Client Introduction

The client is a WEB 2.0 startup that specializes in participative Web technologies and expertise monetization. Its founders have worked in the field of online collaboration for over a decade and created various startups. During that time, they have gathered the feedback of hundreds of thousands of users worldwide and acquired a unique expertise and vision; the participative platform is built upon this expertise and vision.

The company provides with free online places to create communities (a wiki and a blog in one single place) and a unique platform for experts to monetize content.

The Story

When client’s CTO co-founded the company in the heart of the Silicon Valley, he had a clear plan on how to allocate the money he and the other co-founder raised from angel investors.

Since the two co-founders had previous offshore experience and therefore knew about the dos and doesn’t of offshoring, they needed a solid partner willing to share their risks.

Their technical requirements to Venus were to provide with a development team:
Experts in J2EE, open source solutions, and Agile (SCRUM) methodology
Flexible enough to cope with fast evolving specifications
Capable of interfacing with a software analyst and a GUI design team located in the USA.

Venus benefited from client's expertise in modern collaboration tools; a platform based on wikis and blogs (the solution built by the client and freely available on the Internet) facilitates the ongoing communication an Agile approach requires. Venus assigned to this project a team of 5 senior developers and an administrator working under the supervision of a senior project manager.

The system successfully went live early March 2008.

Client and Venus are working already on the next version of the platform, which will provide a tighter integration with popular WEB 2.0 platforms.

With engineering expenses under full control, the client management team can focus his efforts on expanding client’s business, en route toward becoming the natural leader for the monetization of expertise.

Business Challenge

Find an offshore partner willing to share the risks inherent to working with a startup
Find an offshore partner capable of working with the most modern methods and techniques
Keep engineering expenses under tight control

Success Achieved

A fully-fledged platform now up-and-running
Delivery has taken place within the envisioned budget
Excellent initial market response makes the client ready for its next step