Virtualmind

Introduce your business and what you do there.

SVP of Engineering

What challenge were you trying to address with Virtualmind?

We were having a hard time looking for good engineers, so we sought to find different development firms for staff augmentation services.

What was the scope of their involvement?

As of this review, Virtualmind continues to provide the company with senior Java backend developers and senior React frontend developers.

The project starts with a discussion of the job description, which will be sent to their team to start the candidate screening process. Once that’s finished, we go to the onboarding process, which we collaborate closely on.

What is the team composition?

9 software engineers - both Java and React.

How did you come to work with Virtualmind?

Virtualmind was a referral from a fairly trusted colleague who they’d worked with in the past.

How much have you invested with them?

I believe the company has spent north of $500,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

The ongoing partnership started in November 2021.

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

There were two projects that VirtualMind was a part of. Both were strategic to the company and both were on track

How did Virtualmind perform from a project management standpoint?

Virtualmind did a phenomenal job of integrating their team into our company.

They utilized JIRA as their primary management tool and we typically communicated through Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed by the quality of the candidates that they were able to provide for our company. They quickly assimilated into our environment and culture and were quite active during sprint demos and meetings.

What I also liked about them is their level of personal service. They’re not a large company, so it was very easy for me to access their CEO and as a result, we were able to have a personal and collaborative partnership.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t really think of any negatives from my experience working with Virtualmind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would advise you to have clear expectations for your candidates and be very upfront with your requirements.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the VP, Technology for a consulting firm. We build custom software and applications for the industry and leverage nearshore and offshore teams to help with development projects.

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

We hired them to provide senior-level software developers to work within our teams on custom software development projects. They also worked directly with our clients in scrum teams.

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

They were referred to us by one of our clients. The skill level, communication proficiency (English) and level of vetting and recruiting support were key factors in deciding to work with VirtualMind.

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

Our primary tech stack is Java and Spring Boot so that is where the team was focused. Some of the team branched out into nodejs and react work as well. The team was working on a greenfield application build but also supporting other work on refactoring a monolithic application into a microservice-based application.

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

There were 2 people on one scrum team, 2 on another and 3 on another team over a 6 month period. One of the projects slowed down a bit so there are now 4 people on 2 separate teams.

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

The team was embedded with our team and contributed to deliverables based on sprint goals. The submitted work was of high quality and the team was always responsive to feedback and communication within the larger project team.

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

The team was presented on a staff aug basis so they were embedded into our project teams. However the VirtualMind executive team was always available for feedback and discussion on any potential team issues.

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

The communication and approach to working with the team. They were constantly in touch with our teams to be proactive about any potential team issues. The onboarding and interview process was also strong with a good level of vetting of candidates that were presented to us.

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

Nothing comes to mind.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Founder and CEO of a SaaS software company that builds management and accounting software for member-based organizations.

For what projects/services did your company hire Virtualmind?

We needed to grow our development team quickly with experienced engineers who could hit the ground running.

How did you select this agency and what were the deciding factors?

I was referred to VirtualMind by an existing client who was very happy with their work. It has turned out to be a great decision.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

VirtualMind provided two senior software engineers with experience in Node.js, MongoDB, and React.js. One engineer immediately began working on our accounting product, completing features that were already in progress. This required very rapid learning on her part and she did an exceptional job getting up to speed and contributing quickly.

Describe the recruitment process in detail.

VirtualMind assigned a recruiter to us at the beginning of our engagement. He met with us to discuss our needs and the required background of the engineers we were looking for. Very quickly, they began presenting candidates.

All of the candidates were qualified for our positions. We interviewed the candidates that looked most promising to verify their technical background, communication skills, and fit with our culture. Then we selected the very best candidates from the options presented by VirtualMind.

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

Overall we have been very happy with our experience working with VirtualMind. One of the engineers we added to our team became a key contributor very quickly. We were very impressed with her ability to learn our product and made valuable contributions quickly.

The second engineer did not work out as well but VirtualMind dealt with the issue quickly and professionally. While technically competent, the second engineer was not able to contribute at the level we required. After some coaching and feedback to both the engineer and VirtualMind, we decided to replace the engineers. VirtualMind quickly found another capable engineer and made the switch smooth and seamless for us.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Our communication with VirtualMind is very good. We have invited their key people to our Slack system so we can regularly message them with any questions or issues that arise. They are very responsive and very profesional.

