Cedarcode

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for Notable Finance LLC, a fintech startup. We specialize in home improvement loans designed for home sellers looking to maximize the value of their homes. We offer a software solution to support our applicants throughout the entire process, from applying for a loan to repaying that loan through our system. I'm the company's CTO, so I'm the head of all of our technical operations, which includes managing our contract with Cedarcode.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Cedarcode?

When I joined the company, our business was scaling rapidly, so we needed to bring in a group of developers with strong technical acumen. However, we didn't want a lengthy onboarding period; we wanted developers who could join our project right away.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Cedarcode provides us with very flexible development services; they've assigned a group of developers to work on our app development projects. We've established a joint onboarding process. We have guidelines, practices, and standards pertaining to our development practices, our industry, and the fintech environment regulations, so we've provided those guidelines to Cedarcode. Still, they've also had their own internal onboarding process every time they bring new members onto their team.

Whenever they add a new team member, the team lead from Cedarcode assigned to our project ramps up the new developer into our tech stack. Therefore, they basically get onboarding assistance grom both sides, which accelerates the time it takes for them to actually start contributing to the project.

One of our most recent projects and our focal point in 2024 has been building a core product offered to an exclusive partner. This product has been designed for sellers. When an applicant is selling their home and is working with a specific brokerage, they have the opportunity to go through a loan application process within our platform to help fund any improvement or closing costs they might have.

One of the key features that we've developed in the last year is the ability to branch that service out to be more agnostic across multiple brokerages. Thanks to this feature, we can partner with over 30 brokerages with the same capacity.

Cedarcode's team has been primarily responsible for updating our code base and making it agnostic. This has required improving areas that were previously hard-coded to make it easy to onboard new partners. Basically, they've headed up that effort and been responsible for managing the incremental improvements that have come with it.

Technology stack-wise, our code base is predominantly TypeScript and JavaScript. We also have a PostgreSQL backend. We operate in an MVC (model-view-controller) model, which is structured similarly to a Ruby on Rails product but using TypeScript. Moreover, we're hosted in Heroku and use AWS for a lot of different things. We also have third-party products that integrate with either AWS or Heroku.

Our engagement with Cedarcode is strictly based on software development work. Although they're involved in tasks like requirements gathering and functionality demos, everything they're involved in is centered around software development in some way, shape, or form.

What is the team composition?

We currently have three developers from Cedarcode assigned to our project.

How did you come to work with Cedarcode?

Cedarcode had already started working with us prior to my arrival. However, I know that my predecessor had surveyed a lot of similar service providers that offered contractual-based development services. When we were introduced to Cedarcode, they offered us the kind of experience we were looking for and had a lot of technical expertise.

We noticed that they had a wide range of experience and a strong background in engineering and development philosophies, which would translate well into our business. Therefore, we knew that they would be able to jump into the project and contribute to all aspects of our platform right away. In particular, Cedarcode had a strong Ruby on Rails background, which denoted very strong development practices and skills.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent around $1 million with Cedarcode. We have a monthly rate, but it varies from month to month because our contracts have changed over time, as well as the rates for the developers and engineers.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2020, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Something noteworthy about Cedarcode is that everyone from their team contributes to our project at a technical level. There isn't a project management layer that doesn't directly contribute to the development work, so every teammate who's part of our contract contributes to developing the app.

One of the key milestones Cedarcode has achieved is expanding the core product I mentioned to make it more agnostic. Previously, it took us months to onboard a new brokerage partner into our platform. Thanks to Cedarcode's most recent updates, it is now a matter of days.

Still, Cedarcode's main success metric has been the volume of commits they've made, which has been very high. Their team has made more than half of the total commits we have to our project, demonstrating that they're very efficient and productive. We also measure their development velocity, which has been consistently high. Overall, Cedarcode has been one of our company's top performers in both areas.

How did Cedarcode perform from a project management standpoint?

Cedarcode's project management is very good. We operate on tight deadlines, and they've almost always met them. It's very rare for them not to meet a deadline, and in case they anticipate not meeting one, they provide us with a warning in advance. We communicate well via email or Slack, so there are no surprises. Moreover, the delays haven't been their fault. The complications in requirements have led to those few instances of Cedarcode not being on time.

