Tapptitude

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of Holler Technologies, a messaging technology company that creates both a delivery mechanism for conversational content and the content itself.

What challenge were you trying to address with Tapptitude?

We were looking to accelerate the development of our mobile components, specifically our software development kit, which is a key part of our product. Our goal was to accelerate future development beyond what our in-house team was capable of doing, so we sought out a third-party company that could bring additional iOS and Android SDK developers to the table.

We wanted a company that could operate as a Scrum team — we wanted the interaction that comes through an agile development approach so they could become more like a part of our business rather than just a traditional service provider.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Tapptitude is primarily responsible for supporting our mobile app development capabilities by providing iOS and Android development support. They use Kotlin for Android and Swift for iOS.

What is the team composition?

I work with a project manager and four developers from Tapptitude.

How did you come to work with Tapptitude?

Once we had an idea of what we were looking for, we conducted a Google search and used the references that we had to create a list of firms that we thought would be a fit for the project. We interviewed a total of six firms and shortlisted two, one of them being Tapptitude. We gave both those firms a small project and ended up choosing Tapptitude based on their performance and execution of the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.

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

Tapptitude has delivered a product that is not just very high-quality but is also a really tight fit to what we needed.

How did Tapptitude perform from a project management standpoint?

Tapptitude has performed really well in terms of project management — the developers they provided are great communicators and excellent practitioners. They’ve also worked really well with our internal team and are very receptive to feedback as well as new ideas.

I also like how the whole partnership feels highly collaborative. Even though they were working on a standalone component, they would still regularly meet with our team and make suggestions about every element of the project, whether it was UI design suggestions or different approaches to coding.

We primarily communicated through Slack, but we also had daily standups on Zoom. We also utilized Shortcut, which is an agile project management tool, to track milestones and see how they are progressing through a sprint.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Tapptitude checked all the boxes of all the things that we were looking for for this project. They had the right skills as well as a team of people who were already used to working with each other and were open to using an agile methodology. They’re a team of people we culturally mesh with and feel very comfortable working with. At the end of the day, they really turned out to be the ideal partner that we were looking for in the beginning.

Another thing that stood out to me was Tapptutude’s transparency. I really appreciated how honest they were with regard to what they were good at and what they weren’t and how they were willing to suggest other firms that had those strengths that they lacked.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I suggest using an agile approach to easily adjust your goals throughout the course of your project.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m part of the five-person team behind Tunespotter, a mobile app that allows users to enjoy their favorite ever moments of music from their favorite films, TV series, games, and commercials.

What challenge were you trying to address with Tapptitude?

They are our app development company. We’re not technical people; our team’s background is focused on business and company formation. Therefore, we needed a development studio to build our app and the entire interface from scratch.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Tapptitude started from the point of view that we couldn’t just build anything because we’d be stuck in an endless development phase. Rather, they helped us define our target market and their needs by creating 2–3 user personas. Every decision along the way came to down deciding if a feature or choice would help these distinct user personas enjoy the app more.

After detailing our future users and their needs, Tapptitude helped set the requirements for an MVP. This was a key step, as it will help us test our value proposition when we release the app. The iOS version will be live shortly, and we’ll work on an Android release after that.

In terms of specific deliverables, Tapptitude is building the front- and backends of the app, it’s look and feel, several database integrations, and a music streaming service’s API.

We’d developed a very basic web version of the app many years ago but the idea died when we didn’t get any funding. A new investor rejuvenated the project at the beginning of this year, but when we went through our documentation, we saw that the databased weren’t useful anymore and had to be rebuilt. Tapptitude didn’t have to start from scratch, as the web version still functioned, but it was very outdated.

They’ve also been instrumental in helping us prepare everything needed for app store submission, including optimizations.

What is the team composition?

We’re working with a number of people: a project manager, a product manager, a UI/UX resource, a database resource, and several coders.

There are two main points of contact. Cristina (Product Owner) is our incredibly talented project manager, though she’s far more than that. We also work with Sam (Product Strategist).

