Versapay: Digital Payments Mobile Strategy

This is one of our shorter updates, but ironically, one of the biggest updates we've had since the founding of the company in 2018. 

Foxbox Digital 2020 Q3 Update—Finally Sharing Our Largest Product Launch, and Even More Growth

This is going to be a short update, but ironically, one of the biggest updates we've had since the founding of the company in 2018.

On January 1st, 2020, we launched an AI-powered telehealth mobile app for a large healthcare organization. This was during the early stages of the pandemic, so the timing was incredible. It was a really big deal, not just for us but for our client and its customers.

I would have loved to share the news of this launch in one of our Q1 or Q2 updates, but I’m excited to be able to finally share the news in this update!

. I would also love to tell you the name of the company, but because of confidentiality agreements, we’re not able to share—yet.

Outside of it being the largest launch we’ve had, it’s a big deal for three main reasons:

It showcased the strength and talent of our team.

 Based on our interviews with the client executive team on the project, a big focus was on our talented engineering & product team. They mentioned how easy it was to work with us and how they could trust the work we did. That’s a big win for us, and I couldn’t be more proud of those testimonials.

It showcased that we can work with large clients on mission-critical projects.

 This was one of those projects where success was the only option, and the impact was important for our organization. It was also a project that had a lot of moving parts. We were definitely not the only team working on this project—this was a collaboration across many teams. It showcased our abilities to work with cross-functional teams and other vendors to get it done. One of the greatest testimonials we got was: 

“They operated as a startup within our team.”

It showcased that we can pivot under pressure.

 We started this project in mid-2019, well-before Covid-19. When the pandemic started growing, we shifted with our client to develop a solution specifically for Covid-19, and it was all done in under 10 days from development to production. This also resulted in revenue generation for the client. It proved that although we had a defined work product, we were able to shift on a moment’s notice and do what’s best for our client and our client’s customers.

This was a massive effort from everyone involved, and I’m glad we were able to be part of it. If you haven’t checked out the case study, I highly recommend you do:

Driving Digital During Covid-19: Helping an Enterprise Healthcare Company Develop an AI Mobile Telehealth Product During a Pandemic

Until now, we've grown sales organically through my network, word of mouth, and even some of the content we've produced. This was the first time we invested in a dedicated business development lead, 

Spencer is reaching out to folks to form genuine connections by giving content and knowledge, and starting real conversations about tech and product. We’re sharing our point of view on a variety of relevant topics across product strategy, development, and agile. With all of these real connections, we hope that people will think of us when they have a technology problem to solve.

If you're interested, we will be posting our POVs 

 to share with our network when they're done:

Creating meaningful products with Human-Centered Design

Implementing automated UI testing on mobile (on-device) and web (in-browser)

That's all for this Q3 Update. I'm also excited about our Q4 update, which will be about our website refresh and service offerings. Never a dull moment :) As always, I hope everyone is staying safe, and thanks for reading!

foxbox-team-photo-2020

Since my last quarterly update, so many great things have happened, and we actually continued to grow at a steady pace. This means we’re officially out of survival mode, which we were in when the pandemic started. We’re also learning a lot about how we work, and just how important our culture is to us as a team.

Foxbox Digital 2020 Q2 Update

Since our last quarterly update, so many great things have happened, and we actually continued to grow at a steady pace. This means we’re officially out of survival mode, which we were in when the pandemic started. We’re also learning a lot about how we work, and just how important our culture is to us as a team.

Here are the highlights of what’s happened.

We continue to grow our engineering and product team

All of our core team members that were put on furlough are now officially back from furlough because of increased client demand. It was a painful decision to put them on furlough, but it was necessary to protect the future of Foxbox.

My good friend and one of our earliest team members, Jasmine Slivka left Foxbox to lead product for another organization. She's had a huge impact on Foxbox - our culture, our team, and of course, our clients. She set the foundation for how we deliver for our clients and her successors have a lot to be thankful for. So, I wanted to personally say thank you, Jasmine!

