Geniusee

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of a company that creates study tools for high-stakes exams in North America.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Geniusee?

We needed help with custom software and website development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Geniusee has been responsible for developing our website and software from the ground up. The team has built our front- and backend systems. We had several old WordPress websites, and Geniusee consolidated them into one using a design we created. One site at a time, the Geniusee team has migrated our old websites into the new product. The team has guided us on what technology stack to use and how to approach everything. They’ve also helped us with animations.

One of the website’s features is called game challenges. These are mini-games in which students answer questions in a fully animated game, and whoever gets the highest score wins a prize at the end of the week.

What is the team composition?

We’re currently working with around 16 members of Geniusee's team.

How did you come to work with Genusys?

We found Geniusee on Clutch. They had good reviews, and we got a good feeling with them. We interviewed a few other agencies and narrowed our options down to three. Geniusee took the most personalized approach. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $1 million–$9 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2023, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Geniusee has saved us a lot of time. In one year since we switched from the old site to the new site, our product revenue has grown by 60%–70%. We’re also a lot more efficient. Before working with Geniusee, it took us around a month and a half to fix a bug, while Geniusee fixes them in less than 24 hours.

How did Genusys perform from a project management standpoint?

Geniusee delivers work on time and within budget. We primarily use Jira and Slack for communication.

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

I’d like to give a shout-out to our QA teammate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I've worked with other agencies, and, in comparison, Geniusee is very organized, and they always get back to us right away. For example, I needed statistics on how many users were using a feature on the site, so I reached out to Geniusee. This was the first time I asked for these specific metrics, and Geniusee gave the full metrics. They do their best to go above and beyond.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything they can improve on because they've done such a good job. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trust what they say. Geniusee is the real deal and they are very experienced.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of technology at an organization that helps students that study abroad book accommodation services. Part of my role is providing tech support for the company and developing new products.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Geniusee?

We needed help identifying new business opportunities and products we could develop on our platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Geniusee helped us identify new business opportunities through a workshop they conducted. After this workshop, we knew the product we wanted to develop, and Geniusee provided a development team for the project. 

After the discovery phase, Geniusee developed a new product within our platform, which is a subdomain of our website and a mobile application.

On our main platform, university and high school students can create an account and find recommendations about every aspect of studying abroad. Our new product’s goal is to engage with education agents; it’s common for Chinese students that decide to study abroad to contact an education agent that gives them consultation about the process. We wanted to develop a product to engage with these educational agents since they receive the student leads. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with around 10 teammates from Geniusee, including their CEO, CTO, and project manager. 

How did you come to work with Geniusee?

We had several interviews with different software companies, and Geniusee gave us a good impression during the interview process, especially the CEO and CTO.  

How much have you invested with them?

We invested around $1 million with Geniusee.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Geniusee in January 2022, and they finished the product’s development in February 2023.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Geniusee’s work was excellent, and their team was very professional. Geniusee’s development process was transparent since they provided the according documentation during the development process. We recently launched the product and had good results; however, we’re still at an early stage and don’t have quantitative metrics.  

How did Geniusee perform from a project management standpoint?

Geniusee’s project management process was very professional. We used Jira, and Geniusee sent us status reports to track the project’s progress. We didn’t set hard deadlines because, during the development process, we found new features to create. We worked following the Agile methodology and had milestones to meet. We also had good communication and frequent meetings with Geniusee almost every day.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was most impressed by Geniusee’s service and professionalism. Overall, Geniusee was an excellent development partner.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything for Geniusee to improve. I believe our company could improve our strategic planning when developing a product.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

As a software agency, it's common for Geniusee to offer you extra services, but I think staying neutral when developing a product is important. I recommend to develop and test as you go. Geniusee has a lot of creative ideas, but you must choose your company’s priority and keep on track with that goal.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an executive for a fintech company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Geniusee?

