Airdev

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Sweeten Health, an online platform that connects therapists and patients. We’re starting with mental health and speech therapy, but we plan to expand into occupation and physical therapy as well. The focus will be on virtual to start, but eventually we will have a hybrid model that allows patients to find therapists in person as well.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AirDev?

I needed to put together an MVP for our app to help me validate the market need. I certainly believed that there was a need for something like this, but I needed to put something more tangible in the market to see how it would do.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed a web app that features a marketplace where users can view, select and book appointments with a therapist.

The first step of the project was spent laying out exactly what I was looking for. They outlined everything in a scope document, which I was then able to review and sign off on.

The first iteration of the app took a few weeks and they put everything I needed into the system. I then did a lot of beta testing to make sure all the functionality and features worked properly. Now they’re in phase two and are working on implementing my feedback.   

What is the team composition?

I worked primarily David (Associate), who was our account manager, and a technical architect who got involved and asked questions when needed.

How did you come to work with AirDev?

I talked to a lot of different companies, but many were very expensive. In comparison, AirDev had a very transparent sales process and reasonable pricing. They also had a lot of positive feedback on their reviews.

How much have you invested with them?

I’ve spent $13,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2020 and we’re still working on the app.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

The app hasn’t launched yet, so we don’t have any metrics on users or retention yet. However, I’ve shown it to a number of vendors and feedback has been positive. The design, colors, and structural layout is warm, welcoming, and easy to understand.

How did AirDev perform from a project management standpoint?

I appreciated that my project manager knew that I had a budget that I really needed to stay under and helped me prioritize different aspects of the project. He helped me view it from a business perspective and asked the right questions to help me stay on budget.

If there was a delay, it was usually because I asked for more features, and they communicated with me about how that would impact our timeline. At one point, I asked for things outside the scope of work and they outlined what we could and couldn’t do. They were always transparent about what our next steps were.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They understood a lot about the healthcare space and knew what I was trying to build. This helped them reasonably and appropriately challenge my ideas and provide a counter-argument when needed. I really appreciated that feedback because they were able to keep me on scope and on budget. I always felt like they were trying to do what was in my project’s best interest.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I did a lot of the design work, like choosing colors and planning the layout on my own. I don’t think it was actually a part of the scope, so I can’t fault them, but it made the process more difficult for me.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you have the budget for it, bring on a third party for the UX/UI design. That would have helped us out, but we were just building an MVP.  

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the founder and CEO of a marketplace.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AirDev?

We wanted to create an MVP of a website to showcase the functionality of the platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

AirDev looked into our competitors and assessed consumers’ needs and then built the website from scratch. They created wireframes and then a functional MVP that shows how our platform looks and works. Their team did the design and developed the website using Bubble.

What is the team composition?

I worked with four people from AirDev.

How did you come to work with AirDev?

I found them by researching developers online.

How much have you invested with them?

In total, we spent $7,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our relationship officially started on September 28th and the website launched on October 28th, 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

The functional MVP is live, and I’m satisfied. We onboarded 12 clients within the first two weeks. They’re happy with the product too. We’re still learning about it, but the platform’s ready for the market. The usability’s great, and the platform’s on par with what our users wanted.

Once we launched, we had great support too. To this day, AirDev supports us. Whenever there’s a question, they quickly respond to us.

How did AirDev perform from a project management standpoint?

They use an extremely helpful portal that keeps everything in one place. Their platform has different tabs and shows different tasks’ progress. That helped the project remain organized and efficient.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They delivered exactly what we established in the scoping document. Their team actually exceeded expectations with their customer service. They didn’t stop until the project was done. AirDev did an amazing job, and we will continue working with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have constructive feedback for them. Usually, there’s always an area for improvement but I don’t have much to say at the moment.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Before you engage them, research your market, and understand your product. Don’t expect a development team to figure out what you need to do.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder and CEO of a curbside pickup and delivery platform for mom and pop shops.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AirDev?

We wanted to create an MVP of a second stage version of a prototype. It is sort of like a finance marketplace, a simple curbside pickup application for bodegas and smaller convenience stores that don’t have much of an online presence in the first place. Given the pandemic, the timeframe was urgent for us and we wanted to have a quicker rollout.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They did the design as well as the actual build. We had our high-fidelity design already done at that stage, so they were able to use our framework to create a design.

They did our web development and created our MVP on Bubble. They scoped the project for us, focusing on the three requirements we outlined.  Then they created a budget and timeframe for the MVP.