This quarter, we brought on 11 new team members!

3 Engineers (Mariano, Bruno, and Lautaro)

2 in operations (Luciana, Operations Coordinator, and Karina, Finance Analyst)

And we're looking to hire two more for our Chicago office:

We closed a few new deals and launched the new Brideside.com 

, a Chicago-based retailer that sells beautiful bridesmaids dresses. They came to us to re-platform their infrastructure in order to provide a whole new shopping experience and a reliable operational backend. Brideside is powered by Shopify, React, Sanity CMS, and Salesforce.

On the same day as the Brideside launch, we kicked off a project for a company that owns and runs a portfolio of residential buildings. As a member, you'll have access to coworking space, special events, and other really fun things. What sets them apart is that you don't have to rent a full apartment, you could rent a bedroom and share the apartment with other cool people. We're building a mobile app that residents will use to access their space, and I'm excited to show you the end result when we’ve officially launched.

We signed two new deals with companies that are on the cutting edge of innovation of technology and business models. We also renewed a few projects, and we’re seeing a trend of many of our clients renewing for future phases. I'll take that as a sign that our execution capabilities are maturing, and renewals are great for everyone involved.

On a side-note, our win rate is increasing

 because we’re doing much more work upfront to close deals. Instead of sending over a deck with a final number, we’re working hand-in-hand with prospective clients and doing a lot of work upfront to showcase our capabilities.

On one deal, we researched, architected, and planned meticulously for months, for free. We’re doing work that no other agency would do, and being flexible with how we do it. We start early with brainstorming ideas and strategy with our prospective clients. It’s a lot of work, but it’s paying off.

We’re paying more attention to our company goals and OKRs

," we’re starting to be more serious about our goals and tracking our progress against those goals.

Our first attempt at company OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) were good, but a bit dry. I wanted them to be exciting and motivating. Instead of focusing on earning more revenue, 

 The core is basically the same, but I think these new OKRs are a meaningful shift in perspective to have us aligned toward the right goals.

Our revamped organizational OKRs revolve around three main areas:

Become the leading, go-to digital agency for mid-market businesses.

Delivering measurable value and delighting our customers.

Creating a highly talented, passionate, and driven team.

Improve the consistency of delivering stable products.

We are putting a bigger focus on automated testing and QA. To do this, we brought on two QA engineers to help us. This includes the work of writing effective automated tests across our backend, front-end, mobile, and web.

Every build-phase project will have dedicated QA hours.

Focus on improving our testing strategy and process.

We are changing the staffing mix to dedicate more project hours to Product Management. PMs will handle fewer projects than they have in the past, which is essential to delivering quality software.

Focus on growth, even during the pandemic.

Not growing is not an option for us, and this is the only approach to avoiding survivor mode. We are not growing for the sake of getting bigger, we are growing to make us more stable. Frankly, we need more clients in order to minimize the impact of any single client leaving us.

We’ve invested in account-based marketing/sales outreach to target the customers we believe we can help the most. We are in the early stages.

Improve our website to reflect who we are and how we work.

As we evolve, so does the website. It feels like we just re-did our website, but so many things have evolved in positive ways that we need to make sure our website reflects our new positioning as a full-service digital product agency.

We’re in a good position, and I'm cautiously optimistic

Covid-19 isn’t over. It’s not close to being over, so we have to work harder than ever to keep growing. I learned a lot from our Q1 update about going into survivor mode, and I will use that as a frame of reference as we expand and build our capabilities.

Thanks again for listening, and you’ll hear from me at the end of Q3!

Foxbox Digital 2020 Q2 Update—Big Product Launch, Steady Growth, and Less Covid-19 Chaos (For Now)

There isn't a single business operating today that hasn't felt the effects of changes from COVID-19.  Here's what's happened since December 2019, both good and bad (but mostly good.)

Foxbox Digital Q1 2020 Update: Culture & COVID-19

This is the quarter that changed everything.