How did you come to work with Tapptitude?

They were recommended to me, though I’d known of them and had contact with them for 1–2 years prior. My brother is a brand marketing consultant and had done work with them.

Tapptitude fit our bill; they were the exact kind of company we needed.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over $155,000 through our monthly retainer payments.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since April 2021.

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

The fact that we’re still working together is the best evidence for the quality. We love them.

How did Tapptitude perform from a project management standpoint?

We are incredibly well managed. Communication is excellent, and Cristina is a fantastic producer and project manager; she’s an invaluable resource, as we don’t have the expertise in our team to manage this. It feels as though she’s our internal project manager.

We communicate through Slack, emails, Google hangouts – they prefer Google hangouts. Jira is our project management tool

What did you find most impressive about them?

The clarity of their proposition stands out. Tapptitude’s team has this fantastic ability to force us to think about what we can do today and this month to get the MVP done as quickly as possible.

They’ve understood our needs and helped us shape our product development since day one.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There was a misunderstanding regarding invoicing and how they communicated about that, but everything was quickly rectified after the first or second invoice.

Most of the issues that we encounter with them I quickly learn stem from communication mix-ups on our side.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Their constant ability to give honest feedback has allowed us to achieve our ambition of getting to an MVP as quickly as possible. If we had our way, then we would have been distracted along the path.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and owner of a shopping company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Tapptitude?

We hired Tapptitude to build our mobile app.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They're creating two mobile apps that combine the forces of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the retail space and other industries using React and Flutter. So far, they've built a couple of frameworks for us. 

Essentially, the two apps use the same technology, but they both have different skin and feature sets on them. The consumer app has a profile section, email password verification, reset feature, and view your order feature. Consumers can also access a full chat system where they can reach merchants. On the other hand, users of the merchant app can receive messages from customers, receive push notifications, and initiate conversations regarding consumers’ orders. They can view some details about their consumers, too.

Stakeholders are given the opportunity to view their orders because we’re collecting all the receipts that they have. Since I’m a product manager and a backend developer, I’m in charge of the backend development for both mobile apps, and they’re in charge of frontend development. From time to time, Tapptitude gives us inputs to ensure that we’re developing mobile-friendly platforms. They’re also in charge of designing, testing, and launching the app. Right now, Tapptitude is still completing our MVP.

What is the team composition?

I collaborate with Daniel (Managing Director Netherlands & Product Strategist) who functions as our project manager. I speak to him every day about our project. We also have a project manager who’s based in their headquarters in Romania. On top of that, they have specialists who can tackle specific things in our project.

How did you come to work with Tapptitude?

We had a bit of experience in outsourcing so we already knew a few companies. However, we also knew that there were good vendors popping here and there. As a result, we read a lot of blogs online about potential companies and developers we could work with. In the end, we narrowed down the list to five companies and sent them an initial RFP.

One of the companies told us that they wouldn’t be able to work on a project that was under $50,000, and the other company didn’t really understand the conversation about our project. After that, we ended up having a conversation with Tapptitude. They spoke my language, so we clicked. They also conducted brainstorming sessions for free because they were into our project. Then, when we looked at their portfolio and price, we decided to work with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent €80,000 (approximately $90,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in April 2021, and it’s ongoing.

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

We don’t have metrics yet since we’re not done with the MVP.

How did Tapptitude perform from a project management standpoint?

I appreciate that I have full access to their Slack, and I can speak to everybody I need to reach. If I have to hire another project manager again, I’ll hire Tapptitude’s project manager because he knows exactly how to run a team, how to delegate, and how to make decisions. He’s making decisions not because he knows how I think, but because he knows what’s best for our product.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re always polite, transparent, and hardworking. In many ways, we’re very like-minded. I like that they’re very hospitable and genuine, too. Sometimes, I literally have to tell them to slow down when I get emails on a Sunday evening. At the same time, I can also see their passion and commitment during those times.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t know any areas they could improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Share your ideas with Tapptitude and further develop them with the team. They have excellent ideas and approaches they can share with you so let them help you build your product. More importantly, give your trust to them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of service for a company that sells machine tools. We do financing, servicing, and sales. We have about 180 employees in eight countries, and our head office is in Switzerland.

