Topflight Apps

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an executive of a financial services company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Topflight Apps?

We needed help with app development for our business since we’re not tech-savvy.

What was the scope of their involvement?

TopFlight Apps is developing an app for us. It’s a mobile platform that is aimed to function as a savings account replacement where users can withdraw and deposit money. In terms of technology, the app is being created on React Native, and it’s available in Android and iOS.

What is the team composition?

We work directly with 4–5 members of their team, including Joe (Owner), a product manager, and a project manager.

How did you come to work with Topflight Apps?

We met them through Upwork. I reached out to them and decided to give them our project because they seemed like a good fit.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $50,000–$100,000 with them so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2020, and the engagement is ongoing.

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

They have an organized and communicative team, which they deploy according to the project’s needs. They’re also great at listening to our comments and concerns. Overall, my account manager, product manager, and Joe are great — it’s a pleasure to do business with them.

How did Topflight Apps perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re excellent; we use email, phone calls, and constant meetings in terms of communication. 

What did you find most impressive about them? 

TopFlight Apps has a great, personable, and communicative team to work with, which is outstanding.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think there’s anything they can improve on. 

Any advice for potential customers?

Approach them, and they’ll help you nurture your idea. Their team is free-flowing and open to new ideas.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder of a startup building a mindfulness app.

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

We bootstrapped our mobile app development as far as we could internally, then decided to reach out to Topflight Apps to build a minimum viable product. Our goal was to test the technical feasibility of our spin on the mindfulness app genre and get beta tester feedback to learn from.

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

I spent a lot of time searching for the right mobile developer on Upwork, but seemingly the previously built apps of even the more expensive freelance developers were clunky at best and none that I found were aesthetically pleasing. Topflight Apps was on Upwork and had a video that I empathized with, being a non-technical founder and not knowing how to hire/manage a developer.

I checked out their website and they had the most transparency out of any mobile development firm that I'd come across. They even offered an in-depth, free-to-use budget calculator that asked granular questions and sent a detailed project budget estimation breakdown. I had a feeling that type of transparency was reflective of their skill and work ethic.

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

We did a Product Discovery phase that resulted in a report detailing every aspect of the app both for the minimum viable product (MVP) and go-to-market product. The second phase was the MVP development, which produced an actionable iOS app with both frontend and backend. It functioned and looked better than I could have imagined :)

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

Their entire team from product managers, designers, marketing, developers etc. participated in helping me achieve my goals. I felt really lucky to have been able to meet and work with each one of them. They went above and beyond my expectations and even over-delivered on aspects of the app that I hadn't even thought of because they thought it would be helpful, which proved to be true.

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

Topflight Apps built an app even better than what I had thought possible, but unfortunately, because the core of the app's functionality involved unavoidable technological challenges to the user flow experience, after the MVP was built and receiving beta tester feedback, I decided to stop development. This was in no way Topflight's fault, we tested the hypothesis of this app idea, and due to copyright issues that we could not create a workaround for we had to stop.

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

Their communication was on point during the entire collaborative process. They took a bit longer than anticipated to get up and running between first contact and project initiation but once a project was initiated, that was never an issue.

They have a model for improving timeliness by entering into a retainer agreement where there is a team dedicated to your project as needed. I never got to that point but if my app was viable, I would have definitely used that model to continue development.

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

Their transparency, organization, work ethic, and constant support towards my success were really special.  I feel incredibly lucky to have worked with them and if ever I were to build another mobile app, they would be the first team I would go to.

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

It took a bit longer than expected from first contact to project initiation but once things were up and running timeliness was never an issue.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of research programs for a not-for-profit organization. We conduct research and advocate for a disease called myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome. We basically try to advance research and the understanding of the disease, get better treatments to be developed, and advocate for more funding to build awareness.

One of my primary focuses is to develop a registry and biobank that can be used to create a large global data set for research into the disease.

What challenge were you trying to address with Topflight Apps?

A characteristic of this illness is that it often changes and fluctuates over time, so there’s potentially a real benefit to collecting data longitudinally and at several time points. This is so we can better understand the fluctuations and symptoms of what they might be related to.

Therefore, in building the registry, we wanted to create a mobile app that would allow participants to track their symptoms and other health factors over time.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, we only wanted to work with them on this tracking app, but we ended up engaging with them for the entire project. They built an entire data collection and management infrastructure, that includes a web-based portal for contributing survey-based information, a mobile app, and an admin portal that allows us to study, organize, track, view, and use data.