Foxbox Digital started the year on a high from the success of 2019. We grew our team and invested in our culture. We created a culture book called The Foxbox Way with the goal of maintaining and strengthening our culture as we scale the business.

We created a tagline for Foxbox Digital, 

. We did some soul searching and tried to sum up who we are in two words (what do you think?)

Then COVID-19 hit the US hard and everything changed.

It impacted us, and I had to take necessary, stress-inducing action. The end result is that we are surviving through this. I'm sharing everything that happened with complete transparency, and I'm sharing what I learned as a leader (and the mistakes I made to learn that lesson).

I know many companies go on for years without ever creating a tagline, and in many cases, a tagline isn’t created until the company is very successful and popular. But I wanted to create one to communicate what stands us apart and to give our prospective customers and potential hires an idea of what it’s like to work with us.

I didn’t want to be just a software development agency. The world doesn’t need another company that can build software. So the biggest reason was to differentiate us and communicate our value proposition.

When I started Foxbox Digital in 2018, I wanted our team to be intentional about everything we do. I didn’t want to leave it up to chance or let the culture have a life of its own. In many ways, the culture of Foxbox Digital is an extension of how I operate.

I needed a way to communicate this to our team and prospective customers. I wanted our outside to match our inside. Meaning, a potential hire or customer should be able to have a consistent experience before and after joining us.

I have to say that I’m really happy with how it turned out. If you want to see our new company handbook, read 

, and if you want a behind-the-scenes look into how we created the handbook, check out 

We published some blog posts we’re proud of

When we write content, we take it seriously and put a lot of thought and work into it. An average blog post can take us a month to write, edit, and publish. The time it takes could be shortened if we didn’t have anything else to do, but for the most part, we make sure to get it right.

Here are three blog posts we’re proud of:

How We Onboard Our Remote Engineering and Product Management Team

 — We actually had this planned to publish before COVID-19 came into our lives. I think we do a really good job at remote work. If you’re interested in this, check it out.

10 Reasons Why We Love React Native *And Why You Should Too

 — React Native is the foundation of this company. We do plan on expanding outside of just React Native, but we thought this would be relevant for anyone considering building software.

How Switching From Ruby to Elixir Made Our Team Happier and More Productive

 — Another great, technical article on why we enjoy using Elixir.

COVID-19 and the impact on Foxbox Digital

On Wednesday, March 18th, I sent a company-wide email about the impact of the pandemic on Foxbox Digital. I was cautiously optimistic: we were in a good place relative to other digital agencies, and definitely as compared to other businesses in general. And it’s also worth mentioning that new information was coming in every hour. Although there still is uncertainty at the current moment, nothing compares to March 18th.

From a logistical perspective, working from home was an easy transition and required basically no ramp up period. We’re a remote-first company, and so in early March with one days’ notice, I asked everyone to work from home. Someone came in sick to the office and I made the executive decision right then and there! We will continue to work remote until it’s safe for us to return to our offices.

Seeing the early effects of COVID-19 on the economy, I expected that it would be difficult to close new clients, and some current clients would either scale back or pay later, but I also thought that we would be able to close more clients than we actually did.

One advisor suggested I “flex every variable cost I could.” So I made the decision to cut marketing and recruiting. I cut my own pay in half, too.

But, as it turns out, I was too optimistic. The pandemic, and its aftershocks, got much worse here in the US and it impacted Foxbox Digital more than I thought. Like many other small businesses, I’m still waiting in line for the SBA Paycheck Protection Program, and for Congress to replenish the funds. And, because of my previously optimistic tone, I also caught my team off guard as the situation worsened.

What’s happened in the last month? We had clients scale down or pause development entirely. We also didn’t close some new clients that I had expected we would.

With that in mind, here’s what I said to my team on our monthly Town Hall:

 The truth is that we don’t know how long this will last. It’s affecting everyone: our current clients and our future clients.