What challenge were you trying to address with Tapptitude?

We wanted to improve the efficiency of our service organization.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Tapptitude optimized an application we were already running. The intention was to make it more intuitive and usable by our technicians in the field. We also wanted to add some more features. We put more focus on the intuitive usage of the technicians because every second that they save is money.

As part of the process, I presented my ideas and gave them our existing program. I gave them access to our existing solution and told them which parts I want to have revised. Then, they started with wireframes. We decided on a design and made a proposal from there. They're currently working on implementing the new design. 

What is the team composition?

There were 3–4 people. There was a project manager and a programmer who were my main points of contact. At the start, I was in contact with the business manager.

How did you come to work with Tapptitude?

I am sometimes in Romania and I know they have some good programmers there. I did a search online and I think I dug out four to five companies like this and I wrote to them. I decided who to talk to and Tapptitude was one of them.

They gave me a good feeling about their good response and that they had a good understanding of my problems. When I was in Romania, I visited them and decided to work with them from there.

How much have you invested in them?

We’ve spent about €70,000 (approximately $85,000 USD)

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in May 2020, and our work is ongoing.

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

We’ve done some testing with my test group, and the feedback has been very good so far. I have run this department for a long time, so I know what we need. I just need the feedback from my guys that we are on the right track and that is confirmed already.

How did Tapptitude perform from a project management standpoint?

Tapptitude manages the project well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I had gone with a small company previously and they didn’t understand the point of how important it was for us to have a project like this done in a certain amount of time. I had a bad experience with small companies who want to do everything but aren’t able to deliver.

Tapptitude put time into explaining the process to me because it was my first time buying software. I didn’t know about the contracts and how they work. I had so many questions, but they have been patient in explaining them to me.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they’re a perfect match, so I don’t have anything to really say. I’m happy with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Know what you like and be clear with what you need. I think it is a common problem in the software business. I knew exactly what I needed because I have been running the software for such a long time. I knew the weakness of the existing software, and I think that’s why we moved on very quickly.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a laundry and dry-cleaning company.  

What challenge were you trying to address with Tapptitude?

They built out an MVP for our process and logistics optimization platform.

What was the scope of their involvement?

After scoping the product, we collaborated on the UI design and wireframe development. They developed the frontend of our website using LEANSTACK to integrate various APIs. Then they built the backend business logic. Once that project was complete, they built a native Android and iOS app for our customers. Now they provide ongoing maintenance support.

What is the team composition?

We worked with seven people in total, including a product manager, a project manager, a QA tester, Android developer, Kotlin developer, Swift developer, and two backend developers.

How did you come to work with Tapptitude?

One of my contacts worked with Tapptitude on an app and referred them to us. They were what we were looking for and won our tender.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project began in February 2020 and our partnership is ongoing.  

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

Since deploying the platform, we’ve consistently grown by 20% month-over-month. Before that, we were only growing by about 4%. Now we have 5,500 people and 110 businesses in the UK using the platform.

How did Tapptitude perform from a project management standpoint?

The product manager is great. They work in two-week sprints and almost always hit their sprint metrics. We use Slack to communicate and Jira for product management.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very creative. They really interrogated us to understand why we were building the product and what problem we were trying to solve. With a better understanding of what we were looking for, they’ve been able to advise us and provide effective solutions.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It wasn’t very easy to bring the development in-house once the project was completed. When they handed over the project to internal teams, they could have done a better job collaborating with us to streamline that process.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be open to their advice. On top of that, you should communicate with them on Slack. They work well with regular communications rather than weekly meetings.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chief product officer for a mobile app that connects people with personal nutritionists. We’re a small team of two, and I work very closely with Tapptitude running all app development.