The scope was expanded, and they ended up doing quite a lot of work that essentially helps us set up an entire system to create a large data set. In addition to that, they’ve repurposed our existing libraries, and use AWS and Cognito, and coded the entire platform from scratch.

One of the main features of the mobile app is the ability to track a range of symptoms from a predefined list, as well as add custom symptoms to it. It also has a journaling functionality and data graphing, so users can take a look at how their symptoms fluctuate over time. Moreover, another aspect is to build a messaging center that allows us to communicate with participants. Through this, we can send them reminders and engage with them over the long term.

What is the team composition?

We have a project lead, one main developer, and a designer who would help design out the screens. Topflight is able to do quite a lot with such a small team.

How did you come to work with Topflight Apps?

We got connected to Topflight through a member of the ME/CFS community, and we really liked the products that they’d done before. After speaking with Topflight, we found that they were really receptive to the vision, and were interested in the mission-driven aspect of the work — they also seemed really committed to helping us realize it.

Additionally, they conducted themselves well. They were very communicative and open to ideas, as well as expanding the scope, which was really helpful for a project that we were just starting to define.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested just under 1 million USD.

What is the status of this engagement?

The partnership started in March 2019, and it’s still ongoing.

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

To date, we’ve enrolled over 2,600 individuals with ME/CFS to the registry, as well as about 400 control volunteers — so that’s about 3000 folks.

In addition, we also opened up another user group in the registry for those who’ve had COVID-19, where we’ve enrolled almost 700 individuals. We’ve also launched with a partner in Australia, and that branch of the registry has enrolled over 600 individuals.

We’re also maintaining a net promoter score for the registry that qualifies as very good, and have been soliciting community feedback during this time. The mobile app has a satisfaction rating of around 7/10 from community members, and it has been downloaded almost 1,300 times — collectively, those users have tracked over 38,000 days, which is so much data — we’re now just starting to pivot towards partnering with researchers to analyze all that data.

Topflight has allowed us to engage a really large number of community members in the research project, and having them contribute their data to map out the large data set.

Our overall satisfaction is really high for such a complex project.

How did Topflight Apps perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re really good partners in navigating an ever-increasing mandate to get this large project off the ground. They also help us prioritize tasks when we have a number of things that we have to do, and they’ve just been open and committed in that regard.

We typically communicate through email, and sometimes touch base over the phone for more in-depth check-ins.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I haven’t really worked with other development teams, but I just think they bring a lot of commitment to the project. I was very impressed with their ability to integrate a design team member who can help us create a dark mode for the app, and help us realize that need for the community members who are sensitive to light.

Any time we have a certain requirement, they really try to understand our needs and deliver, so they really share the dedication and passion for the project with us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes, I think it would’ve been helpful to have a bit more strategic prioritization in certain areas.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

As with any development, my advice is to come up with a really good sense of what your requirements are, and be more specific about what you’re trying to accomplish. Topflight Apps is also a good sounding board, and viewing them as collaborators is something I’d recommend.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Tula Health is a healthcare service provider working with patients who have chronic illnesses. We work with insurance providers by improving the health outcomes of their patients. I run the software engineering and data science organization. I make sure we have the entire ecosystem for collecting all of the data from the devices we send out, and all of the interfaces that the patient has with our service through our software patches.

What challenge were you trying to address with Topflight Apps?

We’re a startup company that started about two years ago. Last year, we were just barely forming our engineering organization, and we had a lot of pressure to present demos to investors — to show that we would be able to solve our proposed value proposition. Given the size of our team, tackling some of the products that were requested for the demo was just a little challenging, so that’s where we looked to Topflight. 

Basically, they could augment the capacity of our team without taking on a significant financial commitment as hiring an employee.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We relied on Topflight to put together a product with minimal direction. For the initial weekly meetings, I would say what we wanted to do and they would make the judgment calls, fill in the gaps, and then come back with a proposed solution. As we matured, we turned their staff into an extension of our team, so we gave them more specific requirements and plugged them into our issue tracking system — which was JIRA.

The website they developed was a portal where patients can see all their data. We send them devices that are connected over cellular to gather data back, which is then transferred into different dashboards to help interpret and learn from it. Other features are profile management, graph parameter customization, and third-party content development integration.

In addition, they developed a mobile app with basically the same features and it’s compatible with both iOS and Android. Topflight actually finished multiple projects with us over time, and the tech they worked with were React.JS, React Native, Node.js, and AWS.