In order to get through this, I’ve had to ask some of my team to make sacrifices. It was an incredibly difficult decision, one that gave me stomach pains for a week. As difficult as it is, it allows Foxbox Digital to live on. We’ve had to let one team member go, and had to ask several to go on furlough. One of our developers volunteered to scale back to half-time in order to be with his family, which was helpful for our company.

I can’t control what happens next. As you’ve seen, things are changing every day with this pandemic. I can't promise that we won't ask some of you to furlough again in the future.

What I can promise you is that I value every single one of you tremendously, and furloughing anyone is the last thing I want to do. I've already put this business at risk trying to make it work by trying to keep everyone. Most companies let people go a month ago.

What I need from you is to simply keep delivering for our clients. I know this is stressful, but what we need to do is focus on our work and that’s what you have control over.

This is difficult but if we come together and do what's needed, we will not only survive, but we'll come through this pandemic stronger than before.

What I’ve learned through all this is when we’re navigating uncertain times, the message I deliver to my team needs to be realistic. I put an optimistic spin on my first message to my team. My goal was to put everyone at ease, and it backfired.

The interesting thing is that as compared to my super realistic second message, the first message actually made my team more nervous! They were all scared after I told everyone that the business, and the employees, were going to be okay. I’m sure they looked around and saw every other business laying people off and thought, something isn’t right. I had to hold an AMA (Ask Me Anything) a few days later to answer questions.

But, after I delivered my second message, this time over Zoom, my team saw that I took action and I did the things that needed to be done. I couldn’t promise they’d be safe and I acknowledged that I didn’t know what the future would bring. That was real, and they saw that.

When I ended my speech and opened up to questions, an interesting thing happened -- we started joking and everyone’s spirits lifted. We talked about our own experiences in social isolation, and what we had been doing to pass the time after signing off each day.

My rallying call worked. My goal was to tell it how it is, and encourage everyone to step up and deliver for our clients. Let’s focus on the things that are in our control, and not worry so much about the things that aren’t.

I’ve learned a lot through this experience about how to lead when things aren’t easy. I’m incredibly grateful and proud of my team throughout all of this. They have been positive throughout the entire experience, and they continue to push through, even with all of the stress and uncertainty.

I wish for everyone to be safe, and if there is anything I can do to help, please let me know. I know there are many businesses worse off than we are, and some have been completely destroyed, but we are all in this together as a community.

Stay positive, and stay safe, and as always, feel free to 

Foxbox Digital is growing. Here's the July, 2019 update on what's happened.

Company Update -- Here's What's Happened in the Past 6 Months

So much has happened over the past 6 months and I’m excited to share it all with you.

1 -- We changed our name to Foxbox Digital and 

! Our initial “cost-effective” model of developing apps was a great launching point. It became clear, as we grew with our clients, that our value wasn’t about being cost-effective but about helping them build better and bigger digital solutions across mobile and web. So now, instead of “Foxbox,” we are “Foxbox Digital” which also means we are 10,000 times easier to find on Google :). 

Here is a detailed update on the website changes

2 -- We acquired a new enterprise Fortune 100 healthcare client. From initial meeting to closed deal, it took 6 weeks, which is an extremely short sales cycle. I would love to tell you who it is, but due to obvious restrictions in our contract, I can’t spill the beans. However, I can tell you that it’s one of our biggest contracts and it’s a long-term agreement. We’re pumped.

We’re looking for engineers and project managers

4 -- I’ve been working on this 6,000+ word blog post for the past 3 months. It’s 

about how to build Agile products in the enterprise

. It’s funny how life works itself out. I started my career working at Accenture/Avanade doing work for large companies, then moved to found and run several startups as a CTO. Now I help big companies build products like a startup does. I’ll take it.

5 -- We moved to a new office in Wicker Park. Come and say hello. Our address is 

1720 West Division Street, Floor 2, Chicago IL 60622

That’s all for now. Thank you for your continued support!