STRV

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO of Sound Off Media Inc., a social media platform company based out of Morgan Hill, California.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STRV?

We needed help with mobile app development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started off working on the design phase of the project, going through everything from user flows and wireframes all the way to the final design, including colors and font selection. These deliverables were sent in a series of Figma files.

After that, there was a handoff between the designer and their mobile app development team that was in charge of native iOS implementation. They developed it using Swift and then deployed it into TestFlight.

Generally, the mobile app is similar to Twitter. It has features where you can create your user profile, upload your profile photo, connect to other users, and follow them. You can also post your own content on the platform, including pictures and text. At the same time, you can react to other people’s posts by sending an emoji as a response. At a very broad level, those are the main features that their team implemented.

STRV also built a landing page for our company along with a feature to publish blog entries. They used a different technology stack between Vercel and Sanity for the frontend deployment. They also did the design, which was mostly just graphics. We collaborated on the copy of the text and fed in images from the Figma files. We used those as visuals for the website.

What is the team composition?

We work with about nine people from their team, including a designer, project manager, three iOS developers, two QA specialists, and two other people that work on the frontend of the landing page.

How did you come to work with STRV?

We were searching for mobile app development companies online and eventually found them on Clutch. After reading some of their reviews, we quickly reached out to them.

How much have you invested in them?

So far, we’ve spent around $275,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working in December 2020. Our engagement is on pause right now, but we’ll begin again once we’ve secured more funding.
 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app has yet to be launched, but the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive — well-designed, responsive, and bug-free. Overall, we’re extremely satisfied with STRV’s services, and they’ve definitely exceeded our expectations.

How did STRV perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve done well in executing quite a complicated project. Although they’ve missed some deadlines, the work that they’ve done is just simply amazing; I wouldn’t take any points away from them in this regard.

Furthermore, their communication has been stellar. People are always reaching out to make sure that we’re satisfied and understand each phase of the project, including costs. It’s been a really greeting experience working with their team. 

We use Slack to communicate and hold bi-weekly Zoom meetings with their team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What we’ve found most impressive about STRV is their thoughtfulness, attention to detail, and communication. They have a more accurate sense of the work, and they didn’t try to give me an unrealistic offer just to get me on board.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I really can’t think of anything that they need to improve on. Most of the things that didn’t go as planned were all because of me.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure to fully utilize all of their services, especially during the discovery phase of the project. You can leverage them by conducting customers interviews and other things of that nature to make the most out of the engagement.
 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a product manager at a startup technology company called Citizen. Our product offering is an app that sends users alerts about crime, safety, and other issues going on in the community. Users can take live videos to share what’s going on around them.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STRV?

Our in-house engineer designed a basic version of the solution that features summarized details of incidents and un-curated video from other users. We wanted to create a more tailored, polished experience with live hosts who produce a curated news experience. STRV provided a contract engineer to develop a web interface that allows our hosts to pull in specific pieces of media, from user videos to interactive maps and more.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our news anchors have a large amount of media that they can pull into the live broadcasts, and Michael (Engineer) developed the web interface that allows them to choose and integrate the specific pieces they want.

User videos are one type of content that our producers have access to, but our producers also utilize an interactive map. This map can be augmented by highlights drawn by our hosts live on-air, as well as spun around and physically manipulated to show users critical information like possible escape routes. In summary, this software allows our producers to compile everything needed to put together informative live broadcasts.

Because it is an internal tool, STRV didn’t do much design work. Their engineer laid out the buttons and knobs and dials of the interface with some input from us, but we didn’t care too much about it. The solution just had to be functional.

We finished work on this platform last month and moved Michael, plus one more resource, onto another project. We’re continuing to work with STRV.

What is the team composition?

Michael is our main point of contact, and we’ve also had a sales contact.

How did you come to work with STRV?

We were looking to work with someone to provide extra web development, and I knew some of their service employees personally. STRV’s team has a good industry reputation.  