What is the team composition?

We primarily had contact with one software engineer, and we also worked with a product manager as well as four other engineers over the course of the project.

How did you come to work with Topflight Apps?

I believe my co-worker found them through Google research, and what really attracted us to Topflight was the fact that they had a really good proven track record with other products on their website. They had done work in the healthcare space so that gave us confidence that they would know how to deal with the compliances.

How much have you invested with them?

We probably spent somewhere between $100,000–$150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from May 2020–May 2021.

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

The main engineer we worked with consistently completed the tasks assigned to him each week. In terms of the product we put out, we had about 600 users come on to the website, but we haven’t had much exposure on the mobile app as it’s still in the prelaunch phase. However, we’re gearing up to share the members portal with the website to two contracts of approximately 50,000 people. 

How did Topflight Apps perform from a project management standpoint?

Topflight has always been responsive in this part because some of the developers were absolutely fantastic and reliable. We had direct access to the CEO and he was happy to help us tackle issues that came up. In addition, the partnership was flexible, as we were able to transition from a disorganized state, into a more structured and traditional software development framework.

We had Zoom calls every week during sprint planning sessions, and we had constant communication through Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were impressed with their ability to find talent. The main engineer that we worked with was extremely broad in his skill set and he was very easy to work with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Communicating with some of their offshore developers was a bit of a challenge, so that’s one thing they should be aware of as a possible area they could improve on. When they were no longer meeting our needs, we reached out to the main engineer and asked him to find somebody else — they then went out and got someone right away who was a fantastic hire.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you want to get the most of out your relationship with Topflight, I would suggest that you have a clearly defined product requirement list and mockups. If those are ready to be handed off to them, they’ll know how to move it really fast.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chief technical officer at a company that designs and sells machines for brewing beer at home.

What challenge were you trying to address with Topflight Apps?

We needed someone to develop a multi-platform app for running our device, because we only had a prototype that was being used with Android-based applications.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Topflight edited our initial app that was written in React Native. Before we started working with Topflight, we were developing a prototype version of the app in Android Studio using JavaScript. We had a previous developer create the initial prototype, which was already able to do some of the basic functionalities that we wanted.

It interacted with a custom backend that we had for our machines, that was both receiving and sending information. Another functionality was interacting with Stripe, for doing a custom store that was built in our app.

After Topflight finished their work, we had a more functional app that was able to do most of the functions that we wanted. They made sure that the app was able to interact with the firmware on our devices, and multiple backends of the API.

What is the team composition?

I was directly working with two people, Jacob (Senior Developer) and Francesco (CTO & Project Manager). Also, I believe there was a third person on their team doing some of the QA before they would pass it along to us.

How did you come to work with Topflight Apps?

It’s been a while, but I think we found Topflight while we were searching around either on Craigslist or some other job site. We started working with them when our previous developer moved on to another project.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested roughly between $10,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from September 2019–January 2021.

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

We didn’t have any metrics, but we basically got updated APKs to test internally. We based it on how it performed on both their QA and my internal testing.

How did Topflight Apps perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed well in terms of project management. They were a little slower than we would have liked in some situations, but we did only give them 20 hours a week. They were unable to do so much per week, because sometimes we would run out of hours in that week, and they’d have to wait for the next week to finish some parts of the project.

We mostly communicated through Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The thing I found most impressive was they were very reactive and responsive to questions and comments, or when various things came up.    

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything where they can improve based on their company structure.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would tell them that they should realize that they’re hiring a design firm, rather than an individual developer. Therefore, they should take into consideration that they’re going to have one or more programmers with a project manager, and people who will be doing QA behind the scenes. They should then account for all the hours they're going to be spending with them, and make sure they realize that they will not just be paying for a developer.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the business manager at a cosmetic medspa. We have two locations, one in Los Angeles and another in New York.

What challenge were you trying to address with Topflight Apps?

We were looking to build an app that was both client-facing and admin-facing.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Topflight Apps developed a native iOS mobile app from scratch. On the client-side, customers had access to our services, their patient profile, and treatment plans. On the back-end, we can manage our services, quote clients, ad handle check-out internally. Their team helped strategize how to implement the features we wanted.

What is the team composition?

We mainly interacted with Nelio (Senior Developer & Project Management) who was our point of contact for development and the CEO was involved in project oversight.

How did you come to work with Topflight Apps?