What challenge were you trying to address with Tapptitude?

When we went to Tapptitude, we had been testing out our theory on a text-based platform. We were connecting beta users with nutrition coaches, and the main call to action was to share photos of their meals. The users got coaching via messaging to build healthier habits based on what they were already eating.

The challenge of using an SMS solution was that we didn’t have a place to host the images or track the progress and goals that coaches and clients were setting. We needed to start building a roadmap and infrastructure to support these features.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We kicked off by figuring out how to build these mobile applications that would allow coaches and clients to connect and build from there. The initial scope of work was to build MVPs for four mobile applications. We decided to launch on iOS and Android because we had been testing our core pre-launch product for nine months, so we were pretty confident in doing so. 

Tapptitude was tasked with building a provider app and a client app on both iOS and Android, which meant four separate mobile apps. In addition to that, they stood up our web admin, which is where we manage anything administrative between coaches and clients and have dashboards set up. 

We’ve since built an additional web coaching app, which gives our providers the flexibility to work off of desktop or mobile. In terms of the business, we have two main applications, but we run them both on iOS and Android. The client-side app and provider app are separate, but they work together for messaging functionality and related functions.

What is the team composition?

We have a project manager who is our day-to-day contact. He works with the developer and makes sure that our sprints are running smoothly. He acts as the communicator between the internal team and the dev team. 

We also have one iOS developer, and he is the primary person working on the iOS and consumer apps. He manages both of those. We have one Android developer who also works on both the client and the provider apps. Another person manages our database and backend work, and we brought on a full stack developer to help stand up the web coaching app. He does front- and backend work on the web-based app. 

Additionally, we have had one full-time QA person who handles QA for all of our apps. After launch, we brought on a second part-time QA specialist who helps with testing as well.

How did you come to work with Tapptitude?

Tapptitude was recommended to us by someone in our network who had used them. We looked at about 10–15 different agencies, and we had a number of phone conversations with a lot of them. Tapptitude stood out from our first call with them.

We weren’t just looking for an agency that would take our requirements and build the apps; we wanted a partner who would challenge our thinking and team up with us. Since we’re such a small team internally, we wanted any resources we had to feel ownership over what they were building, too. 

I am always looking for someone who is going to challenge our thinking and ask the 'why' behind everything in a really great and constructive way, and that is always what we get from Tapptitude. Their team, compared to other tech shops we spoke to, was the only one that we really felt that from. From day one, they shared their own ideas, and you could tell they were excited about what we were building as well, which was really important to us.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our kick-off was in February 2020, and we are still working with them. We plan on working with them through 2021, for at least the next 6–9 months, because we are very happy with their work and haven’t felt the need to bring it in-house just yet.

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

We did a soft launch in September. In terms of measuring their work and success, we think of it holistically. We do a lot of qualitative user feedback to understand early attraction and retention rates. Moving from text to the app was big for us. We purposely launched with a really limited feature set because we wanted to go to market as quickly as we could. There wasn’t a lot that we hadn’t already proofed out via our text solution that we were initially working with. 

One thing we do with any new feature release is measure adoption within our core user base, and that has all been really great so far. We have seen really strong results. We did a big push about a month ago and saw a 95% adoption rate to the new features we had implemented, which was awesome. We have a really big release for at least two features coming up in January.

We also measure things like bugs that make it to production, and we have worked with Tapptitude to really limit any bugs that come up in a new release. Together, we are implementing a new regression testing strategy for 2021. We’re always collaborating on DevOps to make sure our sprints are running smoothly and our releases go as planned. Like anything in this role, our work is always iterative. 

How did Tapptitude perform from a project management standpoint?

I would say the project manager who is staffed on our project is an invaluable asset, even to our internal team. The project manager is really on top of it and communicative. There are many weekends that they have worked for us because they want to meet deadlines that we have agreed to together. There have also been very late nights where they have checked in at 2 a.m. their time because they want to make sure an Apple review is submitted, for example. They are great with project management and communication. The project manager really feels like an extension of our internal team, despite the environment that we’re working in and the fact that Tapptitude is an offshore team. That has been great.

