Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share Why Most Software Vendors Fail Operators — And What Good Actually Looks Like
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
Why Most Software Vendors Fail Operators — And What Good Actually Looks Like
Most software projects drift — scope grows, timelines slip, and clients spend more time managing the vendor than shipping product. Robert Randolph, CEO of Executive Linguist Agency, hired Vertice Labs to build two apps. Both shipped on time. Both on budget. Here's what made it different.
Robert runs a professional language services firm with a remote team of interpreters. He needed a HIPAA-compliant messaging platform and an internal iOS app — and he needed them fast. The experience became a useful lens on what actually makes software partnerships work: not charisma, not promises, just execution, clarity, and trust.
Chapters
00:00 The first problem: getting an app in the App Store fast
02:50 Hesitations before starting — and why there weren't many
07:38 HIPAA-compliant interpreter messaging: the gap in the market
08:26 "You got us to market so fast I didn't have time to build a sales strategy"
10:01 What no-BS looks like in a pitch
12:20 $40K consulting with nothing to show for it
14:33 Executive Linguist: Vertice Labs' ideal client
17:29 How a Stripe security incident revealed the team's character
19:01 Speed and organization: the biggest differentiator
21:00 "You could have milked us — and you didn't"
24:20 Who should hire a software partner
31:15 What made this client relationship work
35:00 How watching the process improved their internal operations
Topics
• What makes a software partnership actually work
• Clear scope of work as a trust foundation
• Transparency, autonomy, and accountability on a dev team
• Speed without sacrificing quality
• What to look for in a software partner — and what disqualifies one
• Building HIPAA-compliant apps for specialized industries
Guest
Robert Randolph, CEO — Executive Linguist Agency
https://www.executivelinguist.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-randolph-a86ab4111
Resources mentioned
Linear — https://linear.app
Stripe — https://stripe.com
TestFlight — https://developer.apple.com/testflight/
Connect
Andrew Duncan — https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-b-duncan/
Vertice Labs — https://www.verticelabs.io
Subscribe
Spotify — https://open.spotify.com/show/64yoHwDdhBd0vik2sev6xs
Apple Podcasts — https://podcasts.apple.com/gh/podcast/shipping-excellence/id1794200466
YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/@shippingexcellence
RSS Feed — https://media.rss.com/shippingexcellence/feed.xml
View all episodes
By Andrew DuncanMost software projects drift — scope grows, timelines slip, and clients spend more time managing the vendor than shipping product. Robert Randolph, CEO of Executive Linguist Agency, hired Vertice Labs to build two apps. Both shipped on time. Both on budget. Here's what made it different.
Robert runs a professional language services firm with a remote team of interpreters. He needed a HIPAA-compliant messaging platform and an internal iOS app — and he needed them fast. The experience became a useful lens on what actually makes software partnerships work: not charisma, not promises, just execution, clarity, and trust.
Chapters
00:00 The first problem: getting an app in the App Store fast
02:50 Hesitations before starting — and why there weren't many
07:38 HIPAA-compliant interpreter messaging: the gap in the market
08:26 "You got us to market so fast I didn't have time to build a sales strategy"
10:01 What no-BS looks like in a pitch
12:20 $40K consulting with nothing to show for it
14:33 Executive Linguist: Vertice Labs' ideal client
17:29 How a Stripe security incident revealed the team's character
19:01 Speed and organization: the biggest differentiator
21:00 "You could have milked us — and you didn't"
24:20 Who should hire a software partner
31:15 What made this client relationship work
35:00 How watching the process improved their internal operations
Topics
• What makes a software partnership actually work
• Clear scope of work as a trust foundation
• Transparency, autonomy, and accountability on a dev team
• Speed without sacrificing quality
• What to look for in a software partner — and what disqualifies one
• Building HIPAA-compliant apps for specialized industries
Guest
Robert Randolph, CEO — Executive Linguist Agency
https://www.executivelinguist.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-randolph-a86ab4111
Resources mentioned
Linear — https://linear.app
Stripe — https://stripe.com
TestFlight — https://developer.apple.com/testflight/
Connect
Andrew Duncan — https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-b-duncan/
Vertice Labs — https://www.verticelabs.io
Subscribe
Spotify — https://open.spotify.com/show/64yoHwDdhBd0vik2sev6xs
Apple Podcasts — https://podcasts.apple.com/gh/podcast/shipping-excellence/id1794200466
YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/@shippingexcellence
RSS Feed — https://media.rss.com/shippingexcellence/feed.xml