Airdev

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a property startup company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Airdev?

We needed help building a web application to make it easier for us to close deals.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We discussed our requirements for the app with Airdev, and they submitted a proposal that met our needs. Then, they built the web application from scratch using Bubble. They created a feature that allows us to close deals more efficiently. They integrated Google Maps and APIs and linked the application to Stripe. They are also responsible for the design and continue to host and maintain the application. 

We plan to launch the application in August 2022, but they have already delivered a totally functional product. 

What is the team composition?

I work with a designer, developer, project manager, and a company liaison is helping us with the launch phase.

How did you come to work with Airdev?

I found Airdev on LinkedIn.

How much have you invested with them?

We have invested around $30,000 in the partnership.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2022, and the engagement is ongoing as we prepare to launch in August 2022.

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

We haven’t launched the application yet, but it functions as we want it to. The APIs and Google Maps are integrated, which is what we wanted. Their design work is excellent. Our whole experience with Airdev has been positive. If I could give them 10 stars, I would.

How did Airdev perform from a project management standpoint?

They are excellent in terms of project management. They’re very communicative, forward-thinking, and results oriented. They’re knowledgeable and know exactly what they’re doing. They’re always there for me when I have questions and can anticipate my needs. 

We’ve worked with other development partners in the past, and Airdev stands out regarding expertise, delivering on time, and working within our budget.  We use Coda to keep track of the project's progress and their internal platform to maintain communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I am impressed that Airdev built a functional product within our budget and time frame. They have been honorable and transparent throughout the development process, and always mean what they say.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have nothing they could improve on.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice would be to be as specific as possible when communicating your project requirements.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder of a business services startup.

What challenge were you trying to address with Airdev?

We hired Airdev to build an MVP of our product. The goal was to have a product that met basic user requirements while still being easy to use.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The scope of work was an MVP built with bubble - it would have a user facing 'form fill out' side, and then an admin side

What is the team dynamic?

• a project manager / product manager
• a 'director' who waved his hands
• a software engineer.

How did you come to work with Airdev?

I found them by posting for a project on bubble’s agency market

How much have you invested with them?

I am not an investor - the project cost $6k

What is the status of this engagement?

Engagement is completed

How did your relationship with the vendor evolve?

Airdev had a very polished sales process. The scoping went well, and things were rocky once there was some debate over what was in scope vs. out of scope.  Ultimately I was able to get what I wanted from the project.

How did Airdev address the challenges that arose?

At first they were somewhat rigid on what they were able to do for me but I was able to speak with a customer success manager who helped me understand Airdev’s process.

Describe the impact this engagement has had on your business.

Airdev built out the MVP for my business - so it was essential for launching it.

How was project management handled?

I had a project / product manager and also a director

Is there anything that the vendor did well or that you would consider a strength? 

I think Airdev was relatively organized with timelines

In what specific areas can they improve?

I think Airdev can improve on being very clear about what is in scope (and what implicitly is out of scope).

What advice do you have for clients with similar needs to yours?

I would be exhaustively clear on what’s included in the scoping document

This review was published on April 22, 2022.

Founder, Business Services Startup

Business Services

1-10 Employees

Boston, Massachusetts, United States (27153)

Less than $10,000

Oct 2021 - Jan 2022

Project summary:

Airdev built an MVP for a business services startup. The goal was to launch a platform with a user-facing form-fill-out side and an admin side.

Feedback summary:

Although the project was considered moderately successful, the Airdev team initially built extra features that restricted the product's essential functions. They did the minimum work and only delivered upon the client's persistence. Nevertheless, they were still on schedule despite the mishaps.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder of a business services startup.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Airdev to build an MVP of our product. The goal was to have a product that met basic user requirements while still being easy to use.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Airdev was very professional and organized throughout the initial stages of the project

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

The scope of work was an MVP built with bubble - it would have a user facing 'form fill out' side, and then an admin side

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

Three:

• a project manager / product manager
• a 'director' who waved his hands
• a software engineer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project was moderately successful, but it took way more energy on my end to force airdev to do what was in the MVP -- they built extra features that actually restricted functionality of the product that was incredibly basic and important. They effectively 'hid' portions of the form that users would fill out from admins, which made no sense.

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

The airdev team tried to do the least amount of work possible, and only delivered once I threatened to push for a refund.

