Movidea

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a data solutions company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Movidea?

At the time, we were looking to build a tech platform to house our scoring metric. Our scoring system would be for a B2B and direct-to-consumer product. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

We wanted the deliverables to be a scalable product that we could plug and use in different locations. We wanted to have a system where we could log on and access databases, enter data, printout reports, and compile data in an aggregated fashion. However, that’s not what they did. 

What is the team composition?

They had a lot of people with good titles including a director of happiness. That person was our first line of contact and we also met their tech people. 

How did you come to work with Movidea?

One of their heads, probably second or third in command in their company liked our idea. He was so geeked out about being a part of it that he wanted his software company to be the one to do it. He assured us that his company could do everything we wanted. Honestly, they did some really cool websites and had done good work for other companies in town. That’s why we went into the engagement hoping that he was telling the truth and they could deliver on what they promised.

How much have you invested with them?

We paid around $13,000 before canceling the contract.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our project ran from January–March 2017. The partnership didn’t last long.

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

They didn’t offer anything close to what we needed. What they actually do is just build websites such as WordPress, yet they represented themselves as capable of doing a HIPAA compliant platform. However, nothing would have been done on their platform that would’ve made things work. 

We would have gotten into some trouble trying to store medical data the way they wanted to do it. In the end, they didn’t get the work done. We lost a lot of time, and we had to push to get things rolling fast with another vendor. 

We also had to do shortcuts to make the system work as soon as we needed it. Moreover, it cost us a lot of money just to go and try to get a contract, because the whole point was to get the software working so we could go into the business show and show them what we could do. We hoped that we could try earning a contract there, but we ended up not getting the contract.

How was project management handled?

They gave us a 6–8 weeks timeframe. However, in the fourth week, they hadn’t been able to do anything. They were able to redesign our logo and didn’t have any progress on the tech side. We were on a deadline because the platform was really something that we’d use for our business. 

We learned pretty early that they weren’t able to develop what we want. Even if they could do it, it wouldn’t be right, so we canceled the contract.  As a result, they sued us because we signed a contract that we were going to pay $25,000. However, nothing they could give us could make things work, so we had to hire a lawyer. 

Is there anything that the vendor did well or that you would consider a strength?

They were really good at talking about what they could do, but they weren’t good at actually doing anything. I don’t doubt that their people could work, but they were just a wrong fit for us. If they built a website, they probably could’ve done a good job, but that’s not what we needed. We never did get anything of quality from them. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

They didn’t represent themselves well, and then at the end, they just realized that they weren’t capable of doing the work we wanted. Despite that, they wouldn’t break the contract and give us our money back. They also wanted us to continue to pay the remaining $12,000.