Five Jars

DIGITAL. CREATIVITY. EXPERIENCE.

4.9 14 Reviews
Visit website
Write a Review
Verified Profile

Five Jars is an international Web Development, Web Design, and Strategy company led by leaders with 10+ years of experience in web development. In the last 6 years, we’ve delivered 100+ projects for clients in health & fitness, media, art & culture, and NGO markets, including 20+ mid-to-enterprise clients such as George Washington’s Mount Vernon, Council for Exceptional Children, Fortune 500 organizations, and numerous large YMCAs across the US.

$100 - $149/hr
10 - 49
2017
Locations
United States
2300 Wilson Blvd, Suite 700, Arlington, Virginia 22201
+18043959535
United States
68 Jay Street, Suite 201, Brooklyn, New York 11201
+18043959535
Ukraine
Popudrenka Street 1a, Kyiv, kyiv 02100

Focus Areas

Service Focus

70%
10%
10%
10%
  • Web Development
  • Software Development
  • Web Designing (UI/UX)
  • Maintenance & Support

Client Focus

60%
20%
20%
  • Medium Business
  • Large Business
  • Small Business

Industry Focus

50%
20%
15%
15%
  • NGOs
  • Education
  • Art, Entertainment & Music

Five Jars Executive Interview

Alex Schedrov
Alex Schedrov
CEO
Visit Profile
Please introduce your company and give a brief about your role within the organization.
Five Jars is an international Drupal, Web Development, Web Design, and Strategy company led by leaders with 10+ years of experience serving mid to enterprise clients in health & fitness, media, art & culture, and NGO markets.

As CEO, Director of Business Development, and Digital Strategist, I lead the company’s growth and expansion and build relationships with clients and partners.
What is the story behind starting this company?
Five Jars was founded in 2017 by a group of technology enthusiasts, digital experts, and dreamers with years of experience in other Drupal companies to deliver high-quality web solutions. The desire to be not just another web development agency but to provide clients with an exceptional boutique service has united these Drupal professionals. The main people core of the Five Jars is obsessed with honing processes, striving for perfect results even in small things and full ownership of the projects they work on. We gathered together only top talents to produce quality products and be as successful as our clients. Our enthusiasm, passion, and focus drive our efforts to meet our clients’ needs. We’re proud of our client partnerships, and we love what we do.
What are your company’s business model–in house team or third party vendors/ outsourcing?
We are a group of professionals who are looking to disrupt the way digital agencies work sustainably. Because we want to change the industry, we do things differently. We are convinced that creativity, talent, and potential are not bound by borders. That is why we have people all around the world. We only hire the greatest people - it doesn’t matter where they are located. We believe in opportunities and do not only hire well-experienced experts but also people who bring a new drive to the team. The mix of fresh ideas and established experience is the key to our success. That said, we have an in-house team but with an extensive network of partners.
How does your company differentiate itself from the competition?
We are a leading innovation agency that has built many progressive products. We aim to provide cost-saving strategies and always care about security. It is what really distinguishes Five Jars among other vendors. We build and support websites and perform overall digital transformation starting from work on the website, and we make a digital ecosystem and aim to increase our clients' revenue. Additionally, Five Jars team grew out of the Drupal community. We continue to be active participants in the community, allowing us to grow and evolve.
What industries do you generally cater to? Are your customers repetitive? If yes, what ratio of clients has been repetitive to you?
We cover multiple industries with in-depth expert knowledge and extensive experience. Our main development tool Drupal is great for certain industries (such as nonprofit, art and music, culture, health, fitness, etc.). It allows us to focus on certain technologies and evolve. Most of our clients are nonprofit organizations, and through our work, we are part of the impact of their missions. Our best products are present in industries such as education, health, and fitness, media, arts and culture, nonprofits, and enterprises.
Please share some of the services that you offer for which clients approach you the most for?
We believe, and our clients confirm, that everything starts with web development. Five Jars is renowned for being at the forefront of development trends, and our developers are among the most experienced and senior ones on the market. Our teams are interdisciplinarily organized and consist of developers, marketing experts, design gurus, and many other professionals leading in their very own fields of expertise. On the other hand, Five Jars is more than a developer. We create a product strategy together with the client and also offer design, hosting, support, and integration services.
What is your customer satisfaction rate according to you? What steps do you take to cater to your customer’s needs and requirements?
Five Jars have tried different approaches to communicating with customers over the past few years and empirically came up with a combination of factors that work best for us. We’re transparent: we organize our work using Agile & Scrum and provide clients with regular status reports. Our empathy helps us maintain a high level of customer satisfaction. We look at each problem through the eyes of the customer and try to create solutions that help clients reach their goals. Speaking of the practical side of the issue, our team also uses collaborative tools for communication and tasks so that the needs of customers are heard as quickly as possible and implemented literally before their eyes.
What kind of support system do you offer to your clients for catering to their queries and issues?
We see ourselves as partners rather than service providers. Five Jars emphasizes long-term collaborations when it comes to supporting agreements. Together with clients, we develop an audit and maintenance schedule which integrates their unique peak times and requirements to accommodate clients' goals in the most efficient manner.
  • Platform upgrades
  • Security upgrades
  • Bug fixes and improvements
  • Website monitoring
  • Personal support
  • Regular checks of your website and its proper functioning
  • Support in using all functionality
  • Ongoing website testing to ensure functionality after browser updates
  • Content management support
  • Analytics support
As said, we see ourselves as partners – and we prove that with everything we do.
What kind of payment structure do you follow to bill your clients? Is it Pay per Feature, Fixed Cost, Pay per Milestone (could be in phases, months, versions etc.)
In our practice, Five Jars accepts both fixed prices and time and materials. The Fix Price strategy is based on detailed planning and sequentially defining milestones before the real development process begins. It works best for projects that have a well-defined execution strategy, a ton of project documentation, and a clear roadmap.
The T&M method does not throw a client into unpredictability as it might seem. Even if the agreement doesn't have a set ultimate sum, Five Jars nonetheless gives a customer an estimation of the number of hours needed to finish the job. Detailed terms of cooperation and penalties in case of violation will be specified in the contract. Our team values T&M for the flexibility and transparency of the payment method.