Three times a week, we do morning syncs with our project manager to go over the sprints. We always value over-communication so that if there are any roadblocks, we can make sure we jump in to get ahead of them. 

As with any development project, unforeseen things do come up, whether it is something related to a new API we’re working on or a new Apple change. However, the way Tapptitude handles those types of situations has been pretty impressive. We don’t expect every feature release to happen on the date that we intend it to. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Everyone on their team shows that they feel ownership over what they are building. When you care and understand the features you’re building, you are always going to produce better work, and their team has. 

I think it’s unique to work with an agency that feels like they are a part of your team. I always refer to them as our tech team and developers, versus saying they are an agency that handles those things for us. The ownership they take is their main value add and the reason I’d recommend them to another business. This is especially true for startups; when you’re a small team, anyone you bring on at an early stage that is going to take ownership is really valuable.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’re working toward implementing traditional scrum processes in 2021, which will allow us to discuss what went well, what didn’t go well, and what we can do better as a team next time. This isn’t because we don’t trust Tapptitude to handle everything; rather, we want to further integrate our team into theirs.

We believe more traditional scrum practices will enable us to build a stronger tech team in DevOps. Typically, I think they keep this process separate from clients who do not want to get super involved. However, since we’re long-term partners now, we have expressed interest in getting more involved and attaining more visibility.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Bring Tapptitude on when you are still in ideation mode and testing stages for whatever your concept is. They are the type of partners who have ideas and want to workshop. They were really excited for us to bring them into our roadmap planning. Don’t wait until you have your final tickets and features that you want them to work on — bring them on earlier and get them involved, because they have a lot of great experience. They will be able to help you make those features even better and stronger.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior product manager at a marketing platform for retailers.

What challenge were you trying to address with Tapptitude?

We were looking to build capabilities to send mobile push notifications. This required a software development kit (SDK) for iOS and Android. We didn’t have the skills in-house and didn’t plan to hire for them, so we brought Tapptitude on.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Tapptitude built the SDKs for iOS and Android. We hired them for an initial 2-month period, and then a 3-month support period. They integrated our platform with our customers’ apps.

What is the team composition?

I interacted with four teammates, including a salesperson and a project manager.

How did you come to work with Tapptitude?

A colleague had done a review of app developers, and Tapptitude was part of it.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $50,000–$60,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in July 2020, and the app was released in September 2020.

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

It was good to work with Tapptitude. 

How did Tapptitude perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed very well. The initial salesperson was involved throughout, and the project manager was also available throughout. We communicated via Jira, Slack, and a weekly video call. We did quite a few collaborative sessions, which went well. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Tapptitude’s price and experience distinguish them from other companies.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trust them because they have the experience and know-how to build SDKs. They’re happy to work with vague or detailed requirements. Additionally, spend time with them. Our joint stand-ups highlighted things to unblock and decisions to make, which was helpful.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a startup in-venue app solution provider. We enable customers to order from bars or collection points. I’m the founder and managing director of the company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Tapptitude?

We needed someone to build us the application. Its goal was to reduce or eliminate queuing at venues, particularly live-music ones like concerts and arenas.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Tapptitude created a detailed map of the functionalities of the app and other business opportunities within it — different side-streams it could go down. There was heavy planning in terms of the potential for the application, covering wireframing and design before starting development.

I gave them a lot of information prior to the work, and I actually made my own designs and mockups to show how I thought it should function. We had a couple of sessions with Marco (UK Managing Director & Product Strategist) and fleshed out a proper mural of what exactly the app would do and what its technical requirements would be.

They developed the app for iOS and Android, building out its own API and integrating it with APIs from third-parties.

What is the team composition?

Tapptitude assigned a team of around seven people, including developers with different skillsets and a team leader.

How did you come to work with Tapptitude?

