Appmakery

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the owner of my startup company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Appmakery?

I was originally looking for a partnership, and met Ajay Jetty, the founder of Appmakery . He gave me everything I needed to launch my startup—not only technical advice for the development, but also advice at the account management level. With technology, it’s one thing to create a thing that people can use, but the question is how we can create a service, rather than a product.

This is where Appmakery came in—they helped me structure my technical and agency-level understanding, so that I could marry the two together, recruit people, continue to get new customers, and so on. We did my website together.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They were the leading influence in how we organized our website and designed the engagement side of it. If we are trying to tell a story through a website, it needs to have some sort of flow. They were able to squeeze in a lot of information and functionality. There was backend development as well—the website allows for customer logins, for example. The technologies used included everything from Python, PHP, CSS, HTML, and every other modern coding language.

I dealt directly with their developers, rather than using my own. I utilized Appmakery in favor of my own team, and I didn’t outsource to other people. I told the team what needed to happen, and what parts of our website could be improved in terms of functionality, design, or layout. I submitted my concerns to their team, and all of them were addressed. I never had to worry about the design aspect, or anything else.

What is the team composition?

I worked with a total of four members, three of whom were developers. I never actually saw them, and deployed my requirements online in video form. We sometimes had online collaboration, but everything was remote.

My primary point of contact was Ajay, who is also the business development director of Appmakery.

How did you come to work with Appmakery?

I was placing ads, looking for high-end developmental professionals with strong business development backgrounds. My part was going to be the marketing side, while they would handle development. They contacted me and setup a meeting. They were the first company to come in and propose dividing the work into iterations and milestones, which made the scope very doable.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost was around $170,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Appmakery in March 2013, and finished in June 2014. I’ve maintained an ongoing relationshp with them, even though we only talk to each other around three times per year. If I hit a wall—even with our own eight-person development team—I will go to Appmakery.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’ve started two companies because of Appmakery—specifically, the information they provided, which filled in gaps. They have an understanding of not just product support, but also internet service support. A huge part of what Appmakery offers is coaching and consultation—knowing what to ask and what direction to go in. If I had a single website, I could just attribute that to their team, but they are responsible for hundreds of websites and businesses that are profiting and getting exposure online.

I know that Appmakery can build websites, but they are far more powerful than just a web company. There is some serious know-how over there.

The functionality and reliability of the websites they built are top of the line. We’ve built on top of their work, but not much. They were far-enough ahead of the scope five years ago that the things we invested in then are still being utilized today.

How did Appmakery perform from a project management standpoint?

The process was smooth and easy, without a lot of issues, or anything else that can add up and increase the cost. The partnership was streamlined and logical from top to bottom. From a project management standpoint, they can translate everything into coding. They can backwards-map everything into a wireframe for us. They’re top-notch.

Their CEO is in a class by himself in terms of project management. Their team can look at the scope from the top down, break it down into intervals, iterations and milestones. They ensure that they don’t take too much time. If it took twelve months to make a website that could have been done in six, then we’d have lost six months of labor.

We communicate by email, text and phone, in that order. For casual items, we use email. I always get a text message from them with season’s greetings, but, for the more important issues relating to my website, we have phone calls. I can give nightly feedback through a system they’ve put in place.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re refreshingly different. Many technical support companies focus on getting the client’s information in order to follow up and hound them. After this, they will want to get the scope of the project, in order to know how valuable it is.
Appmakery is not like this. They invited me to dinner for our first meeting. I sat down with them, and that was it. I called the next day saying I was in.

Are there any areas they could improve?

This is a hard question to answer, given that I’m not in the office with them all day. I don’t have to leave the house anymore, but I still work. Our team has evolved and become optimized this way. At this point, I have nothing to report.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Knowing what to ask for is key. Appmakery is a top-notch technical expert, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that they can know if the client actually understands what they’re asking.