The partner

ALAN is an Austin-based company dedicated to helping marketers convert more leads via text messages. Leveraging a combination of AI and human interaction, the ALAN platform helps nurture leads and turn them into customers. By helping brands contact leads through text messages — as opposed to traditional methods like emails — the ALAN approach encourages engagement while reducing the cost per lead.

The challenge

Since its founding, ALAN has harnessed AI technology to enhance internal processes, particularly lead nurturing. However, the platform's scalability was held back by a substantial amount of technical debt. The app was composed of a monolithic codebase written in languages that are rarely used anymore.

Addressing these issues called for a team of strong, senior engineers — which is why ALAN reached out to Howdy.

The Howdy solution

Howdy supplied ALAN with five senior developers with the skills and know-how needed to tackle the monolithic codebase. Howdy handled everything from sourcing to onboarding to successfully integrate the devs into the ALAN engineering team.

Howdy engineers hit the ground running, reported Alexander Prince, ALAN COO.

"Howdy engineers properly interpreted the intent of the original engineers, re-factored, re-wrote, and improved nearly everything," Alexander said. "This gave our project a stable foundation that can finally be built upon and added to."

The outcome

Today, Howdy devs continue to collaborate with the ALAN engineering team, routinely assisting clients in using the product to nurture their leads to boost sales.

Howdy employees are thriving at ALAN, according to Alexander.

"I have had an overwhelmingly positive experience with our team members from Howdy — and I say 'team members' purposely because everyone from Howdy works as if they are an owner of the company," Alexander said. "They show incredible dedication to moving the company forward and are the first to step up to the plate when things go sideways."

Howdy employees are responsive, and often go above and beyond what is expected of them, according to Alexander.

"I can’t count the number of times we’ve had issues outside of working hours — at midnight, on Sunday morning, on a holiday," Alexander said, "Every time, the Howdy engineers have answered the call, promptly diagnosing and fixing issues with a smile."

The Howdy engineer experience

Howdy engineers, for their part, say they feel supported and respected by the ALAN team.

"With the support of management and the trust they placed in me and my teammates, we were able to provide solutions to many of the company’s needs," said Camilo, a Senior Software Engineer at Howdy. "I have always felt that my opinions and ideas matter in shaping the company’s future. It feels like home here; everyone has always been there to help me navigate issues."

"To have an employee that takes ownership, is a culture-fit and a great individual contributor and team player — that’s a combination that’s hard to find anywhere, and we’ve found it time and time again with Howdy," Alexander said.