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

I find it extremely impressive that they sweet talk you into working with them and then try to do the least amount of work possible, but that's agencies for you.

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

I suggest letting the customer decide when the project meets their specs.

Star Ratings

Overall rating: 1

Quality: 3

Schedule: 5

Cost: 1

Willing to refer: 1

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Valize, which provides services to companies to help them improve their innovation and transformation capabilities. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Airdev?

Our customers were having difficulty tracking innovation programs once they reached a higher level of complexity. We needed a partner to help us develop a software tool to improve tracking.  

What was the scope of their involvement?

Airdev has developed an innovation tracking solution in Bubble for us. We’ve had several meetings to scope the project before diving into software creation and testing. Although the project has been delivered, we’ve renewed the contract to expand the scope to include additional sprints to add functionalities.

The software allows users to map a portfolio of potential projects against uncertainty. It also allows users to score each project against their strategic strength score. Users can also plan projects through two key checkpoints, test and capture information about assumptions, and look at an entire organization’s portfolio potential. For most companies, those tasks get buried in spreadsheets, but this tool makes everything very transparent. 

What is the team composition?

We started with a three-member scoping team, but our primary contact is now a project manager who works with a team of programmers. 

How did you come to work with Airdev?

Our previous developer wasn’t delivering workable software to take to market, so we looked for an alternative development firm. Then, we found Airdev after searching for low-code developers. We had an initial call with Airdev where they provided a quote, which we found to be reasonable compared to other developers we’ve used before.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested around $60,000 with Airdev. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement with Airdev began in October 2021, and it’s ongoing.

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

Thanks to Airdev, we have working software that we’re using to support our other engagements. Soon, we’ll use a simpler version in a classroom setting and with entrepreneurs. Airdev has been immensely more effective than our previous vendor, who took a year and a half to deliver unusable software.

Airdev has a great design sense and is very responsive. They take our ideas and figure out how to develop them into usable software without us having to spell everything out for them in detail. 

How did Airdev perform from a project management standpoint?

Airdev uses ClickUp and Usersnap to convey project progress. We also have biweekly delivery meetings. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Airdev’s responsiveness and capabilities are excellent — they quickly scoped our project and then delivered it to that scope. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There were a few details that Airdev didn’t quite understand, including user data access. Their initial deliverable only allowed one-to-one relationships, but we need our users to have access to multiple companies. It took about a month to resolve that issue because we had to reprogram the frontend completely. That issue wasn’t necessarily their fault, but we also didn’t think Airdev’s team would assume a one-to-one relationship would work for our needs.  

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d advise any customer to hire Airdev! However, it’s essential to be clear about what the final deliverable needs to achieve and what project success looks like. It’s never good to continuously change project specifications. 

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO and co-founder of a retail tech company called MYAVA. We are an online virtual dressing room platform helping retailers sell apparel in an interactive 3D environment.

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

We are a tech startup with no tech co-founder. We hired Airdev to help build our MVP and provide project management guidance as well. Our goal was to get our MVP live and to learn and test from it.

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We found the vendor on the bubble.io site. They were highly rated. We did interview other candidates but this vendor came in at the right price and was in our hemisphere.

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

We created the initial wire frame of what we wanted our product to be. We met with them and scoped the project for a couple of weeks clarifying any questions they may have had.

We need both a user-facing interface experience and a backend dashboard for us to process orders. The developers used templates to achieve most of what we needed with some additional custom work. In our second phase, we worked on algorithm automation's for some of our calculations and a new feedback interface.

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

For the two times we engaged with the vendor, we had 1 project manager and 1 developer. We mostly engaged with the project manager who were always very responsive.

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

We launched within a couple of months and have been acquiring around 150 new users a month. The MVP has also been very helpful as a demo when meeting with investors.

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

The communication was great. We communicated mostly through email and would zoom when we had a big meeting about once every two weeks during the development phase. They were very clear about what they could manage in the project and what would be out of scope.

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

We were impressed with the amount of work they accomplished within our budget. As a startup, we did not have much funding and were still able to get an MVP up and live and have it look legitimate.

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

The scoping could have been a little more interactive. There were a few instances where our communication was not clear and we did not get what we asked for. We were able to correct it later.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the managing partner of Han LLP, a law firm. We’re based in New York and Los Angeles. We started about three years ago, and most of our clients are small businesses. In general, we handle corporate and litigation work for our clients.