The selection of the correct pricing is directly related to the selection of the development methodology and must be consistent with the requirements and objectives of the project, as well as the overall costs incurred by the developer.
Do you take in projects which meet your basic budget requirement? If yes, what is the minimum requirement? If no, on what minimum budget you have worked for?
We have some basic requirements for the project. These are technology, organization size, budget, and timeline. They vary across industries, but we try to clarify them to guarantee that we have the capacity to start and finish the projects in time.

In our experience, small opportunities may lead to long-term and fruitful partnerships, so if we feel like we are a good match for the client, we may lower the bar of the entry budget, so it is a variable rather than a constant value.
What is the price range (min and max) of the projects that you catered to in 2021?
Given that we offer various services for long-term and newly onboarded, that number should be reviewed case by case. On average, we worked with budgets of $50,000 - $250,000+ depending on the type and size of the project.
Where do you see your company in the next 10 years?
Five Jars will become a large company, a leader among other outsourcing companies. We will continue making a significant impact by providing the best in class services. Our projects and products will continue helping millions of people worldwide. Five Jars continues helping the largest and the best brands worldwide succeed by building innovative digital experiences and capitalizing on business and impact.

Five Jars Clients & Portfolios

Key Clients

  • YMCA of the North
  • Council for Exceptional Children
  • YMCA of Greater Brandywine
  • Spooky Nook Sports
  • YMCA of Pierce and Kitsap Counties
  • Fortune 500 company
  • Montana NSF EPSCoR
  • George Washington Mount Vernon

Spooky Nook Sports
View Portfolio
Spooky Nook Sports
  • Spooky Nook Sports screenshot 1
$10001 to $50000
24 weeks
Healthcare & Medical

Spooky Nook Sports recently transitioned to a new CRM system and identified various areas for improvement. Especially the UX design and the user journeys required an update to align with the overall desired website experience. Five Jars was hired to analyze the current state, identify areas for improvement and, eventually, integrate the required third-party functionalities.

We have launched a calendar and schedules widgets on the website that are constantly syncing with the ACTIVENet CRM and display up-to-date information about all available events. In order to achieve a seamless and intuitive solution, we analyzed the current state of the CRM transition and anticipated the near-future changes to the data structure. We ultimately went live in a phased way to ensure a smooth roll-out of our solution.

