Airdev

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the CPO of a sports data company. We take basketball statistical data from games and apply our in-house metrics so that coaches and recruiters can analyze basketball players better.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AirDev?
We had mocked up and designed everything on Google Sheets for our platform to take sets of data. We built a dashboard system where users can apply filters and other things as well as find the exact players they want. AirDev helped us design a web interface for our product.
 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?
The biggest thing they helped us with was to have all the data in one accessible database so we could start cross-referencing our data instead of just having to look at one set of data at a time. Once we figured that we could do business together after going through the scope and seeing what they could do, we evaluated it, came to an agreeable price, and set up an outline. Everything was documented. We were able to see what was possible for them to provide for us. We had a really good couple of hours of meetings and brainstorming to see what was possible.

In the near future, when I have time to learn the Bubble platform a little better, I may take over some of the small design changes and tweaks on our end here. I just needed a jumpstart, and AirDev handled the structuring phase. When we first got the product in our hands, my job was to learn how the data structure and data flow worked because we’d have to update the database very consistently. I needed to understand the data structure, how the data flowed, as well as how to upload new data and manage that data. That is what I did the first week when they released it to us. After a couple more versions of working with AirDev, I should be able to manage the platform on my own.

What is the team composition?
We initially worked with Ed (Lead Project Director) and an individual who serves to scope out the overall build. Lola (Project Manager) made sure all of our needs were met and made sure the project stayed on our timeline. We had weekly meetings with her to make sure we were all on the same page. Julia (Project Programmer/Developer) built the entire web interface and structured the database. Julia was able to make many minor changes to the design as we were building and corrected any bugs we found during our testing period.

How did you come to work with AirDev?
Our COO knew one of the individuals on AirDev’s leadership team. They connected, had a good talk, and then put us in contact with the individuals who were going to work with us to see if something viable could come out of it. This is when we got involved with Ed and the project manager. We came to the conclusion that it’d be a really good partnership to fast-track our product into a web app.

We had been looking for a full-stack developer to try to productize our Google sheet into a web app. It would take longer to put a person on a trial period to see if that was who we were looking for. Going with AirDev, we knew they’re a proven company. Our team also knew it’d probably be a little more expensive, but we knew what we were going to get out of it.

How much have you invested in them?
Originally, we had a pretty small budget of $10,000 to $15,000. We extended our scope a little bit and wanted to have a few more features than we had in our Google Sheets. It went up to almost $25,000 for the entire build.

What is the status of this engagement?
We started scoping things out in early February 2021, and the engagement is ongoing. We have a plan to have a second version and even possibly a third version with some feature changes. Those changes won’t be huge but will be some tweaks and an extra dashboard or so. The next step we’re thinking about is building a consumer product that’d be housed on the same Bubble platform.
 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
AirDev is responsive to working with some of the bugs and tweaks that we need. Product-wise, we have about five main staff members including myself. We have done tons of internal testing and a few demos with some of our prime customers. Our team has gotten really good feedback. 

One of the main concerns I had, when we got our first rollout, was the load time efficiency as that can make or break this type of product. Our developer did a great job of shrinking that time in half. The load time was big, and it got way more efficient and quicker within days. We were very happy about this.

How did AirDev perform from a project management standpoint?
Project management is great. Early on, the project manager was very hands-on. We had weekly meetings and that was great. She made sure all of our needs were met, communicated, and documented to those who needed to know, and that was mostly the developer. The response time was really good. We never had to wait more than a day to get an answer to any questions or receive feedback on what we needed.

We use one of AirDevs’ web portals to manage the project and it works really well. Any kind of changes or tasks is all documented there. It is very easy to follow and easy to request any kinds of small changes and tweaks. Especially during the review and bug fixing process, it was very, very helpful.  

What did you find most impressive about them?
Overall, the main thing is that the loading time is a lot faster with the web app. Being able to access everything from one menu very quickly instead of having to open many Google Sheets is excellent. It has made the product what it needs to be. It’s not in a blueprint-building stage anymore; this is a product that we can be proud of.

