The Stardio live streaming platform : Live fitness experience

Please describe your company and your position there.
I am the CEO of online fitness technology company STARDIO, which launches in January 2023.

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For what projects/services did your company hire Moravio, and what were your goals?

We were in a position where our Technical In-house Lead was no longer able to work with us, so we decided to look for a software partner to continue the development of the core platform. Our platform is very ambitious, integrating a lot of different technologies, with a high level of R&D involvement too. We needed a partner who could develop the main components of the platform - the Dashboard, the Class Builder and the Stream Manager.

We sent out briefs to several companies, some based in the UK and some abroad and chose Moravio after a really good pitch. The pitch had not re-used other slides from decks from other pitches. It was unique to us and that said a lot.

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How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We shortlisted a few companies after identifying potential partners. We chose Moravio because we liked their ‘non-salesy BS free’ approach and being very upfront and honest with realistic deliverables. The pricing was extremely fair and we liked the fact they developed all in-house, rather than sub-contract out.

They seemed genuinely excited by the R&D requirement of the project and were not afraid to say that there would be some elements to the brief they might not be instantly familiar with, but would learn and develop with us. This is what appealed to us - their honestly and open collaboration. Pricing was one factor - but not the most important factor.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We provided documentation and demos of where the project was at from the start. We then listed what tasks needed to be completed for the MVP and estimates were given. We listed the requirements in priority order and detailed 2 week sprint objectives were provided with Moravio. Technologies used are:

Node.js
Angular - main platform with service-model architecture
AWS Amplify - framework to build backend and deploy it to AWS. Uses NodeJs Lambdas for resolvers and DynamoDB.
AWS Lambda - serverless functions with node.js
GraphQL - backend is managed by AppSync with GraphQL API
Terraform - manages infrastructure (IaaC)
LiveKit - service and SDK for video streams
Docker
Amazon Web Services cloud (AWS)

How many people from the vendor’s team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We have 1 product manager, 5 developers with 1 tech lead and one QA(tester). We have a great relationship with all of them, but have a very close collaboration with Sarka the project Manager and Vojta the Tech Lead, who we feel we can contact any time of day.

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Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Firstly we are amazed by the quality of the organisational skills of the company. Nothing is missed. In our regular conversations, everything is noted and logged down, so we don’t let important things slide. Considering the complexity of the project, that combines lots of different types of coding and skills, we found the their attention to detail impeccable. The video streaming works really well and was exactly what we asked for. The calendar function works well and they have successfully integrated the Stripe APIs.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Considering the complexity of the project, that combines lots of different types of coding and skills, we found the collaboration between the team very well handled, thanks to the project manager and the Tech Lead. We had a breakdown of all the hours spent on every sprint, which was essential for our investors.

Confluence and Trello was used as the overall management tool and we had several meetings throughout the week. We did this mostly on Google Meets, but on two occasions, we were accommodated at their offices in the Czech Republic, with a two week stay at one point.

Beyond the technical competence, it was always important for us that we could build up a rapport and friendship with the software house we chose. We wanted the people we hired to feel like they were just an extension of our company, involved in coming up with ideas. We had the Whatsapp numbers of the team if we needed to ask any questions out of hours or during holidays, and enjoyed socializing with the team on our two trips there. We have become friends as well as colleagues.

We would do a sprint review every week and as we went along the journey, we would need to sometimes add new features. When adding new features we found them to be very accommodating and honest when it came to the time estimates. They are completely trustworthy too. They would always adjust invoices for the slightest change. For example, if one of the developers was unwell, and was off for only one day, they would inform us and take that day off the next invoice.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

When we approached Moravio, we believe it was probably the most complex live video streaming project they had done - in fact I believe it is the first of its kind so we would have struggled to have found any company with experience in this. What we thought was especially impressive, is how they delivered on the creation of a whole new type of video streaming solution, when this hadn’t been achieved before.

We have not had any experience with working with a software company before, so it is hard to say what is ‘unique’ but it has been a very positive experience and we feel comforted that they are just as keen for our company to succeed as we are. We are still working with them and will continue to do so, moving to an SLA until we prove the business model. We have never felt that this was just a brief to them. We have always found that they are excited about what we are trying to do within the fitness industry and that is very important to us.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

At the very start of the project, we did have some issues with communication, in terms of what was required from us and what our expectations were from them. This was partly a fault from our side too, which is probably down to the fact we had not worked with agile development or any other form of software development before. The manager told us from the start, if we ever had any concerns, we should speak about them. We set up a meeting and from the end of that meeting all communication concerns and expectations from both sides were resolved promptly.

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