I found them on Clutch. I contacted around 25 developers on the site, and I got responses back from maybe 10. I had several video calls and whittled the list to two, and I finally chose Tapptitude.

How much have you invested with them?

We’re up to about £120,000 (approximately $158,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Tapptitude around October 2019, and the app went live on the in July 2020.

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

The feedback has been positive. The app is clean-looking, easy to use, and intuitive. It can be used by anyone, and it works exactly as we expected it to. We barely have any support requests from customers, even though we’re coming up to around 28,000 transactions from 10,000 customers that have used it so far.

I’ve probably dealt with 3–4 support cases so far. We’re continuing to make improvements and refinements based on feedback from the venues that are using it.

We’ve made multiple changes since launching, and Tapptitude has responded quickly to those. Even the improvement requests are coming down now. The app is an accepted part of the furniture. It just runs.

How did Tapptitude perform from a project management standpoint?

The structure they set up worked quite well. It was kind of messy around the launch, but that was mostly my doing. The iOS version was supposed to be ready by July 2020, and we weren’t even going to build the Android one until November 2020.

However, COVID-19 happened and we determined that venues would be needing contactless payment solutions when they reopened. We accelerated everything for the 4th of July deadline, which was the UK's reopening of pubs and restaurants.

We crammed in everything we could in order to go live on that day. Tapptitude used Jira to track the work, and I was in touch with the product lead on Slack on a daily basis. 

We had weekly catchups through video calls, to discuss any changes and improvements. Different team members got to present during those meetings, sharing what they’d done that week and what would be done the next week. 

We shared wireframes through InVision, to make sure things would look and function correctly. They also used MURAL to map out the project. There were no language issues, and they also had a point of contact in the UK to physically meet with us.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Tapptitude is a very good development agency. I’ve been delighted with the results and their adherence to our timeframe and budget. Looking at competitor products on the market, we’ve managed to produce something better in a shorter period of time.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re a bit overoptimistic about timeframes at times. However, when I remove the cap on the timeframes, the team can build things out in record times, so I can’t really complain about that. There’s no real criticism I could make about Tapptitude.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Clients should know their product inside-out and not assume that the person they’re talking to has the same understanding. Everything should be spelled out down to the letter so that there’s no room for misinterpretation.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of a new company that makes an app for artists and designers and helps them receive simple, constructive feedback.

What challenge were you trying to address with Tapptitude?

We hired them to develop the app.

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, we met with Marco (UK Managing Director & Product Strategist) before signing the contract. We then did a one-day workshop where Tapptitude brainstormed from the starting idea to come up with a clear idea of who we wanted our users to be, what our general market focus was, and what features we wanted.  

We worked on the design aspect for about 2–3 months, including UI. Tapptitude then developed the whole iOS app, and we’ve launched a beta version to a select few users. The team is going to go back into development using that feedback. They also set up all of our accounts and data servers. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with 3–4 teammates constantly.

How did you come to work with Tapptitude?

We reached out to a bunch of different organizations, and we preferred Tapptitude because they were very communicative and talked us through the steps of making our idea feasible. They were also the friendliest, so it felt like they were the right fit for us. 

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent £38,000 (approximately $49,800 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in September 2019, and we launched the beta version in July 2020. Now that we have the feedback, we’re hoping to launch at the beginning of September 2020.

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

What people found most successful about the app was the flow and the UX because it’s a tactile product that’s easy to use and delivers the results that people are looking for. Now, we’re working on developing personalized profiles or the ability to have more options of media so that different artists can participate.

How did Tapptitude perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management is great. They’re always on-call so we message them directly. If not we can email or Slack them. Marco was always willing to talk to us when we set up a new account, and he would set up a call to go over the functionality and what we needed to know about it.