Are there any areas they could improve?
I do understand that when we work with so many staff members, we want to make sure that we have the right developer for a project. I felt our project was pretty cut and dry as well as straightforward. However, there was a long lead time to find the right developer. It was about a week and a half. That could’ve been shrunk down just a little bit knowing that the project wasn’t that difficult.

I know that when a scope is well-documented, the developers don’t have to understand the data that they’re working with. However, it would’ve been a little bit helpful if we had a developer who at least knew basketball because there were a few times when very simple statistical data from basketball stats were not understood and caused some issues. Our developer wasn’t from America so they may not be in a culture that’s centered on sports. 
This did cause some issues because simple stats weren’t understood, but the efforts that the developer put in didn’t make it a problem. I just think it would have been helpful.

If we are going to spend that much time connecting with the right developer, having a little bit of knowledge of the data would have helped. I don’t want to give the developer any negative comments because it was definitely not her fault. To me, she was perfect. Because of our different time zones, I’d be done with my work, and then she’d start to give feedback in the morning so it was great timing.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Having our Google sheet was great for us. A lot of other companies may just come with ideas and not really have something concrete like a Google sheet. However, I believe our project was priced accordingly and ran smoothly because the Google sheet was a map of everything. It included the data flow, the logic, and how the dashboards would look. If you can blueprint your thoughts up and have everything you’re trying to do on a Google sheet or simple interface, that can go a long way. 

Sometimes when you are building solutions like this, you need very complex ERDs, data flow, and diagrams, but we had a functioning product with the tables in one tab and the dashboards in the other tab. Mapping things out on Google sheets, even if they’re not functioning would help. We had formulas for everything. I thought it should have been pretty easy to translate that into a web app because all of the logic was already there. Any time you can map some of those details out, even if it’s a draft, that helps the designer a ton to be able to take it and not have to hold meetings and go over little details all the time. It makes the build a lot easier.
 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m starting a company called Re:User Ltd. It’s a reusable food and drink container system for the on-the-go, eat-in, and potentially takeaway delivery market. Someone would subscribe to the service, go to a food vendor or café, and get their food and drink in a reusable container which is logged via the web application.

They’d eat or drink their food and return the dirty container into a receptacle and log that again via a QR code. Re:User collects, cleans, and redistributes the container into the system. That’s the business in a nutshell, and I’m the founder and CEO.

We’re a pre-revenue startup that’s going to be launching in London, UK, and potentially in Austin, Texas as well. It’s pretty much just me right now with some paid consultants such as AirDev for tech development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AirDev?

I was trying to build an application for Re:User. I wanted an application that could keep track of the inventory as it goes through this circular economy system. The app would allow users to search out and find participating food vendors in a directory as well as log the checkout and return of the container or the borrowing and returning process.

There is a company, and I was in their accelerated program. I built a non-operational prototype with them. It’s essentially a sustainable delivery company with a reusable container system. However, I ultimately decided to launch with more of a lean approach and have the MVP as I described. We might add that down the line.

During my search and process, I found out about Bubble which is a no-code web application builder. Although it is a no-code platform, there’s still a lot of workflow design and such that needs to be optimized to help the application function properly and efficiently. I realized that I needed to hire a development firm to build the app in Bubble. That’s where AirDev comes into play.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

AirDev doesn’t use or sell any templates because they build a unique solution for each company. Their team does use a development platform called Canva which is kind of a template, but they use that for design. I ended up going with them and built the web app with them which is now ready to go.

In order to get the detailed technical scoping doc completed, I have to pay a $1,000 deposit which is refundable within a week of receiving the technical scoping doc. We had an initial one-to-two-hour call and on the back of that call, AirDev sent over a scope document which ended up being 19 pages. Then, there was some back and forth on that scope document in terms of finalizing and such. Once that was finalized, I paid the first half of the fee.

It took about three weeks from the time of paying to have the project start. There were two development sprints which were five-day periods where they were doing development. In the first sprint, there were 3–4 days of back and forth testing and then making some corrections.

