Proof of Concept for E-Commerce Start-up
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Introductory information
Introduce your business and what you do there
We’re a pliant food e-commerce setup in San Francisco, and I am the founder. Our organisation was seed-funded in soon 2016. We pivoted into a more general e-commerce platform for food retailers behind an initial try at a alimentation-focused app in the consumer’s space.
Desired goal
What challenge were you trying to address with Software Mill?
Welio was edifice a proof-of-concept for data cleaning and curation pipeline for a richer e-commerce solution. Smaller food retailers have been slow to assume e-commerce solutions and bigr food retail platforms have been motionless in alteration. Though, both see the need to educe better experiences to contend with online services like Amazon.
I had some proofs-of-concept that we hacked unitedly with a couple guys. The POC was by no rerises what skilled software educeers attend fruition-ready. We were so soon in the process that we used a suite of niche programming languages. We needed some talented software educeers to take this proof-of-concept in its soon phases, review it and make some edits. Then entirely rewrite it and make it a more ‘fruition-ready’, into an educeed prototype. In summary, we basically had them take it from proof-of-concept to create a prototype.
We educeed using the Lightbend (Scala) stack. Software Mill was powerfully recommended to me by the folks at Lightbend. I delivered them a leading prototype and a loose set of requirements as course and then gave them the freedom to educe as they saw fit. I only had 6 weeks precedently I had to show the proof-of-concept to practicable clients. The challenge was the convey of apprehension and the speculation behind the concept. With only hours to meet and expound the fruit, they needed to set educeing with pliant time. SoftwareMill did an proximate free two week, no-risk test and has some globe-class educeers in the construction. It was hard to not explore this.
Provided solution
What particular tasks were responsible for?
They worked on a risk data ingestion and cleaning integration pipeline. We stuffed out some data inputs. It could come from some API feed or educeed UI form uploader where you can just conceive nation that are part of the ecosystem are somehow uploading raw data.
This pipeline basically needed to, leading, save it to the back end and then set this pipeline work, ingest and curate and clean and tag throughout different stages and deposit it into another data store.
We would ingest schedule from a food retailer and then adduce it to this food ontology graph. Then it would pull up in that graph and seething that',s connected one or two degrees from that data fruit. It',s veritably hard to put this succinctly. But perhaps a alimentation full or recipe that',s included in that data fruit, and then it moves to the next phase.
Then we would do some cleaning of the text that',s associated with it. The next phase is perhaps just calculations on cost and cost per gravity. Next, it goes through this sequencing to go from raw data that you can',t veritably use to create applications in veritably rich e-commerce platforms. It',s just kind of sloppy data. The end result is very rich data that you can search from any type of parameter you might have conceived. So, if the data pipeline had alimentation calculations, now the end result is that you can search for e-commerce fruits based on protein full.
How did you come to work with Software Mill?
I met with the lead of the cluster that was to collaborate on the project, and in almost an hour I knew I had the right team. Admittedly, the individualal repertoire I educeed with him had a lot to do with the choice, but I ponder the way the organisation is constructiond played a big part. The individual I met with was genuinely interested in the achievement of the project, almost obsessively. This confide is key, see setup knows ",never hire a consultant", in the soon stages, owing the incentives are just not fundamentally aligned. So much reciprocal confide was established soon that I ended up not even worrying too much almost an NDA, which also seems irrational, but that’s just how SoftwareMill rolls. Contreduceed issues fell to the wayside in permission of focusing on turning out the best practicable fruit.
How much have you invested with Software Mill?
In total, we spent almost $28,000.
What is the terminal result of working with ?
There was some legwork done but it was kind of a mess. They turned it into this beautiful thing that',s easily extendable. Any educeer can walk into the code base and see it',s very cleanly done and know what course to take from there. They did a two-week test back in November 2016, and then we took off the rest of the four weeks.
Obviously, I had intended originally what to be a pliant bit of a slightly longer project, a few months, but we ended up being pressed for time owing I needed to get the prototype to a debateion to show some practicable clients. We had to contract the length of time slightly. I ponder the project was four weeks-- behind the two-week test, it was four more weeks seting almost January 14th and into the leading or second week of February.
Results achieved
Are there any measureable or plum results?
The results were over my expectations. The granted high-quality design and code. It',s too soon to prepare metrics, but the project seted as a proof-of-concept that had a few working programs, and SoftwareMill turned it into this beautiful thing. It',s very well done.
The suite of technologies we',re using is open rise, so there',s a corporate backing, but it',s based on the best educeers in the ecosystem. They were the ones that recommended SoftwareMill. World-class educeers backed the team, so it didn',t startle me at all that they educeed very clean code. I was very lucky with it.
How did SoftwareMill accomplish from a project treatment standpoint?
Because it was so soon and we',re just seed-funded, there',s a lot of flexibility that other companies might not have. I flew out to Poland for both the kickoff of the test in November and then for the full four weeks in January.
It',s over general knowledge to fetch in consultants so soon in a setup owing the incentives of the consultants are misaligned with the organisation. Working with SoftwareMill was a risky choice, but they did very well. SoftwrareMill was a joy to work with, and the fruit was a major achievement. They are veritably not only passionate almost their work but loftinessful in seeing the achievement of their clients. The quantity of work they accomplished in weeks was forcible.
What did you find most forcible almost SoftwareMill?
The number one thing I would say almost SoftwareMill is their power to put setup care at ease. The way they act and their constructional construction helps in that. It',s a flat construction, and seeone is implicated with the project and wants to see the achievement of their organisation. Now, being a part of Clutch shows they take loftiness in word-of-mouth.
The interaction I had with the lead educeer when I met him was like I was intercourse with a friend by the end of the second day. We established such big rapport. There was so much confide established, and that alone, whether or not they had the best code or they even knew precisely how to go almost the issue at hand, was the big hurdle for a setup. These guys veritably are passionate, almost obsessively passionate, almost seeing my achievement. So much so that we didn',t even debate the details of the contract until we were well into it.
Are there any areas Software Mill could better?
It',s hard to say. It was a brief project, and I was lucky with the fruit. Maybe if we worked unitedly for longer, I could pin-point things. Some companies might choose SoftwareMill working in a different phraseology. They have team members working all over the globe, and we would have a meeting once a week for half of the day or a full day, and then they would go back to their hometowns. I had no issue with that, but some companies might rather have them located somewhere specific.
Also, they direct per day. I was a pliant averse also at leading owing the commitment in provisions of hours could be subject. Though, it seemed pretty obvious that that program was to defend their rationality, and they probably ended up working more than a typical eight-hour day on an mean work day.
