How Stackit Helped It’s Borrowed Save a Half-Baked Project and Launch a Successful MVP
When Mike Jacobsen approached Stackit, he had been on the tech scene for about 10 years. Mike had worked in sales for a variety of startups and other companies in the San Francisco Bay Area, when he decided to bring one of his product ideas to life and introduce it to the marketplace.
Mike's brain-child, It's Borrowed, is a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform that allows users to lend and borrow items with valuations of roughly less than $500USD. This was his vision: If you needed to borrow a lawn mower for the afternoon, for example, you could use It’s Borrowed to find and borrow that item without dropping hundreds of dollars at Home Depot. Or, if you wanted to go camping for the weekend, you could use It’s Borrowed to find a neighbor with a spare tent.
After a failed collaboration with a large software development firm, Mike needed a more effective approach. He needed a more efficient approach to developing It’s Borrowed. Mike turned to Stackit, a custom software development company that specialized in partnering with entrepreneurs and startups.
The Challenges
The concept of It’s Borrowed was straightforward: save money by borrowing tools and equipment instead of buying. The development of the platform, as Mike learned, became quite a challenge. After hiring a software development firm in the San Francisco Bay Area to build his mobile application, Mike discovered that the firm was neither adherent to his timeline nor his budget.
“I had hired a developing team in San Francisco to complete the application,” explains Mike. “But after working on it for 9 or 10 months, they were still failing to deliver within budget. It was costing a lot of money [...] and I was the sole provider of backing for development.”
Mike continues, “This firm was used to clients with deep pocketbooks. They weren’t focused on how to complete the application within budget, but rather, on building it how they wanted to build it.”
Not only had It’s Borrowed become extremely expensive, obliging Mike to reallocate funds that had been previously ear-marked for marketing expenses and new hires, but the application still wasn’t finished.
“As we approached six figures, we had to stop development,” says Mike. “And we still didn’t have an MVP.”
What Mike needed was a development team which not only understood and empathized with small startups, but which could salvage Mike's now “half-baked” application from the large software firm, and deliver an MVP to get It’s Borrowed launched.
As a non-technical founder, Mike needed a development team he could trust to transition his software product out of the large firm, with the expertise and skill to ensure that data remained intact and secure. But he also needed someone with the finesse and grace to manage that transition on a human level.
“It’s a weird conversation to have with somebody, to tell them that you are taking a project off their hands because it’s not working,” explained Mike.
Finally, the project required a developer with the skill to create a hybrid application, that is an application usable on both iOS and Android, which was a more specialized skill set at the time.
The bottom line? It’s Borrowed called for a development team with not only mastery of custom software development, but with a rich understanding of the entrepreneur journey and the skills required to manage, execute, and deliver within a set budget and a fixed timeline.
The Solution
When Mike first approached Stackit founder Rene Reyes, he had a tall order to fill, but Rene’s experience with price-conscious startups and entrepreneurs persuaded Mike that Rene's software development firm might be just what It’s Borrowed needed.
“The first thing I noticed about Stackit was they look at the big picture of getting a product to market and engaging the audience,” explains Mike. “They wanted to hit coding milestones so that It’s Borrowed could get in front of users as quickly as possible.”
Given the confidence to move forward with the new collaboration, Mike gave Stackit’s team of developers the green light to start working on the application. The first hurdle? Perform a hand-off of It’s Borrowed without damaging the existing build nor stepping on any toes.
“Rene was able to transition the project out of the previous firm on both a logistical level and a human level,” explains Mike. “He was able to look at the code, understand the platform, and proceed from there–while showing grace on the human side of things.”
Stackit’s team of developers then took over development of the hybrid mobile application. They also developed much of the complex functionality required by It’s Borrowed, including payment integration, location services, and rental tracking.
Not only that, but the Stackit team was able to salvage/complete most of the partially developed features left by the previous development team.
“There wasn’t a lot of thought given to the user experience within the half-baked system we were given by the previous team,” explains Mike. “It wasn’t until Rene and his team stepped in that the app began to feel more thoughtful and logical.”
Stackit provided professional development and an MVP on time and within budget.
“The Stackit team put together an entire Scrum process that helped us iterate until we achieved the best possible version of It’s Borrowed,” says Mike. “Rene brought on someone to Q&A each version until it was both functional and a little sexy.”
Mike participated in the process, and there was very little “hand-holding” required. Mike provided the vision, and Stackit refined and documented requirements. Then, Stackit delivered and provided insight into how the budget was being utilized.
“There were no mysteries,” says Mike. “The Stackit team made sure I knew where the money was going.”
In the end, the Stackit team not only delivered an MVP that It’s Borrowed could use to test viability and raise funding, but Stackit did so in a way that honored Mike’s vision, goals, and perhaps most importantly, Mike's budget and timeline.
Key Takeaways
What was Mike’s final take away from his hiring of Stackit?
By going to a small custom software company, he received a level of quality, customization, and craftsmanship that he couldn’t get with a larger firm that catered to established big brand companies.
“Think of it this way,” says Mike. “If you get a couch from Living Spaces, you know that you’re going to receive a piece of furniture that’s been stapled together and made a thousand times over. But if you go to an artisan furniture maker, they’re going to think through the environment of your home, and create a custom couch accordingly.”
Mike explains, “When it comes to software, larger firms just don’t care about your needs as much as they care about putting out a product that looks a certain way.”
Stackit not only helped Mike finish building It’s Borrowed, a partially developed mobile application, Stackit did so on time and on budget. Stackit utilized an organized and efficient process that produced results.
The ultimate result? A thoughtfully designed MVP with the complex functionality It’s Borrowed needed to launch a unique, never-been-done-before SaaS product.
Discover more about how Stackit can help you build an internal system, launch a customer-facing product, or save a struggling project.
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Stackit is a custom software development company that specializes in partnering with individuals, entrepreneurs, small business owners, small agency owners, and mid-size business managers to help them create software solutions. With special expertise in helping to realign struggling projects, Stackit’s team is dedicated to exercising pragmatic savviness and learned “course correction.”
1 A minimum viable product, or MVP, is a product with enough features to attract early-adopter customers and validate a product idea early in the product development cycle.
2 Lean startup is a methodology for developing businesses and products that aims to shorten product development cycles and rapidly discover if a proposed business model is viable
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