Then, there was another one-week sprint. There was probably about a week of testing and requested changes and things of that nature. If I had questions about stuff, the developer always answered those or put things on hold for the next development phase.

What is the team composition?

I first started speaking with someone who was more of an initial sales rep. Then, I worked with a project manager, project director, and developer.

How did you come to work with AirDev?

When I decided on that strategic direction, the other company was quoting me a fixed cost for part of the development and then a bigger range. I thought what I wanted to build was quite a lean app. I didn’t think it should cost what they were quoting me for. I conducted a developer procurement process. I talked to a couple of other firms that were priced at pretty high rates, and these were all in the traditional development method.

After Bubble won me over, I looked to hire a development firm for Bubble. They list some partners on their website and I looked at AirDev as one of those partners. I probably reached out to about half of the partners on that website that looked good from the initial research I did on them.

I had an initial call with AirDev and reached out to other firms too. It was between them and another company based out of Moldova. The customer service experience from AirDev was so much better than the other firm. That other firm didn’t hit some of the self-declared deadlines that they had for delivering things to me. I felt I was getting a very templated approach from them, versus AirDev who was more customer service focused and also gave a unique type of approach to my specific need.

I ended up choosing AirDev because I thought they might be preeminent Bubble developers. They’re exclusively Bubble, and I heard their founder speak on a podcast. They seem to be the industry leader there. Being based in San Francisco, I thought they’d be a lot more expensive, but Bubble is still not that expensive and they have a rate for startups like myself.

How much have you invested in them?

The cost was $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The scope doc discussion was in January 2021, and the last stages of development were in late March 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’m in a weird position where I’m waiting on an entrepreneurial Visa to go back to the UK, and my business cannot be “trading”. I can’t receive revenue or book expenses to the business yet or else it’d be viewed as trading and that would be violating the Visa restrictions. That means that I, unfortunately, have this web app that’s ready to start taking subscribers. We’re ready to sign up restaurants, but it’s not going to be operationally live until sometime in May 2021.

I won’t begin getting the real-time feedback of the product out until that time. I’ve tested a bunch of scenarios and things on my own and it seems to be working properly. Additionally, I’m able to track the inventory through various situations. The checkout and return process works, and we have the QR codes generated. Everything should be working properly at this point and it will be ready to launch. In a way, I could say that I have now built the MVP and am able to use that as part of my fundraising collateral.

How did AirDev perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management worked well. Air Dev manages this own process on their own custom project management portal. My project manager wasn’t super responsive; the engagement was really me working directly with the developer and testing. The developer would ask the project manager and project director if she had some Bubble technical questions, and they were more or less supervising her work.

There were many other individuals from AirDev who were testing the product as well, given the log-in history of the app when we were testing; there were multiple other AirDev emails that have logged in. The developer wasn’t deciding what was best by herself. There were other people to bounce her ideas and questions off of. AirDev also has a structured onboarding program for any developer who is working for them.

Overall, the project was pretty good. I didn’t really talk to the project director besides one conversation. However, I know he was engaged by the project manager with specific questions about things as well as whether certain things could be included in the scope or if they would be extra. I think overall, they seemed pretty on top of it with managing the project and the chain of command and things like that. It was an organized and efficient project management structure.

They use Loom for recording videos of how to make a specific change. I’m getting this web app and for any future changes, I can reach out to AirDev to handle them or I can change certain things myself. The developer has recorded videos on Loom that are instructional showing how she did things, so I have those as a backup. Using Loom video is very useful.

AirDev uses another tool where if I am reviewing the web app, I can take a small screenshot or point something out on the screen and add some dialogue to it. When I make that comment, it makes a new thread in their review portal. I can’t remember what they’re using for that, but it was quite useful as well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was most impressed with their speed of building. This is partially based on the perks of Bubble but also on AirDev as well. I really liked the speed and price of development and that I could achieve by using AirDev and Bubble. It’s a very organized process that’s very customer-focused as well. AirDev provides good customer service.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The actual UI/UX design abilities of the app are fairly limited and maybe that’s due to Bubble or Canva. The whole idea of Canva is to have a uniform design and be able to quickly make some design changes. One of the downsides of Bubble and AirDev as well is just the ability to be very flexible with our design.