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent just under $150,000 with them so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve worked together since April 2021. The solution launched two months later in June, and we made ongoing improvements to it until about November 2021. We’re now working with them on another web-based solution.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The producers who create these live broadcasts are very pleased with the platform because it gives them much-needed flexibility to bring in a lot of interesting video- and map-based content, including graphics.

Regarding metrics, our new, complex, tailored solution from STRV has driven a higher click-through rate via notifications, longer watch sessions, and increased shares from users compared to our basic, in-house solution.

While our high hopes weren’t exactly met in terms of metrics, STRV delivered exactly what we asked them to, and we’re 100% satisfied. The solution is a very solid improvement to our existing product.

Michael himself met and exceeded our expectations, especially in his ability to refactor code into a stable state.

How did STRV perform from a project management standpoint?

We did all the project management on our side. I helped Michael, who was acting as a contract engineer, prioritize his work and manage week-to-week and day-to-day operations. All that being said, Michael’s velocity definitely satisfied us.

We spoke over regular Zoom calls, which happened daily during the first week, and then they moved to twice a week, and finally slowed to once a week when we got into a groove. Some of our producers would occasionally join to help us prioritize features to be developed. We also leveraged Slack to answer questions and preview work outside of these calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Personally, I haven’t used any other contract engineering firms; normally I work with in-house resources. Despite that, I will say that Michael is very easy to work with. He hit the ground running with the skills we needed. The onboarding was very fast.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing jumps to mind right now.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would recommend STRV for engineering. They joined our team easily and worked well with us. STRV often tries to include project management and design services, but we didn’t require those offerings. They worked well as a contract engineering firm.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a project manager at AnywhereWorks. We provide tools and services to help people work anywhere.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STRV?

We needed their development expertise.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

STRV built an onboarding flow application that aimed to streamline our chat support and improve our customer experience. The app had customizable chat widgets that our customers could easily access to help them navigate our processes in three simple steps.

Prior to the development stage, we had a scoping and brainstorming phase, wherein we relayed our requirements and provided the necessary documentation to their team. They then conducted thorough research to flesh out more solutions and design ideas.

During the design phase, STRV presented iterations and wireframes to get our approval. They then kicked off the development phase and handed the final version to us for product testings.

What is the team composition?

We worked with three people from their team, including a project manager, a designer, and a developer.

How did you come to work with STRV?

I found STRV online while searching for experienced design agencies. We then met with them a couple of times to discuss the project, and they came up with a proposal. We were impressed with their initial ideas, so we decided to onboard them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $50,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project ran from January–May 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

STRV delivered a cost-efficient app that met our particular requirements and impressed our customers — they particularly liked its modern and functional design. Our user installation rate nearly doubled since we launched the onboarding flow, and we also acquired clients through the app. Overall, we were happy with the results we received because of their team’s development efforts.

How did STRV perform from a project management standpoint?

They were on top of the project management game — STRV was always willing to collaborate with our team and adapted well to our processes. We could rely on them to respond to our requests and attend our meetings with helpful ideas. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were most impressed with their impeccable project management skills and commitment to meeting our needs, deadlines, and expectations. Their availability and collaborative nature spoke volumes about their professionalism as a team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

STRV was an effective team that helped us meet our goals, but we would’ve benefited from refined communication skills. The design flow wasn’t relayed well to our team, and we needed a bit more elaboration on that — however, we both managed to resolve this matter towards the end.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don’t hesitate to hire STRV and try their services. They’re an adaptable team with a thorough process — you only need to communicate with them as often as you can to make the most of your engagement.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m in officer development for e-commerce. I’m also a software developer, working as part of our internal development team. We manage all the products and orders on our website that have custom bags.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STRV?

We needed help with creating a mobile app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We provided the core information to them. They optimized it for mobile, and they’re designing an iOS app for us.

The design was a collaborative effort with input from our team and recommendations from them. The app is a replica of our desktop e-commerce site. There are standard templates, which users can choose from, or they can put their own design on the bags. They can manage their orders on the app too.

What is the team composition?