What is the team composition?

I worked with two people throughout the project: the project manager and the in-house developer. There was also a QA specialist, an in-house designer, and a second product manager who worked on the project, but I wasn’t in contact with them.

How did you come to work with AirDev?

I heard about them through a mutual contact. They’re one of the better developers that know Bubble inside and out.

We reached out to AirDev and asked for their input. We felt they were the best path to move forward with. They clearly had, not only a deeper understanding of Bubble, but they had an understanding of how marketplaces are built in general.

They clearly had a former business background in terms of building this sort of platform. Their experience was helpful because they were able to predict potential issues and circumvent them ahead of time.

I went with AirDev because they were located in the States and that was a huge plus

How much have you invested in them?

We have spent around $25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from July–October 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Ed (Product Director) was amazing; his code is high-caliber. He knew exactly what he was talking about. When I first reached out to them, during the scoping phase, the first thing he asked me was what the three primary aspects of the build are and what exactly I wanted from AirDev. Then he was able to deliver it.  

They were the perfect go-to developers for this. In reaching out to AirDev, I was looking to quickly they could roll this out. Given their experience and the fact that they were building this on Bubble, their timeframe was amazing. They were able to develop this whole marketplace build within a few weeks. It ended up becoming a few months, but I think the delays were more so on my side.

The other success metric was the cost. We had resources on hand and we had access to capital but the way we were looking at it given the fact that we weren’t in an incubator or an accelerator then, at that point, we were a little bit early so having something built out quickly and cheaply was a huge deal for us relative to if we went a different route and different developer.

How did AirDev perform from a project management standpoint?

They had an in-house Bubble dashboard, which was super convenient. It was pretty simple to use and everything that was communicated between us sat on the platform so it was pretty straightforward.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their professionalism was the most impressive. They were timely and they knew their stuff. I think their professionalism and expertise really came out in the beginning.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Overall, we got exactly what we wanted, so we were very pleased. The one area that could probably be improved on was around the scheduling process during the scoping phase. It takes a few weeks to get the project in the books, since they need to put the right team in place, so there can be a slight delay there. But that's more so a natural part of the process, and therefore something that the client probably should be planning for ahead of time, by making sure they've done the necessary preparation to help AirDev streamline the scoping process to begin with.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If I had to give a recommendation to a client, I would tell them to be very clear on exactly what they want to be built and what the exact specifics of that first build are before they even reach out to AirDev. Think about what key processes you want to test for your hypothesis are, and then reach out to AirDev. They can streamline that process a lot quicker if you have that already in hand

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of Freebright Ventures. We’re a small startup in the collector car marketplace.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AirDev?

We were looking for someone to develop a custom software that would help us build out our two-sided marketplace. We also wanted the software to be able to source leads for buyers and sellers, and help sellers maintain their inventory and build out their own web presence.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The end deliverable was the two-sided e-commerce website built on Bubble. It’s an intuitive portal that allows buyers and sellers to post listings as well as browse and purchase. 

There were some complexities that AirDev had to manage as well. Our market includes hundreds of thousands of parts, so the software had to be able to inventory and catalog that in a meaningful way.

AirDev integrated the platform with Stripe and Shippo, and they set us up with a tax calculating software.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with about three people: one of the founders, a project manager, and a lead developer.

How did you come to work with AirDev?

I’d done some independent research and found them through Bubble, the platform we built the site on. AirDev came highly recommended by them, so we started talking to them.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost is going to come out to about $45,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started scoping at the end of June, and the development process started in July. Now, we’re in the final week of building. Most of the software is delivered, and we’re just tying up loose ends now.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We’re just about to launch, so we don’t have any hard metrics right now. However, we’re impressed with AirdDev’s work. 

At the beginning of the project, we laid out a plan, and we’ve pretty much adhered to it throughout. The biggest success metric for us was that, by the end of the collaboration, we’d have the product we specified, and we do. Everything was delivered on the timeline as promised, and the communication throughout has been great as well.

How did AirDev perform from a project management standpoint?

AirDev is absolutely wonderful to work with. Everything we’ve asked of them, they’ve responded to and done it without delay. 