Their workflow and portal where they manage everything were good, but I gave them a few feedback points on it just because one annoying thing was if I’m taking a screenshot to paste into the portal, I can’t paste an image. That was annoying because I had to take a screenshot and save it to my computer and then attach it. There were a couple of other small nitpicky things.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Definitely test everything yourself because you’ll find things to change. Set aside enough time for the testing and review process. There are two one-week sprints, and I’d arguably say to set aside one week for testing back and forth for each of those sprints. Set aside 3–5 business days for the testing and requested changes as part of each of those sprints. Then, the same timeframe of three to five business days for the back and forth on the scoping doc.

 Make sure the scoping doc has everything you can think of because that’s then treated as the bible of what will be developed. If something is not included in the scope doc that you have asked for, that could be an additional cost. AirDev is only on the hook for what’s in that scoping document so ensure everything in there is everything that you’ll need. There were some things that they did push back on and said would be better for a later improvement.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and co-founder of a hiring product company. Our goal is to help small-to-medium size businesses hire more effectively.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AirDev?

We wanted to automate the delivery and management of assessment links on behalf of our clients.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us scope out developing an automation platform on Bubble, a no-code platform. After that, they built the web app solution in about two weeks. To help them complete the platform, we showed them the backend of our prototype as well as some of our competitors’ products.

What is the team composition?

I worked with three people directly: a project manager, a data visualization specialist, and a developer.

How did you come to work with AirDev?

We had reached a point where we needed a quick turnaround in building the solution. We knew Bubble would be the best platform for our app and didn’t want to work with a freelancer. They offered us a fixed price and fixed timeline, which appealed to us. Their team was clearly knowledgeable and insightful as well.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $12,000 on the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from November 2020–March 2021. We’ve since talked with them about potentially collaborating on a future project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since working with them, we’ve been able to secure business with three new clients in about three weeks. That’s the best indicator of their success in my opinion.

How did AirDev perform from a project management standpoint?

They use a custom project management tool that was built using Bubble. It operates similarly to Slack. We really liked it.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They delivered the product we needed on a timeline that worked for us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Having a product orientation at the end of the engagement would have been helpful. We wound up asking them a ton of questions about the solution they provided. It felt like we were extending the bounds of our engagement in doing this, but we truly needed more information.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Work in some time where they can help you become familiar with the platform they build.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Choose Pursuit.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AirDev?

I was looking to hire a cost-effective development team without having to find a CTO and build a background infrastructure.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

AirDev is a Bubble agency, which is an application development framework. They assigned me a development team complete with a project manager, a software developer, and a designer.

I provided them with a logo and a fairly thorough plan for the flow of the application. AirDev provided me with a detailed outline of the scope as I communicated it to them, as well as a timeline. They include a review and launch period as well. Bug fixing post-launch was also included.

From the time you have your idea for an app to when you’re locating hosting and making feature changes, AirDev is available for all of it.

What is the team composition?

I worked with a project manager and a software engineer primarily. There was also a salesperson in the beginning.

How did you come to work with AirDev?

I searched online, and AirDev was ranked highly for terms regarding technical help and hiring a development team. Additionally, a friend of mine works at Bubble, and I heard of AirDev tangentially through them.

How much have you invested with them?

I spent $10,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from January–March 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I would rank them highly in terms of functionality. They did very well building my MVP. They are so good at delivering the basics — they have a no-code form for building applications at a B+ level. This is highly impressive given the functionality they deliver. For $10,000 and an entire team, it’s nearly impossible to beat their value.

The application is certainly an MVP, however, as it doesn’t have a super-stellar, top-notch UX. They implemented a generic background and design template, but it is clean and functional. To build something like that in two months for a low cost is extremely impressive.

How did AirDev perform from a project management standpoint?

Their communication was consistent. For the most part, I received responses within 24 hours. Compared to the horror stories I’ve heard from other people about their hired developers, AirDev was pretty good.