If we haven’t talked to Tapptitude in over two weeks, they contact us to see how the beta test is going. We’ve also had weekly calls with them throughout the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What drove us to them was that they were friendly in their approach. It was nice to meet with Marco in a non-office setting, and we just bounced ideas off of each other. Initially, they were the company that felt the least intimidating. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

We experience language barriers because they’re based in Romania. So, it could be helpful if they expanded to London to overcome that challenge. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Work on things on your own and come up with ideas. If you show ideas instead of just describing them, it’ll be much more effective in helping them understand the direction you want.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and owner of Valileo, a small startup producing a video communication device for the elderly. We went to market in October 2019 on grandparents’ day, and we’ve been adding functionalities since then.

What challenge were you trying to address with Tapptitude?

I was looking for a partner that could help me launch the project, one that would act not just as a developer but that could also take care of the project from beginning to end.

What was the scope of their involvement?

I didn’t know anything before contacting Tapptitude, and I didn’t have any software in place. They really brought my idea to life. They provided project management and implementation services, but it went much further than this. 

The team developed the main app for Android, plus two client apps for iOS and Android. They designed the complete backend architecture, which I didn’t have a clue about. 

I gave them clear ideas of what I wanted to achieve with the software, but I didn’t have the knowledge, so I couldn’t drive them on the architecture. They used multiple programming languages.

What is the team composition?

Laurențiu (Head of Android) was one of my main contacts. The number of people assigned varied over time, with 6–10 people at the peak.

How did you come to work with Tapptitude?

I contacted 2–3 organizations that I had found on Clutch, one of which was Tapptitude. They were the most professional by far, so I chose them.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost of the main development was €100,000 (approximately $114,000 USD). We’re planning to invest another €20,000–€30,000 (approximately $23,000–$34,000 USD), so the overall cost will be €130,000 (approximately $148,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started with a small collaboration in the second half 2017, basically testing each other. We expanded the scope a bit in 2018, and we went for the big development in 2019. We’re in maintenance mode now, adding new functionalities and fixing bugs.

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

My main goal was to produce a robust software that didn’t have a lot of bugs and worked well in many different situations. Another consideration was the provider’s level of ownership, and Tapptitude cares about the project. 

If I made another 10 apps, I’d go to Tapptitude for all of them. The team has anticipated every issue and stood behind me all the time. As a startup owner, the fact that I can count on Tapptitude is a game-changer for me. 

They find solutions, fix issues, and strive to make improvements, and they’re always dependable. They never refuse a request or say they’re too busy, and they do it in the end. That’s really amazing.

How did Tapptitude perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve changed tools over time, depending on the situation, and the one we use most is Trello, partly because I was already familiar with it. I know what’s going on with sprints and due dates. Time estimations could be improved, but Tapptitude will work at all hours of day and night and on weekends to catch up. 

At the end of the day, I don’t feel it as a big issue. Laurențiu in particular wants to achieve perfection with the software, and that takes extra time. I talk frequently with him over WhatsApp and phone calls, and the whole team is always open to connecting with me.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s the fact that I can really count on them. They’re really accountable for what they do, and they never let me down. There will always be mistakes, but they always take responsibility and fix every issue. 

That is the most impressive aspect of working with them. Tapptitude also has iOS, Android, backend architecture, UI/UX, and lots of other high-level skills. On top of that, they’re very warm in how they treat me and take care of my problems.

Additionally, they did research and expanded their knowledge in areas that were new to them. They never give up, and they always provide me with the right development to address different situations.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Respecting due dates would be one area of improvement, but this is really a minor point. Another would be letting me know how many people are working on a project, but that problem was already solved. 

In the beginning, I wasn’t able to understand how many people were working on the project, and that was the moment when we implemented Trello. We did it specifically to solve issues like this one. I know exactly who’s working on what now.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

I advise involving Tapptitude completely in the project, and not just telling them to develop this or that functionality from here to there. They get passionate about what they do, and the more project parts are transferred to them, the more they’ll get involved and become passionate about it. 

That’s what I found with my project. They don’t just develop software; they will advise the client and become part of the project. That becomes a motivating factor for both parties, and it’s the way to get the most out of them.