Cultivate Brands

I’m a former senior manager of the training department for a utility services company.

We needed to develop an application that could be used in the field to manage our on-the-job training program, so we hired Cultivate to help us.

Cultivate helped us develop a mobile and web app from scratch. Initially, we explained our needs, and they proposed different concepts and solutions. After evaluating their thoughts and ideas, the project’s scope changed slightly because they identified some other things that solved problems we didn’t initially see.

We worked with two teammates from Cultivate: Mark (Co-Founder & President) and Jenny (Product Manager & Art Director). Jenny was in charge of the design and execution, whereas Mark managed the project and drove the whole concept and wireframing portion.

Cultivate did some work for a large concrete company in Chicago, and I heard about the great results of that project through some professional relationships. Thus, I got in touch with Cultivate and told them about the project. Fortunately, it was right in their wheelhouse.

We started working together around February 2020, and Cultivate delivered the app around February 2021. However, I know that they’re still developing other parts of the app. Additionally, once other departments saw what Cultivate did for ours, they started reaching out to them for technology support. Cultivate is now doing some graphic design and app development work for other areas of the organization.

Cultivate built a comprehensive solution that addressed all of our needs instead of just the most apparent ones. Through their independent analysis of our requirements, they identified areas that were essential for the project's success. In addition to that, the app’s UI/UX design was incredibly intuitive and represented our brand very well.

Cultivate delivered on time and within budget. As previously mentioned, we had a lot of challenges along the way. When the scope had changed significantly enough to impact the budget, we stopped everything and discussed and adjusted our contract.

Cultivate really took the time to understand our needs and the needs of the app users, delivering technology that worked in different ways according to those needs. Moreover, the fact that they were able to do some of the things they did was impressive. If we had gone to a larger software development company, they probably wouldn’t have been able to adapt to some of our requirements, especially those around our program needs and our security protocol.

I can only recommend to Cultivate that they stay agile and keep doing what they do.

Be willing to meet their bar. Cultivate is a high-performing group, so they’ll move fast, and you need to be able to keep up. Still, they do a great job of coaching and keeping you engaged to ensure you meet your deadlines.

I’m the director of corporate marketing and communications at Superior Construction, a heavy civil contractor.

We originally hired Cultivate to help us out with our video and photography needs for a couple of our projects, but our scope of work grew after working with them. Now, they do a lot of different things for us.

Cultivate helps us with pretty much everything related to our branding. Among other things, they’re in charge of about 90% of our video production and photography projects, which is why we hired them in the first place. Most of their video production work involves editing footage that they take. However, some animation work is also involved.

We work with Mark (Co-Founder & President), Kimberly (Brand Strategist & Creative Director), Hope (Project Manager & Copyeditor), Wally (Design Director), and Rick (Creative Producer).

Cultivate came recommended. A lot of our team in the Midwest was familiar with them, and they also had a good relationship with one of our subcontractors. As we already knew who they were, we decided to reach out to them. After working with them once, I fell in love with them — they’re amazing rockstars!

We’ve spent around $200,000–$250,000.

We started working together in June 2020, and our engagement is ongoing. I don’t foresee an end to our relationship in the future; we still have a lot of work to do. Just the other day, during our monthly call, I realized how much work they're currently doing for us. I knew that I had them working on many things, but I didn’t realize how many they were until I saw the list.

Everything that Cultivate has done for us has gotten excellent compliments from other employees and clients. I wouldn’t be able to do my job without them.

Cultivate is really good at project management, especially since they’re growing. They recently hired Hope, and from the project management perspective alone, she’s very good at tracking everything.

I find two aspects of working with Cultivate to be impressive. Firstly, the quality of their work is awesome. They’re familiar with the construction industry, which helps them deliver quality work.

Honestly, no. I have nothing but positive things to say about them — they’re fantastic!

Trust their process because it works. A lot of people tend to want to get right into the design and creative work from the get-go, but that’s not how Cultivate operates. First, they need to understand the project before they start working on it.

I’m the president and founder of Trinidad Construction, a general contracting company founded in 2010 that does commercial and industrial work for corporate clients throughout the Midwest.

Our company was asked to be the headliner of a global virtual event, and we needed a professional video to tell our story. Simultaneously, we wanted to make a corporate overview video that we could send to prospective clients and people that wanted to have an understanding of our business.

Cultivate was involved in the entire production process. Initially, we had a discussion about the key aspects that we wanted to include in the video. Then, we talked about the ways we could achieve our goals. Our teams then developed a strategy for the interviews we wanted to conduct.

We worked with three people from Cultivate. Mark (Co-Founder & President) was involved throughout the process, while other teammates came in and out as needed.

I was familiar with a company that worked with Cultivate over the years. When this project came up, I reached out to them and went over its details. That was how we started working with Cultivate.

We spent somewhere under $10,000.