We didn’t have a single phone call throughout the entire duration of the build. Everything was done electronically through their portal. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re most impressed with the speed at which they’re able to deliver. We’d seriously considered about four or five other agencies, and the quotes we were getting from them were 2-3 times the duration of AirDev’s, and at 2-3 times the cost. When it comes to speed and cost, AirDev outpaced the competition substantially.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Overall, they’re absolutely great to work with. One thing they could probably improve on is market themselves better. If I hadn’t found them through Bubble, I probably wouldn’t have found them, but I’m really glad I did. Other than that, I have no critiques on the delivery.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

First off, AirDev is a great team to work with, so go for it. Secondarily, make sure you spend the time upfront. I think a big reason the project has been so successful and smooth is because we spent about a month upfront digging into what we wanted.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of marketing at Bolster, a renovation company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AirDev?

We engaged them for three separate builds.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

AirDev has allowed us to quickly and efficiently build and launch custom tools that help serve our clients. Most of those tools are around estimates of some kind. They built a tool to inform how much potential renovations on properties would cost to better serve both the realtors and the homeowners that they were selling to. 

They also created a homeowner portal for our homeowners and our team to consolidate and manage documents and communication during renovations. 

Additionally, they created a renovation calculator, which was a piece of code developed and inserted onto a landing page on our site to help potential homeowners estimate their potential renovation costs.

The tools, which they built using Bubble, are web-based but they can also be accessed through mobile. They aren’t stand-alone apps.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with five different people on their team including Andrew (Co-CEO). 

How did you come to work with AirDev?

My CEO at the time referred them to me. He was looking for a low- or no-code way to develop. We wanted the products to be available within a matter of weeks, and AirDev was able to do that.

How much have you invested with them?

The realtor app was $10,000, the homeowner portal was $12,500, and the renovation calculator was $3,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We first engaged them for our realtor product in Q2 2019, in about July or August. Our homeowner portal project began in Q4 2019, and that project and the homeowner renovation project just wrapped up about a month ago. 

This was because when we were in the beginning phases of scoping, the Coronavirus pandemic hit, so we had to put a lot of our development on hold. Once things started coming back online, the team was willing to pick up where they left off. We’re continuing to work with them because it’s been a good relationship. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

The goal was always to create custom tools that would help serve the people we were working with, whether that was realtor partners to help inform them of what a renovation might cost and help them close the property and inform a potential client of the cost as well.

The goal was always to educate people and give them the tools that they needed to empower them to move forward with their renovation, feeling like they had all the information. 

When a homeowner reaches out to us and says that they don’t know what their renovation is going to cost, we're able to send them the calculator tool based on our own proprietary and historical data, and they can use the different inputs in that tool to customize their renovation estimate. 

The success metric would be when the homeowner comes back to us and says that the results are spot-on or that they like that they can see how much different scenarios would cost. 

Our existing clients who are using the homeowner portal love that they can filter the documents by type or see their timelines. So far, everyone has raved about the clean design and easy functionality of the tools.

How did AirDev perform from a project management standpoint?

AirDev’s project management is great. I liked the tool they used to manage the project because it was a dedicated workspace where everything was consolidated. I was able to get notifications via email, and they kept me updated. 

\I really appreciated that they supported us not only during the build but also for a period of time after the launch when we had follow-up questions. There was one time I had a technical issue, and I wasn’t sure if it was related to the product launch or if it was something else entirely. 

It ended up being something else entirely, but they still took a good day's worth of time to help me sort through what might be wrong and how to fix it, which they didn't have to do. I felt like AirDev went above and beyond.

Everyone that I've encountered on their team has been very pleasant to work with. They have a keen ability to quickly understand the nuances and specifics of their clients' needs and industries.

That's one thing I was really blown away by — their ability to quickly get to the root of what we were trying to accomplish and understand how that impacted not only our clients but also our team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their team sets them apart. They are extremely knowledgeable, but at the same time, they are friendly and approachable. I’m not a tech employee, but the team never made me feel like I couldn’t understand what they were working through. 

AirDev presented everything in a way that was easy for me to grasp. It felt like we were truly a team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

In addition to the project management through the portal, it may have been helpful for me to have a weekly call. I loved having the portal because it was separate from my e-mail, so the information never got lost. 

However, for some people, it's also helpful to talk to a person, and it’s sometimes easier to work through issues when you're on the phone. It takes a five-minute phone call versus having to go back and forth in an app. 

I wasn't sure if that was something that their team was open to or if they try to keep everything within a portal. Sometimes I felt like I was behind on work or that the communication was choppy, and it would've been good to regroup once a weak.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My biggest piece of advice would be to get your team to understand what you’re trying to accomplish and have everyone provide their input.

