XB Software

If You guys would allow me to give them a 1000 I would. First a little about me so you can decide if you want to read. I have an app company and was struggling with an extremely challenging architectural problem with my app. I live and work in Silicon Valley (I grew up here too) and I code so I know what to look for an I can weed out bs pretty quickly. I needed a very easy to use UX/UI for an extremely affluent but not always tech savvy audience. I was stuck and was searching for a JavaScript library to help me address my need for a custom Kanban board plus tree. I had screwed around my self for too long so I was running out of time. Frankly I was pretty screwed. Now my review of XB Software.

In Silicon Valley there’s a saying “if you want work done, go to India, if you need difficult work done go to America, if you require the impossible to be done, go to Minsk (Belarus).

I first contacted Webix, an arm of XB Software, to inquire about their JavaScrip UI library because it was the only one which could accomplish what I needed. I also clicked “get implementation help” Kate Kozik from XB Software reached out to me and was happy, helpful, and pleasant. No sales pressure or Hard sales qualification you find with the American based tech services companies (they put their priorities ahead of yours and you can feel it). She roped in Dmitry Raituzov who took on the architecture role. After on conversation I started digging in to them for background. I went to LinkedIn and found that most of their full stack developers had 5-10 years of advanced JavaScripting experience. I’m sorry....WHAT?? Holy Shit! Let me put that in perspective. An advanced JavaScripter with 5-10 years experience here in Silicon Valley is at Google, FB, Apple, etc. they are literally unicorns. You can’t get them for a little startup like mine at basically Any cost. Ok, so now they have my attention.

After a few more calls I’m sold. I fly out to Minsk before closing the deal because I want to meet the team face to face. That’s very important to me. I landed in Minsk and now Minsk is my 3rd favorite European city behind Paris and London. It’s a mashup of Washington D.C., Paris, and Las Vegas. Just go there and you’ll understand. Everyone there is gorgeous too. Not sure why that is but it is. So now I’m in Minsk and we’re discussing the project at their office in downtown. The office is not fancy but the people all speak fluent English and have their shit together.

Now we start. They don’t require a pre-payment, we go through an extensive NDA which they are happy to sign. They have a presence in the U.S. so it will stick, and I tell them I have basically a month. “Ok, no problem”

We’ll a month later I’m looking at a finished product. I’m sorry but WTF??? That’s completely impossible in my world. In my world you get promised up the river and then when it comes time to deliver all the stories come out about why everything is delayed and it’s my fault for the delays.

I decide that for my test launch I need them present for the launch incase something goes sideways (which something will 100% of the time). Now they’re with me and the first day We realize I screwed up parts of the specification. Without any blame they stay up the whole fucking night with their team back in Minsk ( their daytime) and it’s fixed for the next day of testing and soft launch. We learn we need added functionality and again, another all lighter with the team in Minsk (they’re tired but won’t admit it). BTW, they didn’t have dinner for 3 of the nights I’m describing. We all forgot to get dinner (I lost 6lbs. Last week). And, again we get more “yeah but it would be nice if you had xxx....” by the next morning we showed up with that functionality. If you’re reading this and you’re new to software, this is like working with the Navy SEALS of software. These guys are animals! I’ve worked at Oracle, Hewlett Packard, Mercury Interactive, and other lessor known software companies do I can say with authority this behavior is so above and beyond I was compelled to write this review. Ok, so the result? I won the account. This is the largest account in North America in my industry. It’s like the Super Bowl in what I do. So yeah, I am happy. If you need the impossible done, in a stupidly short period of time, by people who, f they lived in the states you would never get, no matter what you could pay, and have it loved by your customer, all at a fraction of the cost of state or India based work then yeah, you might want to talk with them.

Oh, but it’s Eastern Europe and that’s where the hackers all come from so that’s bad. Well, whenever we had a hack situation in my old big tech companies we went to countries like Belarus to go get the only people who knew the enemy well enough to battle the hackers. It’s a white hat/black hat cat and mouse play. Only one of these people can outsmart one of their own. We don’t stand a chance. The kids in Minsk start coding in grammar school! We are completely screwed to compete with them. That’s it. If you want to talk with me directly then just call. 6500-425-0785

Xb Software did amazing job providing an excellent javascipt framework, and great developers.