Tooploox

I’m the VP of engineering at a computer games company.

We wanted to build an entirely new product offering with a partner of ours. Still, we couldn’t do it ourselves in terms of staff and expertise, so we reached out to Tooploox to help us with software development.

Tooploox has been providing custom software development for us. We started by working with their account manager to identify members of their internal team who might be a good fit for our project.

We’ve worked with their account manager, project manager, a designer, a backend engineer, and four software developers from their team.

They were referred to me when I was at my former company, and I decided to reach out to them for this new project.

We started working together in October 2021, and the engagement is ongoing; we’ve been working for two quarters already, and we plan to continue with that indefinitely.

Our partners are pleased with the progress so far. Tooploox has done a good job with our development cycles; they’ve been very consistent in delivering products that exceed our expectations.

Project management has been excellent; they have a world-class approach to ensure success for every project we work on together. It’s a structured process where they make sure that everyone has everything they need for a certain task, including a clear idea of what needs to be done through the information they upload to our ticketing system. Overall, their team is professional and organized.

Their work is great; it’s difficult to find professional software developers experienced with large companies, but Tooploox brings great expertise to our software necessities, is good at communication, and has the technical skills to execute what we need.

They should hire more people to ensure that they can serve more customers.

Have a clear idea of the product you’re trying to build; Toploox does a great job working collaboratively to ensure a good execution if you provide them with a clear plan.

I am the co-founder and co-CEO of a technology startup.

We hired Tooploox to help develop our mobile app.

Tooploox has developed a social discovery iOS mobile app that allows users to chat with each other. What really sets this development apart is that they've used technology that hasn't been used on mobile apps before — the users find each other on the app using Bluetooth when they're within 200 feet of each other. Once users find each other, they can message each other in chat boxes.

We worked with 6–8 teammates from Tooploox, including the account manager, project manager, iOS developers, QA tester, and backend developer.

A friend referred Tooploox to us, and they also came up in our searches on Google and Clutch.co. One of the main reasons we hired them was because they provided a reasonable quote that was significantly less than what other firms quoted.

We've invested $110,000 with Tooploox, but our original quote was around $180,000.

This project with Tooploox was from August 2021–January 2022. However, we've recently rehired them to update the app.

Tooploox has delivered exactly what they promised and their service is excellent — the app is successful. Their team was honest and adapted the final cost to match the work they ended up providing.

We had regular meetings to discuss what needed to get done for the next stage of the project and the cost. Tooploox always met their deadlines, even when we'd add extra tasks to the weekly project task list. They always ensured they delivered what we needed and never overcharged us. Typically, we communicated via Slack and used Jira to manage the project.

Tooploox's work ethic was excellent and we never had to remind them to complete tasks. Also, they collaborated so well with us that it always felt like we were on the same team. Their feedback and suggestions were incredibly valuable.

I can't think of anything for Tooploox to improve.

I'd suggest that customers be upfront about what they need from the project with Tooploox so they can help walk through the processes. Also, if Tooploox doesn't think a project is doable, they'll convey it.

I am the CTO of an "industrial robot integrator" company called Workshop 4.0 based in Sierre Switzerland.

We hired tooploox as an expert in computer vision systems to help us detect 3d objects for a robot cell integration. The goal was to find the center topmost point in cartesian coordinates (X,Y,Z,C) of a wooden panels pile so that the robot could accurately pick them and place them in a CNC machine.

Tooploox was highly recommended to us by someone in the same business in Switzerland. The deciding factors were: the skills of the engineers and final cost.

The scope of work was to create and develop from scratch a unique computer vision system, including the hardware, algorithms and communications of the data to the robot. We started with a detailed description of our needs and then proceeded with a feasibility study. Next step was the r&d phase in which we worked together in order to understand what was realistically doable and cost friendly. Once the hardware was delivered to us we got to install it and then the testing phase followed. The technologies involved were: structured light in combination with image recognition and ultrasound distance sensors.

We got to work with 2 people, one person as manager for administrating the project and another person as computer vision engineer.

There is not much to say apart from the fact that all the set goals were accomplished with very satisfactory results so far.

We had weekly meetings through teleconference tools on updates, reports and checkpoints, we were always in close contact and felt quite supported during the whole process. Very flexible and understanding on changes in our schedule.

They easily accepted difficult challenges in innovation and research and development.

Not much to say, we did not feel any hiccups or problems.

Our product is a platform where you can improve your mental well-being, learn how to manage your thoughts and emotions, support your body, or build your support system through relationships with people. I'm CTO and coordinated Tooploox work during MVP development.

We hired Tooploox to have a dedicated team working on building our SaaS platform, both frontend and backend, as soon as possible without time lost on scaling internal team. Goal was to get traction with customers after only 3 months and we managed to ship beta version of application in that time.

Tooploox was recommended by different sources from our VC and network as software house that has already experiences with development of similar solutions for US companies. Fast they could scale team and provide necessary skills and competences in short term were key for us.

Tooploox dev team broken down requirements and high level mockups of application into specific frontend and backend solutions. First they started by designing a monolithic backend in Python based on Django framework, created models for key objects and transaction with necessary API REST endpoints for communication. In parallel along API frontend application was created with React & TypeScript. Everything was published on AWS infrastructure for each of development environments with CI/CD, performance monitoring & tests.

In peak we had 3 python backend developers, 3 frontend developers & 1 project manager.

We managed to launch beta version a month earlier than original estimated and MVP according to previously made estimated based on high level plans only. All key deliverables were done on time without any issues.

We communicated via Slack, used Jira & Confluence for project management and GitHub for repository management. Ultimately everything was delivered, thou some wiggling was necessary at some point.

We had access to entire team directly, got really good specialists in their field that got really involved in the project. Team was great.

We didnt encounter big issues or problems, so probably nothing that I can think of.

I’m the chief technology advisory of a D2C healthcare provider focusing on obesity treatment.

We needed to engineer solutions quickly to address our challenges.

Tooploox provides the skills and resources we need. For example, if we need a Python engineer, they’ll provide one. If we need someone experienced with data warehouse technology, they’ll provide someone with that skill set.

Currently, we’re working with six people from Tooploox.

They’ve worked with me on multiple projects for previous companies, always providing skilled engineering and product support.

We’ve spent a couple of hundred thousand dollars so far.

We’ve been working together at my current company since August 2020.

We always strive to get better, and Tooploox is essential to our continuous improvement.

We have daily meetings, as well as plenty of documentation on Google Docs and Jira. Everybody stays in sync and up to date on the requirements and context of what we’re doing.

Tooploox is extremely transparent and upfront about what they can and can’t achieve.

They’re in a difficult space trying to provide engineering resources to help companies expand, so they need to have a constant pipeline of people.

Be transparent and set expectations upfront, in addition to creating success metrics. This gives the whole team something to work toward.