Fueled

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of design and brand strategy at a US-based online eyewear retail company. I oversee our UX design and creative teams.

What challenge were you trying to address with Fueled?

We needed them to help us update our tech stack by creating a mobile application for us.

What was the scope of their involvement?

As we’re trying to get into the mobile app space, we’ve thought of bridging the gap between a customer’s experience with an eye doctor and the e-commerce experience. We’ve come up with a solution to create a more personalized way of highlighting our services while providing the various needs of our customers. Fueled has helped us bring this idea to life by creating an iOS and Android app that mirrors the functionalities of an e-commerce site.

Apart from designing and creating a robust platform based on a customer’s prescription and their preferences, Fueled also assists us in accomplishing our post-launch plans, staffing up an internal team that’s set to take over the maintenance of the product.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with at least 15 resources from their team — this includes designers, researchers, and developers. We rely on their different team members depending on the project’s stages.

How did you come to work with Fueled?

I did thorough research on different agencies that provide app design and development services. We then interviewed over 10 groups and figured that Fueled was the best fit for us, having garnered multiple awards for their work experience. They built a renowned application, which really proved that they possess reliable industry knowledge.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over $1,000,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in August 2020, and our collaboration is ongoing.

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

They’ve really pushed us towards understanding and delivering our industry’s best practices. Our company is built on a monolithic tech stack, so our team has relied heavily on that without making room for industrial change. Fueled has been a great partner to us — they’ve helped us evolve forward by working on what’s really best for us.

We haven’t launched this project yet, but I think it will be a drastic upgrade to our business. It’s already helped us evolve our internal processes, so I’m looking forward to exceeding more expectations.

How did Fueled perform from a project management standpoint?

Fueled is a very honest team — they clearly determine what the next project steps are based on their progress. Their project management approach has always been top-notch.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We have a very complicated product coupled with a difficult design challenge, but Fueled has been amazing in understanding what we’re trying to achieve. Their team works quickly and efficiently to drive our business in a positive direction.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t really think there are specific areas that need major improvement. At the beginning of the project, we might’ve had over-scoped, but that’s not entirely their team’s fault. We’ve decided to resolve that by meeting halfway in terms of setting our goals and timelines. Additionally, we’ve had difficulties with our timezone differences. The majority of them are from the UK, and they also have a few developers in India, so it’s been quite a challenge to keep working at 8 a.m. regardless of our various commitments.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s important to fully understand how the scope of your work with their team will be. The clearer the goals you set, the more likely you are to achieve all of those.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I run a real-estate business in south Florida.

For what projects/services did your company hire Fueled?

I hired Fueled to design and develop a real-estate app for iOS

What were your goals for this project?

To have an iOS app to help my clients to have quick access to the available homes for sale in a specific market in Florida.

How did you select Fueled?

They were recommended by a family member.

Describe the project in detail.

We created an app for iOS where users can clearly and easily search for houses in Boca Raton and Palm Beach. The app allows users to immediately jump into listings and view vital information about them. User's can also filter to help narrow down listing options as well as save listings to a favorites section. We also integrated Open Weather API in order to track the weather in the areas and give clients and understanding of the current climate.

We also implemented CloudKit to allow me to input and manage data. The app also allows my team to track data to improve the listings and how to better service my clients in the future. Lastly, the app displays lifestyle content that will give clients a better sense of what living in the area is like.

What was the team composition?

We worked with 4 people, including an iOS engineer, a product designer, a quality assurance expert, and a project manager.

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

Launching this app has improved the experience for both me and my buyers. It has given me a more effective way to access and manage new listings within the Boca Raton and Palm Beach regions and communicate my client's preferences. The app has been a great way for me to communicate directly with my clients which has improved their experience with purchasing a home 10 fold.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Integrating with the MLS was not simple, due to the technology providers in the mix, so we worked hand-in-hand with Fueled. They were always on top of letting me know of progress and development updates while troubleshooting technical issues directly with the MLS provider.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I can tell Fueled truly cares about my business making sure not only I, but my customers were satisfied with the experience as well. They were quickly able to understand the industry and its current landscape in order to help make recommendations for features and user flows that really helped make the app stand out and out-perform my competitors.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There were not any major issues I had with the team. We were extremely satisfied with their work and the app they delivered. The only down side I would say is that they are a more expensive than other agencies, but it shows with the quality of work they deliver.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a consultant working for comfort tech company to deliver an app / front end to an IOT product. The company hasn't built a technology-focused product before so this is a brand new endeavor and capability.

