, with offices in more than six countries, including the US. We started with the invention of a smart wrapping for luggage, for protection purposes.

This is a big market, especially in South America. Passengers in airports tend to wrap their luggage in plastic, to prevent thieves from opening their bags. We’re adding more products and services to our offer all the time.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CreateThrive?

We’ve also developed an app and software with a lot of help from CreateThrive. It’s a lost and found application, not only for luggage, but for personal objects such as tablets, computers, wallets, etc., and it allows passengers to register all their belongings. Later on, if the item gets lost, whoever finds it (usually the airport or airline staff) can read the code that comes with the object and have the owner notified through their phone or email.

Two of my co-founders have a background in development, but we needed extra help. It was a very ambitious project, and we actually raised a lot of funds from angel investors. We decided to hire a professional company, and we met with some international providers based in Uruguay. We went for CreateThrive because they had a reasonable price, but they also seemed to understand our challenge.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I’m not sure what languages were used since I don’t have a background in IT, but our teams worked together on our website. CreateThrive did the front- and backend of the website, and they also worked on our app, so it’s difficult to say exactly which parts of the project they worked on as opposed to the work done by our team. My partner—who is the CTO of our company—allocated the resources CreateThrive had.

They did the e-commerce development of our website as well, but we aren’t using it right now. We’ve decided to sell through Amazon since we found that our local customers prefer buying through established platforms rather than our e-commerce.

What is the team composition?

I only know three members of their team, but I believe there are more. I’ve met with Joaquín (Co-Founder and CEO, CreateThrive) and Tomas (Co-Founder and CEO, CreateThrive) many times.

How did you come to work with CreateThrive?

I got a referral from a common contact. We vetted multiple companies. I prefer working with smaller providers, because I can get to talk to the owners then, at least in Uruguay. I believe we were one of CreateThrive’s first clients.

How much have you invested with them?

It was a $100,000 project, and they did around half of it. I believe we paid them around $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with CreateThrive in August 2018, and we still have a relationship with them. We’re going to need a lot of services for a big project soon, and we’ll definitely ask CreateThrive for a price. I look forward to doing business with them again. They were very professional.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The product was delivered as expected, even though we added a lot of changes. Everything they promised was delivered.

How did CreateThrive perform from a project management standpoint?

We worked in sprints, and we paid after each one was accomplished. They did everything on time, as predicted, and they helped us whenever we had an issue. We used a platform similar to Slack or Trello, and we could see everything they were doing.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’ve had problems before with companies from Uruguay, especially when creating new products from scratch when we’re not 100% sure what we want to do. CreateThrive was very reasonable about the changes we suggested, and they didn’t change the price. Their communication was fluid and very responsive. The product was definitely good, and this is something I can say as a consumer.

I don’t know the specifics of IT, but I can say that the people behind CreateThrive are very responsible and professional. In comparison with other IT providers, the quality of CreateThrive’s work is very good, but their level of commitment is even better, and that’s very important.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I only hope they still have the same approach after they’ve become a big company.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

It’s important to engage in communication with them and be specific. They’re understanding and easy to work with.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I own a small consulting firm for law enforcement.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire CreateThrive, and what were your goals?

We hired CreateThrive to create the MVP for an electronic law enforcement document system. Our goal was to have a product we could demo to law enforcement agencies.

SOLUTION

How did you select CreateThrive and what were the deciding factors?

CreateThrive had a good portfolio, great communication, and they were within our budget.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

The scope of work involved analyzing current forms in use, digitizing them, and storing them in a way they could be converted to PDF and retrieved easily. Key deliverables were the management interface, the user interface, and the backend.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

I worked with 2 people, a developer and a project manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

After just a few meetings we had a tangible application we could test. Everything was exactly according to spec and required no rework.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

CreateThrive worked to fully understand what problem we were trying to solve, our preference on how it would be solved, and proposed solutions to us. They were very agreeable and easy to reach via video calls, email, and chat.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

CreateThrive knows their craft. They really are experts in their field, but they treated us as equals throughout the entire process.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

None.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Moneybaba.com is a fintech with headquarters in London that amis to deploy financial services all over LATAM. I'm COO at the company. TuTasa.com is one of the local brands in Uruguay & Argentina.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire CreateThrive?

Develop a backoffice site from scratch with little but no specs

What were your goals for this project?

Enable backoffice crew to have a site with all tools needed for there daily business.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Recommendation from colleagues

Describe the project in detail.

They've developed an angular site that consumed services from different sites.

What was the team composition?

One member full time and sr dev part time

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

They've definitively exceeded our expectations. Site was done in time and they keep on working suggesting new tech to use.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Really smooth

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Plug and play. They've adjusted really well to how we work.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Look and feel of the spreadsheet where they report hours.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the CEO of a firm that builds custom AI and IoT solutions for device manufacturers in multiple verticals, including energy, medical, smart sensors, and consumer robotics. Our solutions are currently automating over $2 billion in fleets of connected devices.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire CreateThrive?

We leveraged CreateThrive’s full-stack expertise via their staff augmentation model.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We found CreateThrive through a detailed vendor search and deep technical evaluation of multiple firms. We chose them because of their prior experience and track record of success.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

CreateThrive has helped build multiple highly-polished, consumer-facing interfaces and supported several large national and international public launches. Their skills as engineers, responsiveness, and excellent communication added up to a fantastic experience around launches and releases.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Our experience with CreateThrive has been fantastic! They are great partners and I would recommend them wholeheartedly to any CEO or VP of Engineering.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

They integrated well with our team and our processes. In addition to bringing their deep technical expertise surrounding web and mobile technologies, their communication and responsiveness while working together has been outstanding.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The thing that makes CreateThrive stand apart from other firms is their ability to solve hard technical problems and build properly engineered solutions while staying tightly focused on creating business value.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There is very little they could do to improve. My only suggestion for the inexperienced is to document requirements as much as possible before starting any software project.