They set me up with my own communication portal with the team. It was easy to stay on top of tasks and reach out to people through this tool.

What did you find most impressive about them?

AirDev did a very good job asking a lot of questions on the introductory call and getting a sense of what I wanted to execute. Additionally, they implemented that information well. The majority of my time interacting with AirDev was spent tweaking small aspects of the solution. We never had to fix major issues that resulted from a breakdown in communication.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They advertised their services as a five-week process, but it took around two months in my case. They were still fast, but I didn’t see the ultra-fast turnaround time they advertised.

Perhaps they could build out their design team more as well. The functionality is there in our solution, and it looks professional and clean, but it doesn’t have a standout UI. It’s clear that we’re still working a few things out.

If you’re looking for an aesthetically beautiful application, AirDev probably won’t be your go-to. Additionally, they don’t offer native app development — only hybrid solutions, meaning we have a very functional website that works really well on smartphones.

For the purposes of what they offer, however, they’re amazing. I talk about them all the time and I believe people should use them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Based on my own experience, they did a very good job, but if you need something taken care of, then don’t hesitate to nudge them because it could be the difference between getting it back in two hours versus two days.

For people who are technically savvy, it would be better to learn the Bubble framework rather than hire AirDev to build their solution.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Branded Content Market. We work with brands and agencies by connecting them with content creators. These content creators help them create content for branded channels in a more streamlined and efficient way.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AirDev?

We were starting from zero. Currently, when branding agencies are making content, that process is often managed across multiple platforms that don’t sync with each other. So these agencies are managing their work over email, Dropbox links, Google Drive, as well as all these other platforms that don’t communicate or have a purposeful flow.

We wanted to create a centralized workflow system for the business function of managing a content development process. Our objective was to be able to do everything on one single platform. We brought on AirDev so we could work to get to a quick MVP that’d help validate and confirm that creating a process-based workflow for this business function was a viable business solution.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

AirDev is helping us create a two-sided marketplace. It’s a web solution built using Bubble. On one side there are brands and agencies that want to develop and have content made for them. On the other side, there are content creators who are photographers and videographers.

The platform has user-profiles and a dashboard where all the transactions are housed. There’s also a workflow environment where a brand or agency can issue a brief. A content creator can review and accept that brief and then upload their content onto the platform.

Then, the rendering agency can review comments after revisions or approve that content. Our platform also handles the licensing or ownership of that content. From a contracting standpoint, Stripe is integrated for payments.

What is the team composition?

I started with a sales associate at the beginning of the engagement but now I primarily work with Ed (Product Director). We’ve worked with Matthew (Product Manager) and David (Partner) as well as Ziyad (Software Engineer) and another engineer.

How did you come to work with AirDev?

Our team has no technology background so we enlisted a technology advisor and told him what we wanted to achieve. Once he had a foundational understanding of what we wanted to do, he recommended we look at no-code solutions.

Our team look at Google’s offering as well as clicked around for various forms as we were trying to understand. We wanted to work with an agency that had existing templates. We came across AirDev and liked their canvas offering. It’d allow us to use a lot of those functions and features that’d cut down on development time and investment.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested close to $70,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement started in December 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Within the last couple of days, our first customers have started using the platform. The fact that they’ve signed up and it's working is great. We wanted to build a product that we’d want to use. Our handful of advisors have provided positive qualitative feedback. It has validated that the work AirDev has done was good.

Our tech advisor expressed that had we gone the traditional coding route, the product would've cost five times what we’ve invested. It’s very reassuring to know that because it shows that we chose the right technology partner in AirDev and the right platform in choosing Bubble. We successfully achieved our goal of rolling out an MVP.

How did AirDev perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management has been very good. I work a little differently and tend to be more hands-on. I have constant communication with our project managers and engineers. This has worked because I’ve been able to work with the engineer on the dashboard they use for the product roadmap.