When you're building a product, you need buy-in from everyone in order for the product to function holistically and be the best version of itself for whoever is using it. That includes clients and the team, so it's crucial that everyone understands exactly what it's being used for.

Because people are in different positions and functions in the company, everyone will have different pieces of feedback that one person working in a silo may not have considered when they were working with AirDev to build this.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a tech lead for a technology startup. We’re launching a new app online that’s similar to our magazine.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AirDev?

We initially wanted to test the viability of our idea.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

AirDev built our social media platform with Bubble. The web app helps users buy and sell ads. The platform features an algorithmic feed with infinite scrolling as well as ad management and approval functions. Their team integrated general and localized search features too. They also built a referral platform. Their team works to integrate payment functions.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with 3–5 people from AirDev. We work with one of their co-founders and one of their product managers.

How did you come to work with AirDev?

I found them through online research and probably looked at Clutch too.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent under $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the project around June 2018, and our partnership’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

We don’t have any specific metrics besides deadlines, which their team mostly hits. They deliver their work as expected.

How did AirDev perform from a project management standpoint?

They mostly do well. Their team’s as communicative as we need them to be. They’re available and delegate well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What’s most impressive about AirDev is how quickly they turn around quite a bit of work at a reasonable cost.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could put more into their internal quality control.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d recommend that people do their due diligence and check AirDev’s work in depth. Don’t rely on them to get it perfect the first time.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of and senior consultant to FiveSeven Solutions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AirDev?

The primary business challenge was directly related to the onset of COVID-19. I’m a consultant in the hospitality space, focusing primarily on hotels and restaurants, and I needed to diversify immediately, pivot, and add new services and products to my consulting offering.

I decided to build an e-learning platform. A lot of the work that I do is coaching and developing leaders and teams, so it was important to be able to rapidly build an e-learning platform that I could use with my current client base as well as provide to new clients and markets.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The product for the application is Sofia Train, an online e-learning platform. As we were pursuing the market, I noticed that a lot of e-learning products didn’t provide real simplicity of UI. These products made it challenging to create training modules or to add video, graphics, and PDF documents into those trainings. AirDev used the Bubble platform to solve those problems rapidly. Once the e-learning or training is creating and issued into the market, the users who have created that training can easily measure results and share those results with learners. I did the frontend work; AirDev just did the development.

What is the team composition?

I believe there were three team members. I worked with one individual on scoping and a developer. I understand there were a couple of people behind the scenes.

How did you come to work with AirDev?

I’d built an enterprise, web-based software platform six years ago using traditional development methods. We’d spent extensive amounts of cost and time, and we realize that we needed to pursue other methods because we didn’t have the investment dollars we had prior.

We came across the Bubble platform about 2–3 years ago while considering development options, and then we discovered AirDev. We had some initial high-level conversations about this project, and then we tabled it until May 2020, when we needed to pivot our business. Because of our initial interactions with the founders of AirDev, Vlad (Founder & Co-CEO) being the main one that I’d worked with, I felt very confident that they were a good company.

How much have you invested with them?

The first round of work cost around $6,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We kicked off the project on May 7, 2020. We’d presented the concept and done some scoping 1–2 weeks before that. We completed the first round of work about two weeks ago, and we’re getting ready to kick off the second round.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

They did a really good job. In a sense, we didn't identify upfront what those clear success metrics were, but there needed to be clear communication on testing and QA, responsiveness, and clean code that works. I wanted to have a very good platform in place that would allow us to communicate over the distance between us. If I found a bug, I needed to be able to report it so that they could identify, replicate, and fix the bug, and then retest to ensure there were no regression bugs lingering. 

The platform they used created a tremendous amount of success for our project. In my opinion, software lives and dies in being able to produce a clean product, and so that was the success that I measured. The need was to execute on our idea, and they had a very good system in place to make that happen.

How did AirDev perform from a project management standpoint?

They did very well. On a scale of 1–10, where 1 is terrible and 10 is perfect, they were a 9. We used their portal for project management. The team was very good and precise in their communication. Precision is everything when it comes to designing and developing software that needs to do what it's supposed to do. There was a really healthy line of communication with them, and they were very responsive.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was nervous ahead of time about their technical capabilities and whether we’d have good and clear communication, but they did a phenomenal job in all of those categories.

Are there any areas they could improve?

To find something, I’d have to dig pretty deep. Off the top of my head, I’d have to say no. I was pleasantly surprised by their responsiveness and ability to deliver clean code.