We work in an agile environment, so every two weeks, we iterate on new changes and ideas that can vary widely. In addition to using Slack throughout the day to communicate, we also use Google Meet for our daily stand-up meetings and any required cross-department calls. We also use Linear, which is similar to Jira, to collaborate and have asynchronous communication. We use Trello for specific bug reports, but we don't use it often. We would rather use Linear.

Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

Although they're all great to work with, I want to give a shout-out to Marcelo (Co-Founder & Software Engineer). He does a great job of managing all the work his team is doing, and he's always vouching for the right way to do things.

Marcelo has also done a great job of ensuring that the development team is as scalable as possible, given that there are always a lot of unknowns in what we're doing. He's particularly talented at anticipating unknowns, developing solutions, and guiding his team into thinking the same way.

What did you find most impressive about them?

One of the things that distinguishes Cedarcode from other service providers is that there's no overhead involved. Everyone contributes to the code base almost daily, so we get a lot of value for the money.

Their team is very active and involved in the project, and everything is straightforward. We know what we're getting, and there's not a lot of change in what we're doing. Moreover, Cedarcode has a pretty steady team. All those characteristics combined set them apart from similar companies.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything Cedarcode could do differently. They've been pretty good with everything.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

You will benefit from having a strong technical contact or liaison with Cedarcode. If you're an organization with many layers and not much technical acumen, you could struggle to engage with them. Therefore, ensure that you know the technical side of things so that you can speak at the same level with everyone from Cedarcode. Other than that, Cedarcode is very easy to work with, and everything is very straightforward.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the VP of engineering at an organization that is building a coaching platform for companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Cedarcode?

We needed help finding software engineers who were nearshore to the US and had the right skill set and quality to help us achieve our business objectives.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We use Cedarcode as a software consultancy service. The team brings software engineers on a staff augmentation model that we hire on a recurring annual contract. The engineers' services include building features for our product, maintaining and testing those features, and prototyping new ideas. Cedarcode's resources work primarily on web applications, and have started building a mobile app. 

Cedarcode's team works using Ruby on Rails and is fully embedded into our core team, having access to our internal documents and processes. Cedarcode's engineers work with our in-house designers on different requests since this isn't a fixed project. Cedarcode's engineers work remotely from Uruguay and have come to the US to meet with us. Most of our company is in the US and Canada.

What is the team composition?

We work with around 10 software engineers and with Cedarcode's founders.

How did you come to work with Cedarcode?

Both founders of Cedarcode are known in the Ruby on Rails community and have established their company name as Ruby on Rails partners. Our company sought offshore teams to work with that software and support our projects.
How much have you invested with them?

We spend around $100,000 monthly.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement with Cedarcode precedes my time working at my company and has lasted 5–6 years.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We started working with 2–3 developers, and our team has scaled up to 10 engineers. The resources Cedarcode brings are extremely good and deliver high-quality code. The internal teams that Cedarcode's engineers have embedded into have been extremely effective and good at keeping up with timelines and high-quality work. We haven't encountered issues or bugs in their deliverables, and I haven't heard any complaints from my internal team.

Our customers' support requests aren't about product issues since they usually ask about how to cancel a subscription or add features. The team is flexible enough to address those requests, even if they're not technical problems. I've worked with other vendors where I've requested the project manager or the team's lead to swap a teammate because they didn't work out for the project. However, this hasn't happened with Cedarcode. 

The team doesn't have a big staff and has a strict vetting process for the resources they choose to work with. When Cedarcode hires a new teammate, we don't interview them because we trust the team has found the right talent with the right mindset.

How did Cedarcode perform from a project management standpoint?

The team delivers work on time or ahead of the deadlines we set to provide updates for our customers. We have a fixed budget with Cedarcode, and they haven't asked for extra charges. We collaborate via Slack, Jira, Confluence, and all the Atlassian tools.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of the professionals Cedarcode brings is fantastic. I don't have to worry about the resources' ability to meet our standards. Our team embraces the provided resources as if they're in-house engineers and treats them the same as our employees because they deliver what they say they’re going to. 

The engineers often suggest ideas to fix our code and don't only take orders, and my team appreciates that. Cedarcode is interested in delivering high-quality work and not only on the money income. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Cedarcode often takes a long time to hire new resources because they pay a lot of attention to their process. If I have an urgent need or request for extra engineers, Cedarcode takes a long time to find them because, as a small business, they don't have engineers on retainer. 

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Cedarcode's founders are great. The more you include them in your team and the less you treat them as a software vendor, the better they will be.