We recieved a referral through another technology consultant we work with.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested about $80,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing project began in February 2013. We just wrapped the first main set of features, so we put the project on hold. Although, we plan on picking back up.

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

So far, all of the features we asked for have been built out. They met every milestone. Topflight Apps is very helpful. Their strategy helped us figured exactly what we wanted and how to accomplish it.

How did Topflight Apps perform from a project management standpoint?

Our tech lead was involved in the day to day project management. We keep track of everything in a Google Sheet and communicate via phone.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Topflight Apps is accomodating and flexible. When we changed the direction of the project, they were able to roll with it. They came up with additional functions we weren’t even thinking about. Their team understood how to make our app user-friendly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

At one point, they seemed a little bit busy, but I think they had a lot of projects. Putting ourselves on retainer solved the issue.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Topflight Apps is good at helping you figure out what you need to do, but it’s helpful to come prepared with your overall goals figured out so they can help you get there.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a company that creates a virtual drug and alcohol recovery coach.

What challenge were you trying to address with Topflight Apps?

When we came to them, we had been using a different developer for our app, which is a chatbot for drug and alcohol recovery. That developer hadn’t been able to execute our vision, so we came to Topflight Apps with a problem app that we needed to be fixed and launched. 

We wanted to make sure that we were working with a company that could both solve a problem and also create the vision we were going for.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Topflight Apps created a CMS that used a complex decision tree. We have a very graphic look to everything, so they executed graphically how the chatbot would interact with customers and sorted the content through the CMS and decision tree. 

They also inserted data analytics into the app so that we could get feedback on what the subscribers were doing. We had our own design coming into it, and it’s an iOS and Android app.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with a full-stack developer, a QA specialist, and a project manager. The team would also occasionally bring in someone to help with payment systems. 

How did you come to work with Topflight Apps?

I did a Google search for app companies that specialize in the medical industry since we have security concerns related to that. We also wanted companies that had well-designed websites themselves and that were US-based. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $180,000 so far. It took about $100,000 to get our initial app launched, and we’re about $80,000 into the next build. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in February 2020, and our engagement is ongoing. Our iOS app was launched in June and the Android app, in July. They’re continuing to work with us on building out new phases of the app. 

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

Our biggest goal was getting a working app launched, which they did. They also launched data analytics. Everything works well, and even though we’ve had some minor bug issues, Topflight Apps went in and fixed those. They’ve been good about staying on top of everything and getting us a working project.  

How did Topflight Apps perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management is excellent. We communicate on Slack and ClickUp. I’ve been impressed because any time they've had the opportunity to pass blame, they haven’t.

They’ve taken responsibility for anything that might have been on their end, and they’ve been incredibly professional. They’re great at admitting when they’re wrong and at fixing issues.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Everyone on their team is high-quality. Topflight Apps must have a good hiring process because they have a standard of quality that’s upheld by every person on their team, which is impressive. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I’ve been happy with them. They communicate well and have good expertise. There’s nothing that I’d like them to change. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Strongly communicate what you want and need because that’s the best way to get what you want. At the same time, allow Topflight Apps to have some creative input because they are creative.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I own an online company that helps our clients build sustainable, healthy habits over the course of a 10-week challenge.

What challenge were you trying to address with Topflight Apps?

We worked with a web development company to build our first website, which was abysmal. The provider didn’t charge that much but promised a lot. We learned from our mistake and decided to pay more to get a top-notch product from a top-notch team.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Topflight Apps developed the second rendition of our website. Their team built us a new site from scratch—from the landing page to the backend of the UX. We used content from the previous site, but other than that, we started the project from the beginning with Topflight App. We had an idea of what we wanted to achieve with our website. They listened and collaborated, suggesting ideas to enhance our original idea. 

What is the team composition?

Depending on the stage of development, we worked with different people. We collaborated with a designer who put together a nonfunctioning website for us to visualize the end product. Then, he passed the project on to two web developers. We also always had a project manager who oversaw the developers. 

How did you come to work with Topflight Apps?

We found Topflight Apps on Clutch. We put in keywords but didn’t know anything about web development or the expertise that the job required. I put keywords into Google and found a Clutch page that listed the top 50 web developers. I compared the prices of a few different agencies and went with an agency that promised a lot but charged little initially. Topflight Apps kept in touch and asked about our specific programs. That showed that their team cared about our product, so I connected with them. 

How much have you invested with them?

With Topflight Apps, we spent $50,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started our communications in October 2019 and their team completed the project in January 2020. We’re going to continue developing our website with Topflight Apps.