Any advice for potential customers?

I would say to trust the process and trust them. They have a very good process in place. I love the portal that they use and the way they do things. The team I worked with did exactly what I’d hoped they would do.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of a small dollar loan company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AirDev?

We wanted to increase the speed to market of our platform at an effective cost. We wanted a strong UX/UI too.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

AirDev helped us to create a single marketing page. They also built the lending platform, integrating it with multiple service providers to keep us compliant. The integrations help us from a know your customer perspective as well as move money through the ACH banking system.

What is the team composition?

From start to finish, I've worked with three people. I primarily worked with one developer.

How did you come to work with AirDev?

I learned about them through Bubble. I reached out to different service providers in the network. I talked to a few people that said I should look into AirDev because the project was complicated. I spoke with a past client and felt comfortable with their processes as well as their portfolio. I knew that they had specific experience with the integrations I wanted for my platform too.

How much have you invested with them?

The project will cost $20,000 in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

I initially engaged them in November 2019, and we’re close to wrapping up.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

I tested the lending platform with an existing user base and received nothing but positive reviews. The modular UI component looked great.

How did AirDev perform from a project management standpoint?

We defined milestones and deadlines in the scope document. Their team hits deadlines.

I relied on the project management tools AirDev provided. It’s easy to communicate with them.

Once they met a milestone, their team put together a script for user testing. That process worked well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their team was prepared to move quickly, and the products look good. I also trust their development team.

AirDev exercised a reasonable degree of flexibility in terms of changing elements. They put effort into the scope upfront, but I influenced scope changes. We were able to reach a reasonable solution that wrapped into part of the original scope.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We put a model together in excel to calculate the financial components. In hindsight, I wish we spent more time talking about the variables. Excel can be complicated, leaving room for error. However, I don’t necessarily blame them for that.

It would’ve been helpful to have more in-depth documentation or explainers of the application’s parts and how they interact with each other. Their team did provide documentation, but I went back and asked them for more specific features, which they gladly added.

This goes hand in hand with creating more thorough documentation. It would’ve helped to have a crash course in Bubble. There are tasks that I’d like to know how to do so I’m not consuming their time and energy with small fixes.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s important to make sure that you’re building a product that people will use. Put time into the scope documentation. If there’s anything that’s specific to your industry, invest more time to make sure everyone knows how it works.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Mimoolah LLC, a job and hiring marketplace.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AirDev?

I needed someone to develop my website. I wanted something that was quick, easy to use,  and simple wording.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built our website which is a marketplace that people can use to find quick, last-minute jobs. They used Bubble. I helped because I had very specific colors and functions in mind. I gave them a bit more work than what they signed up for. They were really patient and gave me some ideas of different designs that might work and would go well with the website I had in mind. We worked together with that. We continue to work together on new functionalities. They’re probably going to design an app for me as well.

What is the team composition?

I work with Lucien (Partner) and one other person.

How did you come to work with AirDev?

I did an online search and spoke to two other companies before AirDev. I got a hold of Lucien and started talking to him about my project. He’s very smart and patient. He was able to steer me towards what I really wanted to do. He explained everything to me very patiently. He put together the scope which we talked about a lot several times and I was really happy with it.

How much have you invested with them?

I’ve spent $8,000 so far. When it’s finished, it will be around $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2020 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

They did more than I expected them to do. It’s a great website with really nice design. We’re doing a little bit of tweaks right now, but so far, so good. I’m really happy with them and am going to stay with them. There’s still a lot of functionality I want to add.

They designed the website for me better than I thought I wanted it. They’ve been very patient in making a lot of changes that I wanted. I asked them to change the colors a few times. They’ve had to change the images and the fonts for me several times. I wanted an extra page for the client and they were patient with that. Their work was better than I expected. I’ve been to two gatherings and I only received positive comments from an international group of people. They think the website is really nice and really easy to use.

How did AirDev perform from a project management standpoint?

Lucien was very kind and patient. I didn’t know where to start. They created a great strategy and brought my idea to life. It’s been really great working with him. I wasn’t a very technical person and it’s really important that someone who’s going to work with me is as patient as Lucien.