For what projects/services did your company hire Fueled?

We had no app capabilities and so we set about finding an agency that would be able to build an app from top to bottom. We wanted a full service, complete team to build both an iOS and an Android app. In many ways, we were creating the product while onboarding Fueled so they were very much a part of conceptualizing the project. Many areas (IOT connectivity, app design, theories of how technology can interact with the sleep process) were being created simultaneously.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was the create a best in class, elegant app that would take the new and potentially confusing concept of a multi-device sleep system and build an intuitive, easy to use interface to control it. This product will be a very new offering for us so it will be a big statement of intent for the company. Getting right on day one is incredibly important.

How did you select Fueled?

We created an RFP and highlighted three areas that were important to us: design wow factor, IOT experience and ability deliver on a tight timeline. We then interviewed a few agencies and had them pitch to an internal team, including our CEO.

Describe the project in detail.

We had a fairly defined scope for the project (controls for the sleep system, a way to show data on quality of sleep, voice controls and easy connectivity. We switched technology partners last year so the scope has been reduced to mostly controls and onboarding now. The tricky part about the project is combing all three areas (electric, adjustable base; adjustable firmness mattress with 3 zones and climate control) into an interface that makes sense to the user.

What was the team composition?

We looked to Fueled to provide a full app team: design, UX, project, dev, QA and product. We have internal advisors but Fueled is the app team.

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

Still very much a work in progress so not data yet. We really are about to put the first build in front of an internal audience.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow has been great on the Fueled side. There is a lot of communication around budget, staffing and timelines. We have had some start and stop based on switching technology partners and some internal shifting on who wants to be involved in the project. All in all, I think Fueled has rolled with our changes pretty well.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

There are two things that really stand out to me: I think the designs are beautiful. The response internally for the designs is always that they are beautiful. The second is the technical know how that runs through the team. Not just devs, but product and project leads have a solid understanding of how to deliver this product and and are able to share that with us.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Honestly, this form should be an every two to three month conversation with Fueled leadership. In my agency days, we usually had one of the founders (not someone on the day-to-day team) do a check in every two or three months with the client to find out how things are going. I've also had other agency founders (companies in the same world as Fueled) do the same as the project progressed when I was the client. I was surprised that didn't happen here. The day to day team is great but I do think some element exec check in would be a good touch.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I work for Robbins Research International, Inc. as Chief Culture Officer and Special Projects. We are the research and marketing arm of Tony Robbins’ event business which conducts seminars on a wide range of topics, from peak performance and personal achievement systems to communication and business mastery.

For what projects/services did your company hire Fueled?

We hired Fueled to improve Tony Robbins' reach by delivering high quality mobile and digital products.

What were your goals for this project?

To deliver a high quality web, ios, and android product that allowed Tony Robbins' clients to listen to his coaching and training systems right on their phone - on the go 24/7/365.

How did you select Fueled?

We found Fueled via the web by doing research on top app developers.

Describe the project in detail.

After working with several app development companies over the years we've finally found one that over delivers in all areas. Robbins Research International, Inc. hired the Fueled team to help us end to end with bringing a number of new digital products to market, including the Breakthrough mobile apps, the Date with Destiny microsite, and other upcoming & ongoing projects.

We have relied on the Fueled experts to help us simplify outdated and complex methodologies and bring them to life in modern digital apps. They manage scope well, have been flexible and adaptable throughout the process, and are a very pleasant & professional team of experts who care about delivering a high-quality product that not only works, but is also successful.

The best part is that really deliver on their commitments to develop intuitive & beautifully-designed products on time and on budget! 5 stars all around!!

What was the team composition?

The team was a full stack product development team (project, product, design, development, testing).

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

The best indication of our success with working with Fueled is our Breakthrough app going from 1.7 to 4.9 stars in the Apple app store.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We had a great relationship and communication flow with their team. They held daily stand-ups and weekly checkins in order to efficiently monitor their progress with the project and keep our team updated with any blockers they might have had.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They strive to not only deliver a product that we were proud of, but one that the clients would love as well. Their number one focus was to make sure that our clients were satisfied with the product and wanted to use it daily.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We often want things to be delivered at a rapid pace. It would be great to have things done sooner, but quality and value to our clients is priority so we're happy with the results.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and founder of afloat, a mobile app. Our platform provides a way to connect communities to each other and to the businesses that they love. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Fueled?