There are 7-8 people on the team including a project manager, four developers, and two UI designers.

How did you come to work with STRV?

We found them online. They had good reviews on Google, and we found them to be the best choice of the companies who work in Agile development.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement started around May 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We work in Agile. We also have a board with all the tasks and milestones, from start to finish. They follow that, which helps them work well. We haven’t had any issues so far.

How did STRV perform from a project management standpoint?

From a project management standpoint, they’re doing a good job. They’re also working within a set timeline. We use Slack and email for communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their team overcomes many challenges found in development projects.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could lower their prices a bit.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Go with the flow. I don’t think you will have any issues with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work at Wilson Sonsini, the leading law firm representing venture-backed companies. I’m the Marketing Manager for their Emerging Companies Practice.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STRV?

We wanted to build a robust website to provide valuable resources to the early-stage startup ecosystem.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We provided STRV with the idea of what we were hoping to build, including the outline of the different pages, elements for each page, and some of the branding guidelines. We then worked closely with STRV on the rest.

They started with the design, helped determine the structure, and did the full development. They did all the engineering, QA, and everything else necessary to complete the site up until the launch.

They used DatoCMS as our CMS. I had never used it before, but it's terrific and was a great choice. It also had built-in SEO elements that STRV helped set up. They used Vercel for hosting the site and Figma for design.

What is the team composition?

We worked with one project manager, who was there throughout the entire process, overseeing everything and making sure we were on time and budget. We also worked with a key designer, two developers, and a QA person.

How did you come to work with STRV?

We interviewed a lot of web development firms and found a lot of great companies, but we were very impressed by STRV and their team, so we chose them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in the second week of November 2020 and finished the project by the end of March 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The product that STRV helped us develop spoke for itself. Since launching recently, we’ve already had thousands of visitors to the site and terrific engagement rates.

How did STRV perform from a project management standpoint?

STRV’s project management was amazing — they were very well organized. We had weekly or twice-a-week calls where the project manager went over the plan and the goals. We had a few team member changes over the project, and all the transitions were very smooth.

When STRV came in, I was very specific about how we couldn’t go beyond the scope. I told them the amount of money we had, and the date we needed to get this project done — they nailed those goals. We didn’t spend a dollar more than what we wanted.

STRV was really helpful with sticking to the scope, even when we were asking for more. They were able to figure out how to make things work within the budget and deadline. Apart from the calls, we communicated via Slack and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

STRV’s team was incredibly nice and great to work with. They were extremely polite and dedicated to the project, answering messages at all hours — they went above and beyond.

Even after the project ended, they’re still answering my questions and being very gracious about it — that’s the best part.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Genuinely, there’s nothing STRV could improve on. The process was very smooth, and the product was great.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very well organized and have a clear vision of what you want from the start. It’s something pretty tricky to do, but take the time to have that vision and scope really clear.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CEO of a health and wellness platform called Still Life. We’re focused on providing inspiration, support, and general wellness content for anyone who’s trying to succeed at work, play, or life. Specifically, we have a meditation app and a facility for off-sites and community events in Los Angeles, California.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STRV?

We didn’t have a CTO or any engineers on our founding team. After COVID-19, we accelerated our desire to get our platform into the hands of everyone at any time or place. Therefore, we hired STRV to be our arm of engineering and technology.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

STRV built an app that’s both on Google Play Store and Apple Store. They didn’t do our website, but they helped a lot with the design and worked on the front- and backend, using data and AWS.

Also, they built us an administrative dashboard for us to control any issues outside of what Apple or Google Store may offer to developers.

What is the team composition?

We worked full-time with two backend engineers and a frontend engineer. Around half percent of the time, we also worked with a project manager and a QA tester, and when we needed it, we worked with a designer on their side.

How did you come to work with STRV?

We used Clutch as the main source to find them. In the beginning, we called about five different companies, but STRV really stood out. I did a call with someone more on the business development side and I met Lubo (Co-Founder & CEO). I really liked him and got along well with him.