We began and finished the project in August 2021. It lasted for 3–4 weeks.

We received a ton of positive feedback. Our company shared the video not only on our website but also on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook. On top of that, the video resonated well with our target audience. People have reached out to us asking if they could show the video to high school students attending a career fair. In other words, the message of the video was so strong that it inspired young high school students to consider working in our industry.

Cultivate had a quick turnaround time. I was in contact with Mark throughout the process, and their process was quite streamlined. Watching the video, viewers wouldn’t realize it was only done on two separate days of production. We thought the process would take longer, but it didn’t. Overall, we had a schedule that we wanted to keep, and our teams pulled it off.

The Cultivate team did a great job understanding the emotional and human side of our cold industry. The team understood the human elements of the video and extracted them to get our message across through the story we were telling.

No, there aren’t any. We were truly satisfied from start to finish; we didn’t have anything to complain about.

Don’t change their style; let Cultivate do their thing. Remember that you hire them because they’re better at the project than you are. You should have an idea of what you want; at the same time, let them do what they’re good at.

I’m the owner of a nutrition, communications, and consulting company. I do both B2C and B2B services in the health and wellness industry with a focus on food and nutrition.

We wanted to convert our web-based app into a mobile app with cross-platform and cloud-syncing capabilities. Our goals were to improve our UX, increase our visibility, and strengthen our brand positioning.

In the beginning, we scheduled a call with Cultivate and told them what we were trying to do. After that, they delivered the app we needed and shepherded it through the app stores’ review and publication processes. They also ended up doing brand refresh and UI redesign work for us.

I primarily interfaced with Mark (Co-Founder & President) and Jenny (Senior Product Manager & UI/UX Designer). Other people worked behind the scenes, although I had limited interactions with coders and developers.

Cultivate came through a referral from someone in my personal network who knew one of their principals. We also interviewed a handful of different firms that we identified either through an internet search or a personal network of referrals.

We spent between $20,000–$25,000.

Our engagement lasted from April–September 2021.

We haven’t had any specific success metrics in terms of referral traffic or installations, but we’ve received highly favorable responses from our existing audiences. Around 3,000 users of the original app have transitioned to the new app. The transition involved some fairly fancy footwork in terms of exporting their usage histories, so we had to make sure we didn’t lose any users in the process. Cultivate took an extraordinary amount of care in helping us through this tricky transition, making it seamless for our users. They worked hard to make it happen.

In terms of project management, Cultivate was truly responsive and kept in touch with us. There was a long period where we weren’t communicating unless I wanted to talk to them. I appreciated that because I had so much confidence in them. In simple words, the team was highly independent and self-sufficient but was also responsive to my questions. On top of that, they were also highly personable, so it felt great working with them.

I worked with two other development companies in the past, but Cultivate provided an entirely different level of experience for us both in the development process and the end results. They were in a wholly different league of developers.

No, there aren’t any.

Have confidence in Cultivate’s attention to detail. Even if you don’t tell them your goals, they’ll find out. Moreover, to be fully successful in your engagement, you need to be open-minded to the ideas that they’ll bring to the table that might not be a part of your original vision. Such ideas can turn your project into something even more valuable than you anticipate. In other words, don’t keep them in a box; let them do their thing.

I’m the CEO of Mvmnt, a freight technology startup. Our tech platform connects companies with shipment needs to nearby truck drivers across the country.

We needed a new website and branding strategies to amplify our online presence.

Cultivate’s initial work for us centered around brand messaging and strategies, which involved logo and business card redesign and rewriting our company's mission statement.

We work with Chris (Co-Founder & Executive Creative Director), Kimberly (Brand Strategist), and Wally (Design Director).

I found them on Google while searching for potential local agencies to onboard for this project. I checked their website, and I was impressed with their extensive portfolio that mirrored their familiarity with our industry. Additionally, I also discovered that they worked with one of our customers in the past.

We’ve spent about $50,000 so far.

Our ongoing engagement with Cultivate’s team started in May 2021.

Cultivate has seamlessly put together a professional-looking website that’s successfully elevated our online presence. I don’t have exact KPIs to share, but I can confirm that our investors and internal stakeholders have expressed their liking for the website, pointing out its straightforward and improved UI. We’re looking forward to achieving more milestones with the help of their team’s expertise.

We primarily communicate via email and Zoom. Cultivate accommodates both our feedback and requests professionally, so all our change requests are processed within quick turnaround times.

Cultivate’s understanding of the complexity of our industry and target market has helped them flesh out spot-on solutions, which have addressed our branding and development needs.

I honestly can’t think of anything in that regard — Cultivate has even exceeded our expectations with their top-notch performance.

Be clear in communicating your goals and preferences to their team. Additionally, identify your target market and take your time in explaining the ins and outs of your industry to help them devise tailored solutions for your business.