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

The thing that most impressed us about VirtualMind was the personal attention that we received. Other staff augmentation firms felt like factories where we would be a small client and receive little attention. But VirtualMind really listened to our needs and found us the engineers we needed quickly and efficiently.

Their team is friendly, professional, and easy to work with. I also like having a direct line of communication to the owners of the firm in case I have an issue that needs attention.

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

Nothing I can think of. Just keep doing great work!

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of DanceFight, a mobile competition platform that allows our community members to challenge each other to a dance-off and the crowd to vote for their favorite.

What challenge were you trying to address with Virtualmind?

We needed to hire affordable development resources quickly. As we were a startup, we didn’t have the time to get internal resources on board, and we were concerned about the cost and time that this would imply, so we decided to hire Virtualmind instead.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have an internal iOS development team, but Virtualmind provides us with a full-time Swift developer to augment it. This resource has been on board for almost two years now.

More recently, they also provided us with a half-time QA developer, who has been working with us for the last twelve months. This person mostly provides QA for iOS, but they also help us with QA for Android. Over the last month, this person has become a full-time resource, at least temporarily.

We’ve also talked with Virtualmind about onboarding a resource for Android development, but we haven’t gotten to that road yet. Additionally, I know that they offer web design and development, but we don’t need those services for now.

What is the team composition?

We work with two people from Virtualmind: the iOS developer and the QA developer. We’ve also communicated with Javier (CEO) and Fernando (COO).

How did you come to work with Virtualmind?

A friend of mine had used them before and recommended them to us. Although they’re based in Argentina, I met them in person here in Austin and had a really good first impression of them. They were very friendly, transparent, and willing to find the right fit for us, and I felt that they would go above and beyond. Additionally, they were more affordable than someone local, so we decided to go with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent a little over $200,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2019, and our engagement is ongoing.

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

I don’t have any specific metrics to track Virtualmind resources’ performance, but the quality of their work has been very good. Our app has an average of 4.7–4.8 stars on the App Store, as well as some positive reviews, so our community seems to like what we’re doing. Overall, we’ve been growing, improving our engagement and retention, and Virtualmind has played an important role in that success.

We’re very happy with them, which is why the relationship has gone longer than anticipated. Initially, we thought that we would augment our team for six months and then hire someone internally, but they’ve been such a good fit for us that we’ve continued working together.

How did Virtualmind perform from a project management standpoint?

Our CTO manages the whole development team, but Virtualmind resources are very timely. As we’re a newer organization, we’re always improving our processes and increasing our development speed.

We use Instabug and Crashlytics to track bugs and Jira to assign tickets to Virtualmind’s resources automatically. We also find bugs during our QA process and prioritize them before fixing them. Additionally, we use Figma to share UI/UX designs and Slack to communicate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Virtualmind’s desire to understand our business and do everything they can to help us succeed is impressive. I’ve worked with other agencies in the past, and it felt like we were just another client. However, working with Virtualmind feels like a true relationship. Javier and Fernando really want us to succeed, so they put time and effort into finding the right people for our project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything they could improve on.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Take the time to talk to Javier or Fernando and dive into your needs and requirements. Taking time to do so upfront really helped us a lot in getting the right people on board.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Sr. Director of Software Engineering for Hydrafacial that uses patented technology to cleanse, extract, and hydrate. HydraFacial super serums are made with nourishing ingredients that create an instantly gratifying glow.

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

We had to develop and release a unique, creative, and smart mobile app in 3 months - very high quality MVP. And then continue adding additional core features as we go.

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

I'm familiar with Virtual Mind from past projects

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

They participated in a large group contributing to the overall cloud and solution architecture and main were responsible for the development and deployment of the product.

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

7 Engineers Mobile Development QA Fullstack Engineers Cloud Architect

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

Project delivered on time and other features are tracking the tight deadlines. Velocity is high. Based on QA test bug ration, code quality is high.

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

We are all working in agile teams, and communicating through emails, zoom, MS Teams, shared documents, and shared repos. The team communicates with other distributed teams as well.