Overall, it was a matter of relationship and personal development. They understood our vision, what we wanted to do, and how we were going to differentiate from the ocean of meditation apps right now.

How much have you invested with them?

I assume that by August we’ll have spent close to $450,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project kicked off in December 2020, and we’re continuing our partnership for the foreseeable future.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In general, we’re deadline-oriented, so we’ve focused on deliverables and timelines. All of the specific milestones were achieved, and we had frequent check-ins to track everything they did.

We had a beta test group before the public release, and we had various internal metrics to rate that success. They hit all of them, and all were correlated to the overall technology development. We’ve been really happy with the general feedback from that.

How did STRV perform from a project management standpoint?

For project management, we use Slack, emails, and Google Drive. We talk pretty much every day, and we have a weekly call with all the team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They really understood the vision and goals we were trying to attain, and then they were able to take that information and put it into a successful app.

Also, their communication has been one of their greatest strengths. I’m not a tech-savvy person, and having the project management side explained to me in layman’s terms was something that stood out to me. They made it clear from a tech perspective and helped me understand what it takes to actually develop and manage a software like this, and I’m really happy about that.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t really have much to say about that point, they’ve been pretty solid.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be specific in what the end goal should look like, but be flexible throughout the creative process because you’ll learn so much — especially if you don’t have a CTO or an internal engineering team. The end product may be different than what you may have imagined, so you have to work back and forth in a cohesive way and be open to taking advice and feedback.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Ben Soleimani is a luxury home brand. We sell luxury handmade rugs and other products like furniture, décor pieces, and upholstery. I’m the e-commerce director of the company, so I manage our website, e-commerce, and other digital efforts and internal marketing initiatives.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STRV?

When I started working for the company, we needed to ramp up our efforts to improve the overall UI/UX design and functionality of our website.

The company started with just selling rugs, and our site was based on a Shopify template at the time, so we had a lot of way-arounds, custom solutions, and exceptions done to make the template work.

The website was running really slow; it would take 30–40 seconds just to load a product page. It was time to do a redesign and improve the overall experience, so I reached out to STRV.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

STRV redid our whole website experience, from UI/UX design to the infrastructure itself. The redesign project took a month, during which they worked with our internal redesign team to create the look and feel, decide on fonts, and work on the overall layout.

We started with the development phase after that. STRV helped us fix and maintain the website we had at the time while we were working on the new one. We fixed the site as much as we could, and we worked on fully developing the new one after that.

Our new site has a headless architecture. We’re using Shopify only for order and inventory management, and we also use their checkout system, but the frontend is Maplify.

We have a lot of features on our wishlist, and we’re releasing them a bit at a time. For example, we’re working on a 3D AR piece, and we’re improving pages for specific product groups.

What is the team composition?

The team has adjusted depending on what we need. We started working with a project manager, a graphic designer, and a developer to maintain our old website. Then, we ramped up to three developers and added a QA tester when we started working on the new site.

We’ve scaled up and down after the launch, depending on the need. Right now, we have three developers, and we don’t need to have a project manager. I’m dealing directly with the development lead.

Apart from those people, we have contact with a salesperson and an account representative, who make sure everything is okay. We’ve also worked with Lubo (Co-Founder & CEO).

How did you come to work with STRV?

I’d worked with STRV at my previous company, and initially, they were referred to us. The scenario was similar: we had a website that we weren’t happy with, and we reached out to them. STRV was happy to jump on board and help out.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $290,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2020. We launched the new site in March 2021, and we’re working on enhancing it now.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project has been incredible overall. When we started working together, our conversion rate was very low at around 0.58%. Thanks to STRV’s efforts, it has gone up to 1.15% — that’s an increase of 98%. We’ve also had a 50% increase in transactions and a 28% increase in average order value.

In terms of pure website metrics and performance, we have a bounce rate decrease of 27% and the response time for pages load increased by 25%. Comparing the numbers from the beginning of our collaboration to the ones from the last 30 days, the work done by STRV is clearly reflected in our metrics.