What challenge were you trying to address with Airdev?

We were planning to launch subscription-based legal services for small businesses. In the scoping process, we decided to provide a member portal where subscribers could log in to submit requests, communicate with our attorneys, upload documents, and manage their billings. We wanted it to be as easy and modern as possible for the legal consumers.

We had the traditional offering and billing arrangements, but we wanted to try this way to engage with small businesses, which typically are underrepresented. In summary, we needed help to manage our billing, integrating a third-party service payment into the portal.

What was the scope of their involvement?

In the scoping call, we talked with Airdev about what we had in mind and what it’d look like. They explained the process, their development methodology, and the kind of interface they could accomplish with a project like this. We wanted it to be easy to use and functional for our clients.

They used Bubble to build the app. We didn’t have a lot of content o marketing direction for them, but we discussed what we wanted to accomplish. Airdev returned to us with what they typically built and told us about the tweaks and modifications they could make.

What is the team composition?

We had 4–5 people in total. Initially, we had contact with an account executive. Afterward, we were introduced to a project manager, a director, and a developer to assist us throughout the process.

How did you come to work with Airdev?

The challenge was how to bill our clients. They could’ve filled out their credit card information, and we could charge them monthly, but that was very burdensome for us. We found out we could use Stripe to process these fees.

Stripe had a partnership portal, so we looked at the list and talked to a couple of vendors. Airdev stood out for their development process; they could build a customizable solution. It struck us, so we decided to give them a shot.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $18,000 in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2021, and they delivered the product in February 2022.

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

They delivered a beautiful product, and we’re excited to launch it next month. Most of our staff wasn’t very tech-savvy, but Airdev was honest, patient, and helpful in understanding some of the vocabulary and how things worked. The entire process was easy, and they managed the expectations clearly in terms of the project scope.

We tested internally with some of our stakeholders, but the feedback we’ve got is pretty general. Overall, the platform is easy to use, it looks nice, and it’s built how we wanted it — the interface is very modern and friendly. Also, Airdev was generous at accommodating extra requests, which we really appreciated. It was our first time engaging a software developer, and it was a good, personal experience.

How did Airdev perform from a project management standpoint?

They were responsive and on top of things. I was very impressed because I manage legal projects all the time, so I know how challenging it’s to deliver on time and define clear milestones. However, everybody was on the same page.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They certainly had the technical skills, but the customer experience was outstanding. We weren't accustomed to working with developers, but they made the process and communication easy to follow. We could respond to their feedback, and the methodology they used was excellent.

Also, they were experts in their field. For example, it was hard for us to put in words to describe what we wanted to tweak. Nonetheless, they helped us to get to the questions we wanted to ask, and then they took it from there.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there wasn’t anything. They did a fantastic job, and if it takes off, we plan to work with them on adding functionality and making it more robust.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The team doesn’t reinvent the wheel or give high costs. Another vendor gave us the triple or quadruple budget, but it wasn’t feasible. However, Airdev could scale our project, and they gave us a lot of confidence to try our hypothesis and see how things went.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder and CEO of a startup that provides career help for students and experienced professionals around the world.

What challenge were you trying to address with Airdev?

I asked Airdev to build a mentoring platform for me so that we could provide social mobility for students that didn’t have a network.

What was the scope of their involvement?

I first did some research in terms of what solution I would need for this platform. I looked at various technologies and came across Bubble, which is a no-code product.

Airdev then designed the website from scratch. They developed it such that we could look at the site and all of its attachments from the administrative side. The student-facing end of the mentoring platform has log-in and registration functions as well as a dating-app-style algorithm that matches students and mentors. Their team also integrated a communication element into the site so that once a student matches a mentor, they would be able to message each other through a WhatsApp-like chatbox.

What is the team composition?

On the development side, my two primary points of contact were Niharika (Product Manager) and Welby (Software Engineer). Jasmine (Sales Executive), along with another person, was present pre-development or during the sales phase. All in all, I came across four people from Airdev.

How did you come to work with Airdev?

I was looking for a technology that was quick to build and not ridiculously technical. I looked at various options and came across Bubble, which is a no-code product.