AirDev also has a custom dashboard that we’ve transitioned off of onto ClickUp; I use that daily. Or, we’ll often set up Zoom calls or message one another on WhatsApp. If we have business problems that we don’t know how to approach, we bring in the project manager and ask. They’re always able to scope it out in a way that makes sense for our engineers.

We have biweekly strategy sessions with Ed who oversees all AirDev projects at a high-level. He provides direction, best practices, and techniques to achieve our business objectives. Additionally, our project managers are great at managing capacity workflow and scoping needs.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m very impressed with their speed of development. There have been few tasks we’ve challenged them with that have taken more than a day for us to see live on the site. AirDev is responsive and great at working in Bubble.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I often don’t know where my capacity goes. When it comes to the tracking of hours worked, I ultimately trust that what they say is what they’re doing. That’s not the biggest problem in the world because as long as there’s progress being made, I’ve developed a sense as to what spend should return us.

There are some complex things that happen on the backend that I have no visibility to. That can eat up say four hours of an engineer’s time but I may think that it should take 15 minutes. Being able to better track capacity is something I’d find of high value.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

State what your expectations are and what you want to accomplish with the working relationship. AirDev will be amenable to that. They’re amenable to any type of working scenario the client wants.

We’ve had two different project managers so over time, we’ve learned how we want to work with AirDev. The way we initially started working with them versus how we are now is different because it’s evolved. AirDev is generally accommodating.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and founder of a video streaming application for musicians. We’re still in the development phase and haven’t launched yet. Once it is live, it’ll be a platform for modern musicians to post content and distribute that content on a subscription revenue model or one-time purchase model. Musicians can also provide creative professional services to their network.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AirDev?

I didn’t have the time or resources to devote to building out the backend of the platform so I brought on AirDev to develop it for me.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’re building the app from scratch and handling its UI/UX, backend, frontend. I had a version one in mind that has morphed quite a bit throughout the 3–4 months we’ve been working together. AirDev takes my requests and provides feedback on what’s possible versus what I should wait on as far as my budget goes.

The solution is a progressive web app. In the beginning, it’s only going to launch on browser. Ultimately, there will be a mobile app in the future. The goal is to get the platform launched quickly without much of a monetary buy-in as would’ve been in the past. The app will be live in the next month or two.

What is the team composition?

I work with Andrew (Co-CEO), Andre (Project Manager), and Matt (Product Manager).

How did you come to work with AirDev?

I found them through a Google search.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested around $18,000 thus far.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement started in November 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Everything has been great. Their team has been very responsive throughout this entire process. They’ve done bug testing to make sure that everything’s in good working order. What’s more, they always answer my questions during the bug testing. AirDev is always receptive when I look to add to the scope. They have a great internal bug management and communication platform. This allows for streamlined conversations about project-related issues and bug testing.

How did AirDev perform from a project management standpoint?

AirDev always meets their deadlines. When I ask for scope additions, they’re a little slower but that’s because they’re doing research and have to put the time in. They do a good job of keeping me grounded in reality.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m most impressed with their problem-solving skills. There are tons of problems that arise with regard to anything and everything from API connections to the actual functionality of the ecosystem on its own. They’re realistic with their goal setting and let me know what’s possible now versus what will be a possibility in the future. Their team is transparent about how difficult a problem is going to be.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The platform they’ve built proprietarily can be a bit better. They could enhance it to function more like Slack or Asana. It’s a good problem to have because it appears that they’re busy. Bringing on more people would help increase their bandwidth to answer questions from their clientele. Specifically, adding more project managers to field questions from creatives on how to enhance a platform that’s in the current scope of work would be beneficial.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very explicit with your goals. That’ll help them solve your problems quickly. Also, be thorough in how you want things to operate.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and president of a company that facilitates e-commerce, direct-to-consumer (D2C) winery sales.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AirDev?

We hired them to develop a platform with a payment gateway that would allow users to access e-commerce in a clean and friendly way.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

AirDev used Bubble to create a dynamic website application that facilitates the payment gateway and the UX. They also added an automated email component; if a certain level is pulled, such as a transaction being completed, an automatic email is sent.