Working with them is an absolute pleasure. They bring high-level expertise to the table, and they’re always available. Even though we’re in different time zones, they’re always there for whatever we need.

I'd never worked with a more reliable and experienced company — that’s why I reached out to them when I came to this position. I knew the quality of their work, and I trusted them.

How did STRV perform from a project management standpoint?

We manage the project in Jira — we can keep track of everything through it. If I need to address something in the middle of the night, I just go on Jira and put it in a queue.

We use Slack for quick communication. We have a channel with everyone in it, including the salesperson, the account representative, the developers, and even Lubo himself.

We communicate as needed. For example, we used to have weekly calls during the main development, and now, we have them every 2–3 weeks to touch base and see where we’re at.

What did you find most impressive about them?

STRV is very trustworthy. Most agencies out there will favor the most expensive solutions, the ones that are most profitable for them. However, I can trust STRV in this regard. We’ve always worked together to find the best solution at the best price — they’re part of our team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

STRV allocates resources based on the project. If we need a developer for a short period, either because we have an urgency or want to launch a new feature, they may not have a resource available, and we’ll have to wait 3–4 weeks for it. It would be good for them to keep a couple of developers available to jump in if there’s any urgency.

However, we’ve had a lot of last-minute requests, and STRV has always found a way, either by having a developer work a few extra hours or another solution like that. There was just one instance when we had to wait three weeks to find an additional developer.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I lead the engineering team at CampusLogic, which is an EdTech company. We built a product to help create transparency throughout the financial aid process for students.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STRV?

We had a web app but didn’t have a mobile app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

STRV developed an iOS app that mirrored our web app for high school students. The platform allows students to create profiles and follow colleges. On the app, students can also list accomplishments on their profiles to earn micro-scholarships from colleges.

What is the team composition?

We worked with two iOS developers during the first year of our engagement. We now only work with one developer from STRV.

How did you come to work with STRV?

I wasn’t part of the hiring process that brought STRV on board. Although I’m not sure how we found STRV, we tried to hire an in-house iOS developer but couldn’t find one. We then started searching for companies that we could contract. Ultimately, we chose STRV.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $500,000–$700,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them around February 2017, and it’s an ongoing engagement.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app has 990,000 downloads,14,500 reviews, and a 4.8 rating in the App Store. During its first six months in the store, 50% of our sign-ups came from the platform. Now, 20% of our sign-ups come from the app.

How did STRV perform from a project management standpoint?

STRV’s well integrated with our engineering team. We’re still working with a developer who comes to all of our meetings. They’re great at communicating and meeting deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their engineers have been at least as good as any in-house engineers I've worked with. When you contract a third-party company, you may not access high-quality resources. STRV has high-quality engineers. I’m impressed by how fast they’re able to complete tasks and the quality of their code.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’ve had rough contract negotiations. Their team has been inflexible with making changes to how many hours we need without losing access to them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Treat the resources STRV provides as members of your team. Fully integrate them into your team and communicate with them as often as you communicate with in-house engineers to support real-time information sharing.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and co-founder of a software company that makes mobile apps.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STRV?

We needed help with the development of our products.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

STRV provides us with engineering services that help us develop our mobile apps. We currently work with them on two mobile, native apps for iOS and Android.

We started the project with specifications and used wireframes to help STRV understand what we wanted to build. We then worked with them to identify the right team to transform our ideas into products.

As it’s our wheelhouse, we mostly designed the products ourselves. However, we’ll work with them to iterate on the products’ designs depending on customer feedback.

STRV helps to build an interactive game, which is almost complete. Their team built the product’s architecture from the ground up. They’re making the code modular and creating interactive elements. For example, a user can move their phone and then the screen melts to an image behind it. Their team’s creating a lot of heavy animations for the game.

STRV is also building a native iOS app in the Swift language. Their team also uses Realm DB, MySQL, and Metal — a 3D animation framework. They engaged Elasticsearch for the backend too.

On the Android side, they started with Java. Their team’s now using WebSocket and Rest API architecture. They used Firebase for real-time database and push notification features. On the backend, their team engaged Node.JS, MongoDB, DynamoDB, and Redis.

