It’s the original promise of the internet itself: connecting businesses across time and space who might never meet otherwise. Vintro’s mission is to do just that for businesses that are seeking to build strategic partnerships. By connecting suppliers with procurers, Vintro is creating the first
B2B marketplace of its kind.
When Vintro first contacted our team at Ole & Lena, they were in the middle of a transition. They had spent some time building out the basis for their professional connectivity product, but they decided to switch their focus from connecting people to connecting businesses. The goal was to help these companies build robust and efficient supply chains.
The Problem
In rethinking their product, Vintro wanted to keep their core mission of making meaningful connections, but they needed to find a new direction. This became especially pressing since B2B products are notoriously complex and require an entirely different skill-set to nail down. The team knew they needed support to help get their product off the ground.
Now, at Ole & Lena, we love blank canvases and taking a concept from ideation to completion. That’s exactly what Vintro was looking for. But they also wanted someone who could do more than just design and code an application. They needed partners who they could trust to help them look at the big picture and illustrate what this product could be.
Ultimately, Vintro was committed to making the investments necessary to turn their product into a success. They also recognized that they needed tangible collateral to show them just what their product could be. We helped them articulate that vision and bring it to life.
The Solution
We kicked it off with a number of discovery sessions where we gathered the project requirements and objectives, and aligned with their vision. Once we wrapped up this step, we immediately got to work on rapid prototyping to flesh out concepts and push the design forward.
An important part of this process was user research. Because we’re strong advocates for
human-centered design, we knew that we could only understand what we were trying to accomplish by reaching out to potential end users and figuring out what they needed. A tech product is all about solving a real problem and doing so in a way that’s easy to learn and intuitive to use. That means there’s no substitute for listening to your users.
From there, we went into the
agile development phase: moving quickly from
lo-fi Figma wireframes to
hi-fi prototypes, using that visualization to get feedback from our client, and then iterating. Rinse and repeat; we moved quickly, took the initiative, and pushed our innovation forward.
By leveraging our B2B expertise, we were able to build out the underlying data infrastructure for the app and then package that into two distinct feeds, one for procurers and one for suppliers. This step was important since data and metrics are crucial to executing high-performing business decisions.
The Results
We created a full-featured web application that’s incredibly flexible. Since Vintro is a comprehensive procurement marketplace where businesses can buy and sell almost anything—from office chairs to marketing services—it needs to be adaptable enough to meet the needs of every user.
We used insights from user research to include functional features such as video calling, a built-in calendar, and more. By integrating all of these features within the application, we created a platform that serves the entire procurement lifecycle, from the initial lead, to facilitating video conferencing to hash out the details, to ultimately closing the deal.
One of our biggest wins was the opportunity to partner algonside Vintro’s leadership to pitch to investors. We helped Vintro secure a substantial round of
funding from Dun & Bradstreet, a leading firm that provides world-class business insights and analytics. This strategic partnership helped Vintro continue to grow and expand their product by giving them access to incredible mentorship, greater visibility, and funding.
We’re proud to say that our partnership with Vintro continues, and we look forward to making their platform the go-to procurement marketplace for businesses of all sizes.Do you have a concept for a digital product that you need help turning into a reality? Ole & Lena can take you there.
Get in touch with us now to schedule a free consultation.
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