A few developers were advertising their services on the Bubble website and among them was Airdev. I spoke to Jasmine and she took me through a very slick process. My precise specifications and requirements made things easier as well. After the scoping call, I was introduced to David (Senior Product Manager) and the developers who would take on the development work.

How much have you invested in them?

It was $12,000 USD.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with them in November 2021, and we went live in January 2022. We spent about 10 weeks from start to finish.

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

It’s too early to determine the impact of Airdev’s work, but we’ve successfully won our first client by showing them our mentoring portal. This happened less than a week after we went live, and I believe this is a good sign. I also consider it a success that the Airdev team was able to stick to the budget and timelines that were set out at the beginning.

How did Airdev perform from a project management standpoint?

They surpassed my expectations. The technology and platform that they used were superior to anything else that I’ve ever seen. They delivered on the date promised, and all of the product-related fixes, alterations, and amendments were done in a timely manner as well. 

I was carefully managed by the team. David and Niharika kept me in my bubble, so to speak, and I understood where I fit in in terms of the development process.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their slick project execution is the most impressive aspect of their service. It all started with Jasmine in the sales phase where she presented her opening gambit, telling me about Airdev, Bubble, and what they could do for me. It all went smoothly from there.

Their pricing was also very competitive, which was important to me because I only had a limited budget.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything at the moment. I was really impressed.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure that you are totally on top of what you want. Spec out your product to the nth degree so that both sides know exactly what you are building. This will minimize miscommunication and enable the team to scope out the project properly.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a tech-based social and emotional learning platform for K–16 students.

What challenge were you trying to address with Airdev?

We needed someone to develop the first version of our tech-based product.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The key deliverable is a web-based platform with a few components such as a dashboard for teachers to monitor students, and an assessment tool for students to get their wellness scores.

We’re currently working on adding new features to the platform through user feedback.

What is the team composition?

I work with Sandy (Project Manager) and Peter (Developer)

How did you come to work with Airdev?

I came across their company while looking for agencies in Bubble. I heard good things about Airdev so I decided to work with them.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent $24,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing partnership started in May.

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

The app has been performing slowly, but Airdev is continuing to optimize the product with me to get it functioning well for our users.

How did Airdev perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re great from a project management standpoint and we mainly use email and their Airdev portal to communicate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re impressed with their willingness to collaborate, agility to remedy issues, and quality of their work.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could improve on ensuring that the speed of their app is sufficient.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I recommend being clear with your needs and communicating frequently with their team.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a data specialist at Truepoint Wealth Counsel, an integrated wealth management firm. I work in our innovative team, which is involved in projects that deal with data storage and presentation.

What challenge were you trying to address with Airdev?

Often in our industry, clients can only see their investments through a client portal, but we wanted to present all of our service lines in one. We had an existing portal attached to our CRM, but we decided to move away from that option. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

We contracted with Airdev to develop a client portal that showed the entire value of our services, including our tax, estate, and financial planning service lines. The portal Airdev developed is a subdomain within our website. 

The portal uses Airable on the backend for data storage and Bubble for our UI. Airdev installed Zapier to handle our workflow processes. 

What is the team composition?

We primarily worked with two teammates from Airdev, including Sandy (Project Manager) and a lead developer, who worked with a larger team of five. 

How did you come to work with Airdev?

We’ve followed the no-code development movement for several years, and we knew through their Twitter account. We saw a lot of positive reviews about their preferred UI software, Bubble, as well. Eventually, after analyzing and rejecting other firms, we brought them on board. 

How much have you invested with them?

We invested $12,000–$18,000 with Airdev.  

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Airdev from August–September 2021.  

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

Our metrics were on a very small scale, but in general, the value of the prototyping work they completed for the cost they charged was terrific.  

How did Airdev perform from a project management standpoint?

Airdev was very transparent about their workflow. At the beginning of the project, we communicated via email, but then we moved onto their client portal to ask questions and submit tickets. 