The main deliverable was the custom payment gateway, which AirDev had great experience with. The gateway allows customers to place a transaction and payment directly with a winery associated with the website.

What is the team composition?

I've worked directly with two people, but a team of up to four people has worked on this project. 

How did you come to work with AirDev?

I was researching the payment gateway Stripe, and AirDev was a development partner on Stripe’s website. I shopped around quite a bit, and AirDev was the most responsive and helpful out of all the developers I spoke with.

How much have you invested with them?

The total is $16,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The initial scoping process began in October 2020, and the build started in December. We mostly wrapped up by January 2021, but there are a few things that I’m still working with them on; it’s a bit of a fluid process because this is such a new concept and platform.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’d judge them against the scoping document we created. They followed that outline and steps to get to the final product. That has been great, as has their responsiveness and timeliness. They’ve provided a lot of creativity in making my thoughts real. 

How did AirDev perform from a project management standpoint?

I’d say 10 out of 10. They actually have their own communication portal. All communication is segmented by various categories, such as new tasks, what is being worked on, and what has been completed. There are subtopics in each of those categories. They center all communication around the portal, and it works really well. They’re very organized.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their responsiveness and open communication have been impressive. They’ve worked to understand my vision. I don’t have much web app development experience, so they really helped me. Sometimes, I’m not sure how to ask for things, but they totally get it.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind.

Any advice for potential customers?

Come with a clear vision of what you want.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Rotut is an online marketplace connecting students and tutors. I’m the president of the organization.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AirDev?

One of my co-founders is a teacher by day and tutors students after school.  He wanted a way to get directly connected with students seamlessly, without having to go through multiple steps. None of us are coders, and we were looking around at how to create this technology.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

AirDev developed our platform. Tutors and students can create profiles, there’s a filterable database of tutors based on location and specialty, there’s payment processing, and there’s messaging. They built the backend in Bubble, which is a different approach to coding.

What is the team composition?

We worked mainly with the project manager and lead developer. There was a salesperson at the beginning of the process, and I had the opportunity to interact a bit with Vlad (Founder & Co-CEO). 

How did you come to work with AirDev?

We were looking for companies that create online marketplaces, and they were one of two companies that popped up in our Google search. The first company was from Europe. They seemed nice and responsive, but it seemed like they weren’t quite able to do what we wanted.

AirDev was from San Francisco, and they were actually able to get on a video call and talk to us. It seemed like what we were looking to build was much more up their alley.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested $7,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We had our first call with AirDev in September 2020, we started the work in October, and the first version of the platform was done on January 6th, 2021. We had the holiday season in that time, so people took off work. It was us that slowed down the process.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We plan to put the product in front of our teacher friends for feedback, but we don’t have any metrics yet. 

However, AirDev delivered on the agreed-upon scope of work. Even when we found small things to tweak, they were more than willing to make them. AirDev went above and beyond to assure that we were satisfied.

How did AirDev perform from a project management standpoint?

My day job is with a technology company, on the operations and management side of things. I know how the process works, and project management was one of the more impressive parts of working with AirDev. 

They have an internally-developed system that follows the standard process of agile development, with new, ongoing, and done cards. It seemed like the technology was seamless, and it made things even easier. It was very easy to add comments, take screenshots, and so on. 

The responsiveness was excellent, because we could notify the other party about something by adding them to the conversation, similarly to Slack and Basecamp.

What did you find most impressive about them?

AirDev’s compassion stands out. Throughout the process, it felt like we were all on the same team, trying collectively to accomplish the same goal. Their success was ours and vice versa, and we were truly working in tandem together.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There may be growth opportunities for them to take it to the next level. They could offer all the tertiary elements of building a website, like stock photos and domain registration. I had to do all of that with my co-founders. AirDev provided us some links, and they do do some of it.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

The responsiveness of the client directly correlates to how quickly the process goes. It took me a week to respond to some of the things they were asking of us, because of the holidays, and that slowed down the process a bit. I was fine with it, given that it was the holidays. Had I been really responsive, the process would’ve gone even faster.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the co-founder of a software as a service company specialized in managing niche real estate properties.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire AirDev, and what were your goals?