We released a beta app to the market that we wanted to get feedback from. The product that we had people testing on was really subpar for their experience, but the interest was very high in what we wanted to do. We needed to solve that product-market fit with a better product. When I found Fueled, I just thought that they were top-notch, and they delivered.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We came with our concepts pretty well-developed. I had drawn out the flow that I wanted, and our most important features and all of that were established with our beta iOS app. We couldn’t offer those features with our beta, but after having our product out there and getting user feedback, we had a pretty good idea of what we wanted Fueled to build. They were able to add tons of enhancements and provide great suggestions for things that we didn’t think of ourselves, so it was a great partnership.

They made recommendations on our tech since what we were coming from was subpar. They walked us through all of the backend work that we needed and all the specs. Their suggestions on what to build and how to build it were super helpful. They also walked us through the phases that would make sense for us and our market. They were brought on to enhance the beta but essentially built a whole new app.

The app is live in the App Store. We’re still waiting on a couple of final tweaks so that we can push a new version; Apple required that we build in a reporting system last minute. Though the app is live, a better version is coming soon. 

What is the team composition?

I regularly worked with five people, but that probably went up to 10 throughout the process. We worked with designers and backend developers.

How did you come to work with Fueled?

I love Barneys, and the Fueled team had done their app. I thought their app was great. All of their other clients have been so fantastic as well. In the end, it was a no-brainer to collaborate with them. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $600,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from June–November 2020. We’d done a mini engagement in May, during which they reviewed our product to see if anything was salvageable and recommended a plan of action. 

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

Unfortunately, we don’t have any metrics yet; although we did push the app live, we haven’t done any marketing around it yet, knowing that we’re waiting for the second version to come out.

However, Fueled helped us do some marketing videos so our current users and everybody who has seen those videos and the app’s new look are so excited about the new features and functionalities. That feedback has been great, but we don’t have any on the live app quite yet. The overall flow, look, and experience is beyond anywhere close to where we were. 

How did Fueled perform from a project management standpoint?

They kept me on budget, and the timeline was great. We typically communicated through Slack. We also had weekly Zoom calls, unless they didn’t have anything new to show us. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We interviewed a couple of other teams before we ended up going with Fueled, and I just really liked the depth of their team. We did have to rely on their team pretty heavily toward the end of our project, as we were having some issues and bugs. They pulled developers from other projects to look at our app. Overall, they were really competent.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I loved seeing all of our status updates that they would give us on Zoom, but I never really knew exactly what those meant in terms of where we were in the development.

They gave great sprint updates and all of that, but I didn't really understand what it all meant. This might’ve been a weakness on my end since I’m not a tech person. It would’ve been great if they could’ve broken things down into simpler terms, but I trusted them, so it was fine. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Go in really confident and stick by your idea of what you want. However, once you know that they understand your brand, business, and product, let them do what they do best because they know what they're talking about.

They know what their capabilities are, and they know what’s out there right now in the industry. That was really invaluable to us — we came in with our concept well-established and set, but then we gave them the freedom to make it amazing. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of Zuul. We’re a ghost kitchen company with one facility in New York City.

What challenge were you trying to address with Fueled?

We needed some design work on one of our products. We didn’t feel the need to hire an in-house team; it was more accessible to partner with a team like Fueled.

What was the scope of their involvement?

It was a website that Fueled designed for mobile and desktop. We needed the design and functionality of the products to work up to our specs. We’d drive demand for our brands and allow consumers to order from multiple restaurants at once. We had the backend worked out, but they layered on that UI we needed.

What is the team composition?

We worked with 3–4 people that included John (Director of New Projects) and Sean (Product Designer).

How did you come to work with Fueled?

In New York, they have a great reputation, working with some of the best companies here and globally. It was a no brainer to reach out to them and collaborate.

Their past work blew us away with the level of detail. They were able to hit the ground running and hone in on what we were trying to achieve.

How much have you invested with them?

