MediaBrain is focused on media intelligence and examining databases of media consumption, gathering insights, dashboarding and creating planning and buying tools around that data. So before we started working with HF, we were prototyping and putting together software software products for one particular client. We wanted to scale that up to multiple clients, and we needed more engineering resources. So we approached HF to help us scale out that product and make it suitable for multiple clients. We needed additional resources. We needed to move very quickly, and HF were able to help us quickly locate and get started with a great team. HF were excellent in the way that they helped us to move. They gathered our requirements and then helped us to assemble a team of people with complementary skills. We were able to meet each person before they started and get to know them and to find out which kind of skills they had. So they were instrumental really in the early growth of our business. HF took it from an MVP to a fully fledged commercial offering. We've gone from one client to many. And HF have helped us manage that transition.
HF were one of two companies that we considered. HF were very proactive in the way that they approach the problem. They took ownership, really worked off their own bat. They just have a lot of enthusiasm. They're a very young team. They've got a lot of great skills. They were really a pleasure to work with.
Strengths
HF were unique amongst the companies that we dealt with. They identified the issues that we needed to solve, and then they really took ownership and worked out the best practice approach to solving those problems and then worked very hard over a short space of time to build out the software requirements that were necessary for our business. They didn't require micromanaging and we were able to specify our requirements and then leave them to it, and they came back with a solution to our problems and completed the project with really minimal supervision. So for us, that was essential in that we could continue to develop the business while the engineers scaled our product. I think the clear advantage they brought was domain expertise. They have a scalable workforce. They can bring in domain experts as required on a temporary basis. So the team shifted and changed depending upon our requirements at the time. Sometimes we were working with four or five people, sometimes only two. And we brought in skills and expertise as required. All of that was managed very well by a central point of contact, although we had daily stand ups with the team and also spoke to them one on one. They were able to link our existing systems programmatically with a Google API, for example. They were able to take on that task and and run it without being managed, and then come up with a very good best practice solution.
Areas to Improve
I can honestly say we didn't have any issues with them. They've been very helpful, very useful and instrumental to business development. And yeah, they've been great partners to MediaBrain. We plan to continue to do business with them and use them for various projects we have on the horizon. No, if we'd had any problems with them, we would have let them know by now.
Recommendations to others
I think we learned that it's not essential to have a team all in the same building or even in the same country. A distributed team across Europe work perfectly well for us. The time zones and the language were never a major issue, and it really helped us to decide on our forward company structure. And we have decided to continue to be a distributed company employing globally on merit rather than geography. The greatest challenge we had was simply down to geopolitics and the political situation in Belarus. Obviously, there was nothing that HF or us could do about that, but the team coped very well with some very serious challenges as a consequence of that. And we were able to carry on working with minimal interruption.
I would generally recommend HF to especially any start up company wanting to create an MVP or a demonstration product. They will need some management early on as they gather your requirements. But really, after that initial period, they're very self-contained and able to run and manage the product, freeing up your time to work on your own business.We're very pleased with HF.
Verified Review