What is the team composition?

Three developers from STRV work on one project and two developers from their team work on the other project. We occasionally interact with a designer and frequently interact with their project managers. There’s heavy communication between us and their engineers. We also have a main contact and connect with Lubo (CEO) a lot.

How did you come to work with STRV?

When I was with another company, we engaged STRV to build an Apple TV app and a web app. That’s how I came to know and like them.

How much have you invested in them?

In total, we’ve spent about $2.5 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2017, and it’s an ongoing engagement.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Although we haven’t publicly released the interactive game, it has received amazing feedback for its level of detail and polish. I’m picky but believe STRV has done an amazing job making the game. It’s polished and immersive. They built 11 different interactions that enable users to unlock different puzzles. Everyone loves the puzzles. We’ve received a lot of great feedback on the interactions too.

How did STRV perform from a project management standpoint?

Unlike many agencies, STRV acts as an extended team. They uniquely integrate with internal teams. Depending on the project and its timeframe, STRV has a wide range of available engineers who figure out our needs.

We work together every day via Zoom and share a Trello board. We also use Slack for communication and have weekly sprint stand-up meetings. The process works because their engineers integrate with our team. They’re also responsive.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I have a long history in the tech industry and know it’s rare to find an agency like STRV. Their approach to team integration is special. They hire extremely confident and competent engineers. I visited their home office and found that their whole team was engaged, focused, and happy. STRV built a vibrant community, which is how they attract great talent. They have a great reputation.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any constructive criticism. However, I would like to see them have more locations and grow their footprint. I want them to be more visible and more successful.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Look no further than STRV. I always refer people to them because they’re great. Don’t look at them as a normal agency; look at them as an extended team and trust their engineers. Roll up your sleeves and engage them because they will be able to get you wherever you want to go.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the founder and CEO of Cinnamon. We are building video streaming platforms and toolkits for creators. We offer mobile and desktop apps at the moment.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STRV?

Right after receiving seed investments from our investors, we had to make a decision as to whether we wanted to build our mobile apps ourselves or choose an agency that could deliver the apps to us within a certain period of time.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

As a startup, we have to move quickly. We picked them to do the work on our Android and iOS mobile engineering as well as on the emotion detection AI.

What is the team composition?

There were 10 people that we worked with, including three Android developers, three iOS developers, one QA, one project manager, one AI specialist, and one backend developer.

How did you come to work with STRV?

Our engineering team is based in the Czech Republic. STRV is based in multiple locations, but they started off in the same city. Their track record made them pretty well known in this industry across the country.

We had a couple of options, but after a few calls and the technical specifications, we ultimately chose STRV for this project.

How much have you invested in them?

We have spent exactly $275,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in April 2020, and it is an ongoing relationship.

Most of the work had been completed by the end of August 2020. Now, we are only using their AI engineer for our needs and purposes because we managed to hire our own mobile engineers in-house.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They have a sharp team. Not only are they eager and energized to commit to our projects, but we also admired how they proactively requested specifications from us.

They have been very helpful in guiding us through Apple and Android requirements for store approval. The entire team that has been working with us has remained focused on the quality and delivery of the solutions. Overall, we are super excited that we have had this experience–it has been educational for us. 

How did STRV perform from a project management standpoint?

I think the job has been done pretty well. Anytime they needed something, they communicate immediately without friction points. We've slowed them down a few times.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The scope of their abilities is exceptional. They know exactly what clients need and can adjust anything to adapt to those needs. The team moves companies from point A to point B.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We once gave them a challenging, vague request that we thought should've been completed more quickly. However, we should have been more clear about our needs from the start to avoid the resulting misunderstandings.

At the end of the initial project, I forgot we had any issues because our success overshadowed those negative feelings.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would definitely choose STRV because they shape ideas into functioning solutions that convert customers. They have the experience to advise and guide companies on the way. They've built hundreds of apps, so their expertise speaks for itself.