It was around $10,000–$20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January 2020, and the website wrapped up that March. We’ve kept in touch with them as our needs are changing.

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

We had a good idea of what we wanted it to look like, and Fueled blew that out of the water. All of our employees love it. We have demo days every two weeks to talk about what we’re working on, and that was one of the more exciting things for our tech team to show.

The site is just getting out into the market. COVID-19 has impacted our plans, so I don’t have insight from our customers. When we do articulate it and show it to the larger landlords in New York City, they’re fired up about the functionality and design.

One of the things that drew me to them was the opportunity for strategy sessions. Those involve case studies and user feedback. We didn’t really take advantage of them because we knew what we wanted, but it’s a great thing to offer.

How did Fueled perform from a project management standpoint?

From a project management standpoint, it was great. Their diligent team is incredibly attentive to details. They knew what corners to look around without us telling them or having insight. They have the breadth of experience to understand what the client wants and provide great service.

We communicated mostly through Slack with a shared channel. We also used email occasionally.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Fueled emphasizes a level of personalization and partnership in their work. Their work speaks for themselves. They’ve been able to get a few key customers and projects under their belt, which attracts the same caliber as they move forward.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re incredibly busy. There was actually a week or so delay because they needed to wrap up some previous work before helping with our project.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Take advantage of all their services. We went in there knowing what we wanted. But that said, it would’ve been amazing to go through that strategy session with them. We didn’t have the budget to allocate towards that, but I don’t think we quite took advantage of the full suite of services. They’re a big value add.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the COO of a global education company headquartered in Los Angeles. We provide education for Emergency Medicine physicians via both online and mobile app platforms.

For what projects/services did your company hire Fueled?

Our company's mobile Android application was developed more than five years ago and had largely been neglected due to other priorities. With the rapid expansion of our Android user base and consistently low reviews in the Play Store, upgrading the app to parity with our iOS platform became a priority.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to achieve feature parity with our existing iOS app, to dramatically improve the UX, and to begin increasing our Play Store rating.

How did you select this vendor?

Our company engaged in a comprehensive search for a well-respected Agency with a proven track record of success working on projects of this scale or greater. We had no room for error; this had to be done correctly the first time.

We narrowed our choices down to several top firms, set up meetings with each of them, and ultimately decided upon Fueled based upon their track record, and their ability to integrate seamlessly with our existing development team. Fueled demonstrated the perfect balance of strong development capabilities and emotional intelligence we needed for this unique project.

Describe the project in detail.

Ours was a complete re-build from the ground up. The project required the integration of multiple content types (audio, video, etc.), variable speed playback, collapsable players, and several other technical needs -- all for a very large user base of thousands of doctors whose downloads, play history, and other data needed to be tracked and preserved.

What was the team composition?

The core team on Fueled's end was comprised of a project manager, a product manager, one full time developer, and one part-time developer. We also provided one full-time developer from our team and Fueled worked incredibly well with them and integrated them seamlessly into the project. They also ensured he was fully trained on the entirety of the code base so he could maintain it moving forward.

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

The goal was to achieve feature parity with our existing iOS app in 3 months. They did it in just over two and spent the remaining time fitting in all sorts of new additions -- Android auto, content notifications, you name it! They never took their foot off the pedal, treating our time and money as valuably as we do.

Perhaps the most stunning outcome apart from an amazing app that works flawlessly is the amazing transformation that took place in the Play Store. When we started the project our poor app was hovering around 2.1 stars. Less than a month after project completion we soared to over 4.8! What a complete transformation!

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Great! We integrated them seamlessly into our Slack and they shared us on their JIRA account. Easy peasy!

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They under-promised and over-delivered. By the end of the project they were looking for more features to fit in and we got a ton of new bells and whistles! Other companies would have put it on cruise control, but Fueled floored it and as a result we won big time!

Are there any areas for improvement?

There were minor hiccups here (mostly with scheduling meetings, meeting notes, meeting platforms, etc.) as with any project. But those were very minor. We were very satisfied with the project and the team.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the product manager at Wirecutter, a product recommendations website.

What challenge were you trying to address with Fueled?

We hired Fueled to support us with web development as we undertook a reengagement mission to get more customers to come back to our site.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Over the span of about nine weeks of intense work, Fueled helped us build a new website that included a new type of content and about 60 articles. The new site's architecture enabled us to send out automated deal alerts to visitors, depending on the products they saved. The backend was built in Python within a Django CMS and the frontend was built with Vue.js. In addition to development, they also provided quality assurance and project management services. 