Mount Vernon Video Portal
View Portfolio
Mount Vernon Video Portal
  • Mount Vernon Video Portal screenshot 1
$10001 to $50000
12 weeks
Art, Entertainment & Music

George Washington’s Mount Vernon has been increasing its video production efforts to offer additional value to its visitors and members. Besides pre-recorded videos, Mount Vernon now offers live events and other captivating online experiences as well as a membership area with additional members-only content. However, their video content management system reached its peak of usability and they turned to Five Jars as their long-term development partner to re-design the way content is managed and presented to visitors and members. 

Through the initial discovery phase, our developers created a detailed backlog and kicked off with a structured time and budget plan. The final solution not only reduced the time needed to manage the video portal by over 200 hours per year but also updated the UI/UX of the video portal to a more sophisticated online web platform worthy of Mount Vernon.

George Washington’s Mount Vernon
View Portfolio
George Washington’s Mount Vernon
  • George Washington’s Mount Vernon screenshot 1
$100001 to $500000
23 weeks
E-commerce

George Washington’s Mount Vernon partnered with Five Jars to help with difficult technological challenges, to update and advance their web environment and add additional features to their ticketing platform and website.

As Five Jars is experienced in working together with non-profit organisations and the Tessitura ecosystem, we were the right choice to team up with and started straight away by analysing the web environment. We help Mount Vernon constantly innovate what they do online. 

YMCA of the North
View Portfolio
YMCA of the North
  • YMCA of the North screenshot 1
$100001 to $500000
52 weeks
Other Industries

YMCA of the North attracts 3,000,000+ unique users annually. With that amount of traffic, every single website improvement becomes a complex project. In order to delight customers, increase impact and grow their organization, YMCA of the North hired Five Jars to carry out necessary development work as well as improve the user experience across its online presence.

Five Jars evaluated the required steps and kicked the project off with a diverse project team. Integrations we built generate demand and revenue for YMCA products and services. Our solutions process tons of data and allow people to book and register for programs, training, and camps online. In addition, processes we automated save time and money and show high ROI. By simplifying the scholarship application process, we made it easy for many families to join the Y.

YMCA of Pierce and Kitsap Counties
View Portfolio
YMCA of Pierce and Kitsap Counties
  • YMCA of Pierce and Kitsap Counties screenshot 1
$50001 to $100000
23 weeks
Other Industries

YMCA of Pierce and Kitsap Counties has been an eager Open Y community member. However, without having done any major update to their old website, their technology environment became outdated and error-prone. Five Jars was hired to update their entire website in order to enable the running of all the necessary functionality. By updating their entire web presence, Five Jars introduced a user-centric approach to creating seamless user journeys.

Five Jars migrated and overhauled an existing website to harness the power of sophisticated functionalities such as single sign-on and data analytics. One of the overarching goals, however, was to foster efficient updating in the future. Therefore, our developers created synergies wherever possible and created an intuitive user interface as well as a backend to simplify all processes.

Council for Exceptional Children
View Portfolio
Council for Exceptional Children
  • Council for Exceptional Children screenshot 1
$10001 to $50000
23 weeks
Education

Full web presence redesign for a major educational association (Council for Exceptional Children), a professional association of educators focused on advancing the success of children with exceptionalities.

Five Jars went through the full cycle redesign with the CEC team to digitally transform their web presence and improve brand consistency across all platforms. We created a digital ecosystem for the CEC to host 70+ microsites and created an engaging, positive website visitor experience.

Video Automation Tool
View Portfolio
Video Automation Tool
  • Video Automation Tool screenshot 1
$10001 to $50000
10 weeks
Media

YMCA of the North is responsible for the preparation and uploading of dozens of videos – each day. While this is great as a lot of amazing content is being produced, it also shifts the bottleneck from content creation to video preparation. Five Jars was hired to automate the video preparation and reduce the time spent on these administrative tasks.