We hired Airdev to build our MVP (minimum viable product). Our goal was to get a version of the software we could start beta testing and come back to AirDev with additional edits. We are currently testing the software at our first site. AirdDev did an amazing job and we are going to continue using them indefinitely to add new features.

SOLUTION

How did you select AirDev and what were the deciding factors?

We selected them based on the quality of their sample projects, cost effectives, and how much we liked the people there. We interviewed ~6 companies specialized in building custom software solutions, and AirDev stood out on all 3.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

They used Bubble (a low-code software solution) and integrated some custom code, Stripe, Google Maps, and probably a few other things that I can't remember. We first engaged them in a scoping process (with a refundable deposit! - which no other company offered us). That took a few weeks. We detailed every single detail of the project (timeline/features/cost/etc.) We then had a 5 week process to build out the software. Every week we had a check-in call to review the new portion of the software they built out. They were very responsive and even added new features that were not in the original scope at no charge to us.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We worked with 3 people. Eli (Developer), David (not sure of his title), Vladimir (Co-CEO). We mostly worked with Eli and David who were both absolutely excellent.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

AirDev built a full MVP software that works incredibly well. They went above and beyond and built something sleek and incredibly functional.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

We communicated through a custom built portal. They were very responsive on the portal and were available to schedule a call at very short notice. Also there were weekly calls as we previously mentioned.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

High quality product, very responsive, and very easy to work with.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Nothing in particular - curious to see how responsive they will continue to be as we add new features / need maintenance (given the main project is done). If they continue their previous trend we will be super happy.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

A friend and I are developing an app solution that’s meant to help restaurants order items across several suppliers more easily. He has experience in operating restaurants, and I work mainly as a product lead. I’m a business partner in this effort. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AirDev?

I took the requirements involved in creating a solution and translate them over to their team for development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We defined the scope and implementation schedules alongside their project manager and lead developer. From there, they were tasked with building the web app that’s designed to facilitate restaurant orders to their multiple suppliers. At this point, we’ve completed the first phase of development and are planning on testing the product in the near future. 

What is the team composition?

Early on, I spoke with Andrew (CEO) about our requirements to see if they would be the right fit for the work. Once we signed a contract with them, I worked most closely with a product manager and lead developer. 

How did you come to work with AirDev?

I was looking for a simple platform, and Bubble seemed like a good fit for us. AirDev was listed as one of their preferred vendors, so we reached out to them and their competitors. After looking at their past customers and work, we felt that it resembled what we wanted our product to look like. That’s how we made our decision. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $7,000 with them so far.  

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together on the first phase of work from October–November 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their attention to detail throughout the project always made me feel comfortable working with them. Because we’re serving small, sometimes volatile, businesses, it’s important that our product handles orders accurately. They approached the testing cycle thoroughly, which is a key indicator for the success of the project as we move forward. 

We feel that the product looks clean and is a great first iteration. There are some things we’d love to change, but we couldn’t have asked for anything better in terms of process efficiency. 

How did AirDev perform from a project management standpoint?

They have their own communication portal where we logged cases and bugs. That worked alright, but there were times that I didn’t know they were waiting on me because of the way their portal is set up. 

Their team was on time with deliverables, but scoping took a bit longer than I would’ve liked. I understand that they want to get it right early, though. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their product manager’s experience was very impressive. He was crucial in helping me think through the requirements. The product management resources ended up making our product more well-rounded. I was happy to have him aboard. His willingness to collaborate and expertise in the field were really helpful. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Initial scoping to build took longer than anticipated. Given their price, I understand it. A smooth knowledge transfer would’ve been beneficial to me, as I intend to hand the management of the platform off to an employee in the future. I would’ve liked a technical handoff. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Work with them to help you figure out what your MVP should look like. At times, I may have oversimplified the build without asking them for things I envisioned first. Don’t be afraid to utilize their resources to help you through the entire MVP process.