What is the team composition? 

We worked with 6–7 people, including an account manager, a product manager, two engineers, a QA lead, and a junior product manager. 

How did you come to work with Fueled?

They were recommended by one of our partners.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from August–December 2018. After they built the alpha version of the platform, we extended the contract so they could help us take it into a beta phase. 

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

The platform they built made it very easy to modularize, fitting very well within our existing ecosystem. Many of the features Fueled implemented have since been built into our core offering. They delivered the alpha version of the platform on time, on budget, and slightly over scope. As the deadline got close, they did everything necessary to ensure they delivered on time, taking a lot of accountability and responsibility in the project. 

They also delivered a platform that was more robust than we anticipated, allowing us to use it as a beta version and introduce it to over 250,000 people within a few months. Engagement within that time was very high and allowed us to generate a profit, even though that wasn't the purpose. 

How did Fueled perform from a project management standpoint?

They were absolutely fantastic, and the whole engagement was relatively seamless. Similar to our approach, they worked in a very agile way and held daily check-ins. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their engineering group takes ownership in their work and brings a lot of passion to the table. The product they delivered allowed us to generate revenue before launching, which was extremely impressive. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

It took a couple of weeks for us to work out the best process, so the initial transparency in progress reporting could've been better. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure someone on the team is owning the relationship and making themselves available to Fueled's team to ensure they have everything they need on a daily basis.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We're a relatively new startup in the event planning space. We're trying to develop a mobile app that is a combination of location tracker and event calendar. I'm the founder.

What challenge were you trying to address with Fueled?

We hired them to build the MVP.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed the app from scratch and did all of the design and development with our input. The iOS version was built natively using Swift, and the Android version will be built with Flutter. They created wireframes and oversaw all the UI/UX. They included an onboarding process, developed the event planning portion, and set up functionality that lets users announce their projected ETAs to events. We’re about to submit the iOS version to the App Store.

What is the team composition?

We have a project manager for the development team and another direct point of contact. We also had two designers based in the UK and two developers based in India.

How did you come to work with Fueled?

We spoke with five companies and had a short list of three. We interviewed them thoroughly and felt that they were the strongest technically. Their costs were a little higher than their competitors, but they brought the price down from the original estimate.

How much have you invested with them?

The project cost between $250,000–$500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together on this project from November 2018–March 2019.

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

The app has yet to launch, but they cleaned up a lot of the bugs within the MVP. There are a few things we might have done differently, but we're set to get started with what they've provided.

How did Fueled perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management was excellent. They were on top of things, and our main point of contact coordinated all the pieces.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their organization was excellent. They finished everything on time and set good expectations. They pushed back on our weaker ideas, and we usually moved forward after some discussion. They kept us on track and under control, and everything was straightforward.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We could have used more feedback between collaborative periods. We had two-week sprints, and I like to be more involved than some of their other clients. Though I was further outside the process than I would have liked, they finished everything within their stated time frames.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the product manager at Kiss Products, a beauty products company. We sell our products in large national chain stores.

What challenge were you trying to address with Fueled?

We hired Fueled to build a mobile application that would let users try our product virtually.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed our mobile app using 3D modeling assets. Consumers can virtually try our cosmetic products: lipstick, eyeliner, and blush. They can also try our eyelash and hair color products.

What is the team composition?

The team included an account manager, two product managers, and three mobile developers and designers.

How did you come to work with Fueled?

I reached out to several mobile agencies in South Korea and the US. I chose Fueled based on their portfolio, price, and past projects.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $350,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2018 and the partnership ended in January 2019.

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

We haven’t launched the app because we’re currently planning the marketing campaign. Most of our six test users were satisfied with the solution. We plan to release the app in April or June 2019.

How did Fueled perform from a project management standpoint?

The partnership was seamless. Fueled completed the project on time in an organized and professional manner. The team leveraged their expertise to implement great strategy, functionality, and deliverables. We communicated via Slack and held weekly one-hour meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was very satisfied with the engagement.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could improve their 3D modeling assets.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The team understood our business and suggested several scenarios that ultimately led to a good solution.