Our verdict
Synaptiq is worth hiring for a mid-sized company or public agency that wants a small senior team, led by a university machine learning professor, to fix its data and build a first computer vision or document AI product. It is too small for large programs that need many engineers at once. It also publishes no rates, so buyers have little to compare before the first proposal.
The right buyer
- Law firms and other paperwork-heavy businesses: it built document classification models for the immigration firm Berry Appleman & Leiden and deployed them behind an API on AWS (case study).
- Companies that need a Databricks data platform built before AI work can start. It is a Databricks partner and has built two lakehouse platforms for law firms (case study).
- Health startups that need a computer vision prototype. Spine by Design’s CEO said on Clutch that the work produced a working alpha version, which the company was using to test its model on real hospital data.
- State agencies replacing old systems in stages, as with Michigan’s disease surveillance system, where search and filtering became more than 100 times faster (case study).
Reasons to look elsewhere
- It is small. Oregon Business counted nine full-time employees plus contractors in early 2024, and its team page shows 14 people.
- It publishes no hourly rates; Clutch shows only a $50,000 minimum project.
- All seven of its Clutch reviews date from 2023, and many of its own case studies do not identify the client.
- The impact lines on its case studies, such as “300,000 skilled technicians,” are broad national estimates, not measured results for the client.
Synaptiq, At A High Level
Synaptiq is an AI development, implementation and consulting firm in Portland, Oregon, that helps companies get their data ready for AI and then builds AI products on it.
- Founded in 2015 by Stephen Sklarew, a former VP of product at the sales software startup Veelo, and Tim Oates, a professor of computer science and electrical engineering at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (GeekWire).
- Self-funded. It billed $1 million in 2018 and expected about $2.5 million in revenue in 2023, according to Oregon Business.
- A team of 14 people on its about page, plus independent contractors.
- Partners with Databricks, Squirro and Hasura (partnerships).
- Says it has worked with more than 100 clients on 250 projects.
Its documented client work includes:
- Machine vision and language models that classify immigration documents for Berry Appleman & Leiden, built in two phases and deployed behind an API on AWS (BAL case study).
- A generative AI tool for XOi Technologies that reads notes from millions of HVAC service calls and tells technicians the most likely problems for the unit in front of them (XOi case study).
- A new cloud system built alongside Michigan’s 20-year-old disease surveillance system, with Blue Bench Advisors, now launched to a first group of users (Michigan case study).
- Machine vision models that find plaques in carotid artery ultrasound scans for Vasolabs (Vasolabs case study).
- A Microsoft-backed pilot that checks phone photos of central line dressings for infection risk, built on Power Apps, Teams and Power BI (GeekWire).
Scores
| Criterion | Weight | Score | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Production track record | 20% | 6.5 | Document models in production behind an API for BAL; generative AI technician tool for XOi; Michigan system live for a first group of users; much of the rest is prototypes and pilots. |
| Technical depth | 15% | 7.5 | Chief data scientist is a UMBC machine learning professor; computer vision on medical images and video; Databricks lakehouses with MLflow model serving. |
| Industry depth | 10% | 7.0 | Repeat work for immigration and other law firms, health and medical device companies, and state government. |
| Delivery model and handoff | 15% | 7.0 | Clients on Clutch describe Synaptiq training their staff to run the tools; strategy, architecture and build from one small team. |
| Commercial clarity | 10% | 5.5 | No published rates; Clutch shows a $50,000 minimum project and most projects between $50,000 and $199,999. |
| Platform independence | 10% | 7.0 | Databricks partner; also builds on AWS and Microsoft tools; Squirro and Hasura partnerships. |
| Stability and scale | 10% | 5.0 | Operating since 2015 and self-funded, but about 14 staff and $2.5 million in expected 2023 revenue. |
| Independent evidence | 10% | 6.5 | Seven verified Clutch reviews averaging 5.0, all from 2023; coverage in GeekWire and Oregon Business. |
| Overall | 100% | 6.6 | Weighted average |
Where Synaptiq fits
| Need | Fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Document classification and extraction for law firms | Strong | BAL immigration document models; two Databricks lakehouse builds for law firms. |
| Computer vision on medical images or video | Strong | Vasolabs carotid plaque models; Spine by Design MRI pipeline; central line dressing pilot. |
| Data platform before AI, on Databricks | Good | Databricks partner with lakehouse builds that include model serving in MLflow. |
| Large program that needs many engineers at once | Weak | About 14 staff plus contractors. |
What clients and leaders say
“What excites me is the ability to put the right data in the hands of technicians, so they can make informed decisions faster.”
“I found it refreshing they felt more like partners than a vendor, and they considered both our technical requirements and our business objectives.”
“What we realized a couple of years in was the hard part isn’t training the models; the hard part is the data.”
Who leads Synaptiq
Sources (12)
- Synaptiq: homepage and services
- Synaptiq: About (team, clients and projects)
- Synaptiq: Partnerships
- Synaptiq: Berry Appleman & Leiden case study
- Synaptiq: XOi Technologies case study
- Synaptiq: Michigan disease surveillance case study
- Synaptiq: Vasolabs case study
- Synaptiq: Immigration law firm Databricks lakehouse case study
- Synaptiq: Law firm Databricks transformation case study
- Clutch: Synaptiq profile and verified reviews
- GeekWire: Microsoft and Synaptiq central line pilot (March 2022)
- Oregon Business: Second Sight (February 2024)