YMCA of Greater Brandywine
View Portfolio
YMCA of Greater Brandywine
  • YMCA of Greater Brandywine screenshot 1
$50001 to $100000
23 weeks
Other Industries

YMCA of Greater Brandywine encompasses eight YMCAs with more than 80,000 members across Chester County. 

We worked with the YMCA to digitally transform their membership experience. Starting with a migration to the Open Y platform, we quickly followed with improved Group Exercise schedules, a streamlined program registration process, a digital signage launch with promotional and schedules screens, all while lowering expenses for future Open Y upgrades and digital signage software.

YMCA of Greater Seattle
View Portfolio
YMCA of Greater Seattle
  • YMCA of Greater Seattle screenshot 1
$50001 to $100000
26 weeks
Other Industries

The YMCA of Greater Seattle fosters healthy living habits, and a strong sense of community in the Greater Seattle region through its 14 branches. YMCA of Greater Seattle is one of the key players in the Open Y community. We worked with the YMCA to digitally transform their membership experience, starting with Open Y migration. We also improved Group Exercise schedules, streamlined the program registration process. We are thrilled to have an excellent partnership that makes digital transformation possible for the YMCA of Greater Seattle as well as for the marvellous Open Y community.

Digital Signage
View Portfolio
Digital Signage
  • Digital Signage screenshot 1
$10001 to $50000
13 weeks
Advertising & Marketing

The project brief was bursting with innovation opportunities. YMCA of the North desired to innovate the way they inform visitors about upcoming events as well as how to guide them through their buildings. Five Jars accepted the challenge to digitalize the offline processes and to create an engaging, new way of taking care of guests.

Amazon Alexa Skill
View Portfolio
Amazon Alexa Skill
  • Amazon Alexa Skill screenshot 1
$10001 to $50000
13 weeks
Information Technology

YMCA members are increasingly relying on mobile devices, voice assistants, and new channels of content delivery. YMCA associations need to stay ahead of the curve to ensure that they meet the needs of their members.

We selected Amazon Alexa for the ease of development of new skills on the platform. Amazon Alexa provides an excellent framework for building and deploying applications to the store.

Five Jars created an Amazon Alexa skill that allows users to interact with YMCA content through conversational, natural language, and shows off a variety of new features.

Channel Islands YMCA
View Portfolio
Channel Islands YMCA
  • Channel Islands YMCA screenshot 1
$50001 to $100000
52 weeks
Other Industries

Channel Islands YMCA has maintained eight replicated WordPress websites with its growth. The project's main goal was to consolidate all websites to one primary site with branch landing pages and create one-off pages from each landing page. Launched Open Y website simplified website navigation, enhanced content management experience increased website traffic, revenue, and streamlined user journeys.

Early Childhood Learning Centers
View Portfolio
Early Childhood Learning Centers
  • Early Childhood Learning Centers screenshot 1
$50001 to $100000
52 weeks
Education

YMCA of the North desired to introduce a microsite communicating their daycare and preschool programs for various age groups to their community and beyond. While forming a part of the wider YMCA of the North website, the Early Childhood Learning Centers (ECLC) microsite should provide a very distinct browsing feeling to the user. Five Jars created a microsite with parallels to the YMCA of the North websites, but which is still offering a completely new user experience.

Virginia Alliance of YMCAs
View Portfolio
Virginia Alliance of YMCAs
  • Virginia Alliance of YMCAs screenshot 1
$100001 to $500000
52 weeks
Other Industries

The Virginia Alliance of YMCAs unites 27 independent Ys that serving communities throughout the Commonwealth. The Virginia Alliance of YMCAs was functioning on a website that looked dated and was missing some basic features. Open Y allowed the Virginia Alliance of YMCAs to launch a new, modern website with advanced functionality with a minimal budget. 

The Virtual Y
View Portfolio
The Virtual Y
  • The Virtual Y screenshot 1
$50001 to $100000
52 weeks
Telecommunication

Several YMCAs searched collectively for a platform solution to host their video content and to draw more traffic to their online offerings. They selected Five Jars to deliver three standalone websites and cater for individual requests while acknowledging a tight budget.

Five Jars Reviews

No Review
No reviews submitted yet.
Be the first one to review

Resources

On-Page SEO Checklist: How To Maximize Search Engine Optimization for Drupal Sites
View eBook