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

Impressive is the high quality of the individuals, both personally (pro active approach) and professionally

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

They have the same characteristics of a core team.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Burning Glass is a labor market analytics firm providing quantitative insight into the demand and supply of workers in labor markets around the world. I am the Chief Technology Officer of Burning Glass.

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

We required data engineering personnel quickly to develop high throughput data processing pipelines and insights underpinning new applications under construction.

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

The vendor quickly provided numerous qualified candidates to work with our team in a cohesive team structure. Deciding factors for us included quickly presenting multiple potential resources with excellent language skills at a per month costs fitting within our budget.

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

Key deliverables included bringing on a team quickly, Python and database engineering, data modelling, plus analysis of data quality.

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

We hired 3 software engineers.

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

The new application launched on time within a 3 month window and sold three new customers within 30 days of launch. Key deliverables included Python and AWS Cloud Formation Template (CFT) software comprising the system's backend.

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

VirtualMind served as a management resource providing personnel to our team, but their model focused on embedding their personnel within our existing scrum teams in a cohesive manner.

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

The speed in which they provided highly skilled resources sourced from South America that could cohesively work with my global software team.

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

No

Please describe your company and your position there.

I have led Operations for our early stage digital health company for 4+ years, based out of Austin, Texas.

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

As our business evolved and it came time to implement dedicated software development resources, our VP of Engineering had previously worked with Virtualmind and strongly recommended that we build a hybrid software development team between Austin (full-time, in-house) and Virtualmind in Buenos Aires. We developed an IoT platform, as well as business and consumer-facing mobile applications. It was also important that communication be fluid and on/near the same time zone.

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

Initially, this was largely based on our VP of Engineering's prior experience with the Virtualmind team. We also met with Javier and really appreciated his approach, transparency, and demeanor. They also displayed a strong set of technical capabilities and references.

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

Their team worked in tandem with our in-house engineers to develop the back-end systems for our applications, as well as iOS and Android mobile applications.

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

This varied, but there were generally 4-6 members of the vendor's team working with us, primarily focused on back-end and mobile development.

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

The Virtualmind team completed high quality work, on-time, and with consistent communication. They were also flexible as we needed to ramp up/down various areas of development.

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

Strong project management and timeliness, including direct communication with each member of their team. We mostly communicated via Slack.

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

They represented a rare combination of skill, positive attitude, and flexibility. We also found them to be genuinely good, caring people - which is incredibly important. Javier, the CEO, leads by example.

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

There were a few instances where their team could have flagged challenges earlier and saved time, but relatively minor.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Quik! provides enterprise forms automation solutions to make paperwork the easiest part of every transaction. As CEO I help customers improve their customer experiences and change the way they use forms.

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

We hired VirtualMind to become our software development team. Although the team is offshore, they are every bit a part of our company as any other team member. They build and develop our software.

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We chose VirtualMind for several reasons. Their company culture and overall country culture (Argentina) closely matched ours. Second, the timezone difference was minimal. Third, they speak great English and communicate well.

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

Our goal was to build a team at VM that all other teams wanted to be part of. We've done this through extending our company culture to our team members and treating them like they were employees.

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

Our team at VM is now 11 people including a full-time QA, designer, dev-ops leader, team leader and engineers.

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

We have now been working with VM for over 11 years and have successfully recommended them to other firms, including our clients.

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

One of the keys to our success has been not having to manage the HR issues (hiring, training, etc.) that go with an engineering team as VM has done all of that very well.

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

VirtualMind is a true partner - we're not in a client-vendor relationship, we support each other very well and we both give and take.

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

We have learned over the years to understand each other and to know what to expect. For example, don't expect VM to be something they're not or you may not get the results you're looking for.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I was the Chief Science officer at a Tech company in the Real Estate space

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

Virtualmind helped build UIs, end to end tests, and backend management around out ML applications.

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

They had a wide set of skills that we felt would compliment the full stack nature of our projects.

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

Custom Python code, Selenium testing, Docker, Postgres, Flask, React

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

3. two developers and a tester

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

Project went well

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

They joined our daily standups and participated in the SCRUM

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

Ease to work with.

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

They did great.