They stuck to timelines, but slowness on our part kept Airdev’s team from delivering as quickly as they wanted. There were some bumps along the way, but Airdev handled them very well and communicated potential deadline changes rapidly. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Airdev did everything well, but I loved that they vocalized their support for the continued development of the portal during the project. It felt like a true partnership — they were building with us, not for us. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Bubble was undergoing an update during our development process, so by the end of the prototyping phase, our portal was built on outdated Bubble software. That wasn’t a problem for us, but I think that the update process could’ve been handled and communicated differently. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d advise customers to think about what they want to maintain going forward. Airdev can build whatever the client wants, but it’s up to the client to determine how much maintenance they want to do. We were very clear with what we would maintain from our end, and it made for a good partnership. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO and Founder of a technology company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Airdev?

We do not have an in-house technology team and needed a partner to help translate our vision into reality at an affordable price quickly.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Airdev is developing our web application. When we finished the first scope of work, we decided to give Airdev more business as we had a lot of requirements for the app’s next phase.

We’re still working with Airdev only because we’re in a crunch and need a developer. However, we’re actively looking to see if we can do the work ourselves or hire another vendor instead of using them in the future. 

For the time being, we have engaged them under their capacity-based support model. Previously, our arrangement was project-based.

What is the team composition?

We were assigned an offshore product manager and developer and had infrequent interactions with an onshore solutions architect. During the sale process, we spoke to several others who were not engaged once we signed up.

How did you come to work with Airdev?

We were referred to them by another custom software developer based on cost.

How much have you invested with them?

We have spent around $30,000 to date.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in the second half of 2021 and are still working with them until we find a better solution.

Describe the impact this engagement has had on your business. 

We decided to use Airdev because of their lower cost and time-to-market potential. They’re more affordable compared to other agencies because they use low-code / no-code development platforms. However, they treated us like we didn't matter especially because of the amount of money we were spending. Rather than treating every customer like they matter, they treated us like an afterthought not worth spending much time with.

Throughout the relationship, Airdev has been less of a partner and more of a vendor — they don’t listen to what we’re trying to do or help us get to where we want to end up. They just take direction and execute, instead of being a partner and helping us find creative solutions. 

We’re not very proficient in technology, and we don’t always know the best way of doing something. Whenever we discuss our deliverables, Airdev just does it in the way we said it instead of helping us think through and find a better solution. They’re just interested in getting it done and moving on.

How was project management handled?

I’ve had many issues with our relationship. Airdev told us that since we’re not large enough, they would not be willing to do anything tailored for us, and we would have to follow their standard processes, contracts, etc. They gave us a choice of either doing it their way or not working with them at all. I didn’t expect that from Airdev. 

It felt like Airdev didn’t want our business. It was difficult to get them on the phone, and our product manager wouldn’t show up for meetings — they weren’t responsive. When we wanted to have a scoping discussion to understand the project’s potential cost, they told us it would cost money just to have a scoping discussion. 

I had no access to their CEO or upper management even after I asked. I had to find their contact information myself and email them, and although the CEO replied, his response was not helpful.

Is there anything that the vendor did well or that you would consider a strength?

Airdev has delivered a functional final product, and they’ve met our expectations for the first deliverable. They’ve finished the work — only, the process of getting there is not something I want to try again. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you're fine being treated like a number and that your business does not matter to them, then this is the developer for you. They will deliver what you ask them to do but will not help you solution your product to find the most optimal approach. Working with them will be as transactional as possible with no hand-holding.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a small technology company.

What challenge were you trying to address with AirDev?

We wanted to build an internal business intelligence system to keep track of various metrics from our systems. We also needed it to manage our customers. As a result, our company hired AirDev. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

We scoped the project based on our requirements. Then, AirDev assigned a developer to us. From there, we started building the system. Our teams spent two weeks on building it and another two weeks on fixing bugs. 

What is the team composition?

I only worked with one developer.

How did you come to work with AirDev?

The person running AirDev and I went to school together. I picked them because they were a no-code development shop using Bubble. Our team would have an easier time managing that technology in the longer term. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We did this project in May 2020.

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

Our customers increased by about 50% after the project since we were able to handle more of them. The company’s accounts receivables also dropped considerably afterward. 

How did AirDev perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management was truly stellar.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The developer assigned to me was excited about this project. It was a challenge for them since this was out of the normal projects they took. As a result, they accomplished it in a fun way as opposed to saying that it was difficult. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there weren’t any. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Come to AirDev with a specific idea of what you want to build. Like any other development shop, they’ll build what you ask them — not more, not less. As a result, if you don’t know what you want, you’re going to run into cost and time problems.