Project management is excellent. They’re very quick to reply. They’re very professional. Since I had a budget due to COVID-19, a lot of the resources I was able to get on my own, they provided it free for me to find without me having to pay extra. I would have never known those resources had they not provided it for me. It’s better than I expected. They’re really great.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re professional and are able to patiently work with various clientele. A lot of technical people cannot relate to non-technical people, but they can. They don’t make me feel discriminated against as a woman and somebody who isn’t very technical. They performed better than I expected. I’m pleased with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’m happy with the results. I have nothing negative to say about them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Know exactly what you want to do so you don’t waste a lot of time with them because they’re very busy. Had I been extremely precise at the beginning, it wouldn’t have taken so much of their time making changes.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a social network for sports fans.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AirDev?

I hired AirDev to build an MVP of my platform. I’m not a software engineer, so I couldn’t build it myself, and outsourcing resources to an app development agency was too costly for my budget. I needed something that could be put together quickly. I was looking for no-code or low-code alternatives that would deliver the features, functionalities, and usability that I wanted out of a platform, that would also fit within my budget.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

AirDev took one of their standard social network templates and customized it to build one that’s entirely focused around being a community for sports fans. They put in a lot of different features, like events, and sports-specific functionalities, such as the ability to support your teams and build individual groups. They’ve essentially built a social platform leveraging the low-code platform that they use, Bubble, that looks and functions like a real platform. It’s web-based.

What is the team composition?

I work with two people from their team. A product manager works with me to scope out the product in terms of features and functionalities, and a software engineer does the execution on the plan that the product manager and I develop together.

How did you come to work with AirDev?

I did a bunch of research. After looking through many different low-code options and talking to AirDev’s CEO on a quick call, I decided they were the right fit for me. They fit my budget, and the functionality was strong. Most importantly, I trusted them as an organization to deliver on what I was looking for within my timeframe. I knew I’d be able to get really good value for my money. Often, when you’re looking to outsource app development, you can go down many different roads, and my biggest concern was working with an organization that would stop being responsive or wouldn’t be a good steward for my idea. Based on my initial interactions with AirDev, I was able to get a good sense of who I was working with, and I felt comfortable with them, which was a major reason why I chose them over anybody else.

How much have you invested with them?

I’ve spent $15,000–$20,000 across different projects as we continue to add things to the platform.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with them in August 2019, and it’s ongoing. AirDev provides a really good way to build a quick MVP of your product and develop to a certain point. The hope is that I’ll be able to grow my company to be big enough that we’ll have to move off this platform, but right now, it’s doing everything that I expected of it. AirDev provides responsive service, and they’ve been a very good partner in this journey.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

They have always delivered what the promised and on the deadlines that were set. I don’t have any definitive ROI numbers because we’re trying to grow the users on the platform right now, but the feedback has been positive. It’s very challenging to go into the social network space since people are so used to the nice experiences that Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter provide. However, AirDev got the core functionality down, and users see that the platform does what it should be doing.

How did AirDev perform from a project management standpoint?

They perform well – I have had no problems with them. They’re always very responsive. We communicate through their internal portal. They’ve done a good job of letting me know what they can do right away or what might be part of a future build. The communication has been very good.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I would say the trust factor that I mentioned earlier sets them apart. I know they’ll be there for me if I have any bugs or challenges. They’ll be there with me throughout the journey; I won’t have to go out and find another agency, and they won’t disappear and take my money. 

The cost factor was also big. Building on a low-code platform is much more cost-effective than hiring a full-time software developer. There are obviously some tradeoffs there, but for what I’m trying to do right now, the cost factor, the speed of development, their overall responsiveness, and their ability to work with me and be a partner to me – they’re helping me to build something custom and unique to my needs, rather than just giving me a generic solution ¬– are all really great things that I see as differentiators for them. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

One small thing would be their distributed teams; sometimes, their product manager or software engineer is in a different time zone than me, so we’ll miss each other on comments. I think more clearly communicating upfront what time zone they’re in would help so that I know I need to send comments by a certain time and don’t miss two days of work instead of just one. For the most part, having people in different time zones isn’t an issue; it’s more just understanding where I, as the stakeholder, need to respond and understand their hours.

Any advice for potential customers?

Definitely have a very clear idea of what you want. The clearer you can be in terms of your instructions, product roadmap, and ideas that you want them to implement, the better. They’re here to execute on your idea and will obviously provide recommendations as they go, but they don’t ultimately own it; you do. The most value you’ll get out of the relationship is if you come with a very clear, defined product in mind, and then they’ll tell you what they can do, the cost, and the timeline. Don’t limit your imagination and objectives; bring it all to the table, and then AirDev will work with you to find that medium in terms of what can be accomplished on the platform.