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

We had more people sign-up for our current challenge than the total number of people who signed-up all of last year’s challenges combined. That’s a combination of efforts including Topflight Apps'. All of last year, our clients hated the website. The first website never functioned as expected, so we talked with our developers constantly. With the website that Topflight Apps built, we only hear rave reviews. We haven’t had any complaints about functionality, so they did an amazing job.

How did Topflight Apps perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated via email but also had a weekly video conference. They dedicated a project manager who was with me the whole time. There was another person who oversaw him, so if there were any issues, management stepped in and handled everything quickly. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Topflight Apps provides quality work and communicates exceptionally well. Those are their top two qualities, which I care about most. They’re also innovative. Their team wanted to brainstorm in order to build a product that brought their knowledge and our vision together.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The onboarding process could’ve been better because I wanted to know more about what to expect. I was stuck in limbo waiting for them to talk to me about our next steps. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would over-communicate your ideas and goals. At the end of the day, if they don’t know what you want, it’s hard to make that happen. If they know your vision, they can bring it to life.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the president and founder of appyperks, an app-based rewards program for business. The free app allows users to spin a prize wheel from multiple businesses and win whatever perk the business has agreed to, whether that’s 10% off or a free coffee. Businesses can sign up for free for 30 days and after that only have to pay when a user visits their profile and spends their perks.

What challenge were you trying to address with Topflight Apps?

We needed a development partner for our app and website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Topflight Apps developed both native iOS and Android versions of the app. Their team built the apps from scratch, writing their own code. The app allows businesses to sign in and create an admin profile so they can create campaigns for users to see.

They are also developing our website in React. While the designs have been completed, the content has not been uploaded yet. Their team is currently finishing up QA on the app. 

What is the team composition?

I know there were quite a few people working behind the scenes but I was in constant communication with three people, Joe (Founder, Topflight Apps), Joshua (UI/UX Designer, Topflight Apps), and Francesco (iOS and React Developer, Topflight Apps). 

How did you come to work with Topflight Apps?

I researched app development companies online, exclusively using Clutch because I wanted to make sure I had a good fit for my budget and project. After reading their reviews, I decided to work with Topflight Apps. 

How much have you invested with them?

We have invested about $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement with Topflight Apps began in December 2018.

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

I consistently check the app in real-time, going in from the business admin side to create a company and running a campaign to see if it’s functioning properly. Everything has been working and passing all of my tests.

How did Topflight Apps perform from a project management standpoint?

Everyone at Topflight Apps is excellent. My main point of contact, Francesco, always kept me in the loop about scope creep. He paid attention to everything. We primarily communicated over email, and I would always get a response back within about 20 minutes.

Joe treated us as if we were his only project, which we appreciated. I was also able to meet with Joshua in person since he is local to me. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Topflight Apps went above and beyond to deliver a fantastic product. I wouldn’t even call it an MVP because I didn’t want to bring something to businesses that was only half working. They kept me on track, letting me know when features weren’t needed and when I needed to expand my original vision. We’re going to have a second development phase and we plan on working with Topflight Apps for that too.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we had a great experience. They weren’t the biggest development company, but those companies would have cost much more and it wouldn’t have resulted in a better project.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a good idea of what you really want to do ahead of time. I came to them with a 25 slide deck, so we had a good head start. Know what you want instead of depending on them to figure it out for you.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Tygon, a company that designs a consumer electronic health product that has both hardware and software.

What challenge were you trying to address with Topflight Apps?

We needed a partner to develop our app.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Topflight Apps built a cross-platform app, with the primary focus being on an iOS platform. We have plans to transfer it to an Android platform soon. We provided them with the app’s overall functionality and a basic color scheme. From there, Topflight Apps did both design and dev, including UX. The app has Bluetooth capability to allow it to control the hardware device and monitor its temperature, wireless charging, and other functions. It’s currently being field tested.

How did you come to work with Topflight Apps?

We found them through an online search. They were highly reviewed, so we hired them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The partnership lasted from May 2018–February 2019.

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

We haven’t run any official tests yet, but I’ve done my own testing, and the app works well.

How did Topflight Apps perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team was organized and communicative, keeping us updated on project progress.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re honest and stand by their word. They communicated extremely well and were able to execute my vision perfectly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The engagement could’ve been a bit shorter, but it wasn’t anything too terrible.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Give them as much information as possible at the beginning of the engagement to make it a smooth partnership.