We hired Geniusee to build a customizable mobile application.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We went through an upfront discovery, scoping, contract, and engagement process. They built everything from scratch, and the apps are iOS and Android native. Key functionalities include the ability to view transaction history, a spending control limit, and parent-child support. The technologies used on the product were Kotlin, Swift, Java, Terraform, and AWS.

What is the team composition?

We had over 20 people working on the project during the building process. Our primary contact points were the head of business development, the CTO, and a few project managers. 

How did you come to work with Geniusee?

They were working with someone else in our company. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested more than $1 million during our engagement. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2021; we’ve finished the app, but we are still working together on other projects.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app has 4.5 stars on the App Store. It was available for early release after about six months of work, which we consider fairly quick. We had full test automation, full automated infrastructure, and full unit testing, so the effect rate was really low. 

How did Geniusee perform from a project management standpoint?

They have great communication skills, and we were impressed with one of our project managers. They were timely in their delivery, and we stayed on budget for the app's build. 

We use Jira and Confluence for project management, and Slack and email for communication. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re nimble, flexible, and their engineers are conscientious and caring. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

The biggest issue we’ve had is the speed of adding new engineers, but it's partially because it’s been difficult to get them in general.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear about your goals so you can establish the right footprint of the team upfront. You should also keep communication with them open because they’ll work with you to solve your problems.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a project manager of a small firm that deals with a lot of different projects. Our department is partially an agency that works with clients for marketing and branding, while other departments work in sectors such as real estate and financing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Geniusee?

We’ve worked on a number of different projects that involved creating custom software as well as customer-facing and corporate websites. One project, in particular, revolved around the development of a financing platform in the merchant sector. For this, we sought Geniusee’s expertise.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve used Geniusee’s services for numerous projects. They’ve helped us redesign the UX/UI of an entire website for a client in the gambling industry. They’ve also assisted one of our clients with developing a niche financing platform that could bring offline technologies online. The original version of the platform, which our client had already built, had bad coding and was very buggy and glitchy, so we decided as a company to redo the whole thing from scratch. 

The development of the niche platform had already started prior to my joining the company, so I was not around to write the original scope of work. I did, however, help finish this project and kickstart a new one for which we are also using the team’s services. 

What is the team composition?

I work closely with the Taras (CEO & Co-Founder) who has made himself very available to me, and I speak on a daily basis with Pavlo (COO) who has been there from the very beginning. I’ve also touched base with a business analyst who has helped define certain requirements from a technical and business perspective.

How did you come to work with Geniusee?

Geniusee was already with our company when I joined. To my understanding, the person who I replaced found them through Clutch.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested well over $1 million dollars at this point. 

What is the status of this engagement?

The scope for the first project was written out around November–December 2020. The niche platform was finished in March 2021 but we’re still working with the team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I can’t disclose exact data and metrics since some of those are confidential, but our clients have been pretty satisfied with the custom software developed by Geniusee. The platform is operable and we’ve gone into creating similar prototypes for other clients for the purpose of investment. 

How did Geniusee perform from a project management standpoint?

Geniusee is able to work quickly, efficiently, and transparently. They always keep me in the loop regarding their progress and we meet 1–2 times a week, depending on the project. The team uses Excel and Jira to manage our projects.

They’re extremely flexible when laying out the scope; every time I present them with a challenge, they’re able to outline the exact technologies and type of cooperation needed for that particular project. They can determine whether we need a dedicated team, a consultant, or a part-time materials developer. We’re always presented with options based on the circumstances and budget.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What I love about working with Geniusee is that they prioritize trying to bring in as much value as possible. They’re not like some companies who will rush into saying yes just to take our money. This team really thinks about all of the potential problems that shouldn’t go ignored before hopping into development, answering a lot of our critical questions, and making sure that all of their bases are covered.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could work a little faster, but then again, that would compromise quality in their eyes.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear about what you want and be transparent when you need assistance. Geniusee can definitely provide a business analyst who will help you think through business problems before you go into actual development. As long as you communicate with the team, they’ll work to solve whatever challenge you have for them.