Introduce your business and what you do there.
I'm the Founder of Bivvi. We help families create meaningful shared moments by making it easy for parents, grandparents, and loved ones to read books together over simple, private video calls. Our focus is on enabling families to connect and share experiences, regardless of distance.
What specific goals or objectives did you hire Dashbouquet Development to accomplish for Bivvi?
My primary goal was to transform Bivvi from a working prototype into a polished, production-ready product. I already had the core concept, user journeys, and a functional application, but I knew I needed a team with strong product design and engineering expertise to bring it to the level of quality I envisioned. I partnered with Dashbouquet to refine the Bivvi brand, design and build the corporate website, and elevate every aspect of the product—from the onboarding experience and video calls to content sharing and collaborative gameplay. Just as importantly, I wanted to ensure the application was built on a solid technical foundation from the beginning. That meant making thoughtful decisions around architecture, technology selection, coding standards, CI/CD, and overall engineering practices. My goal wasn't simply to launch an MVP—it was to build a product I would be proud to put in front of real customers and a codebase that could support the business as it grew, without accumulating unnecessary technical debt or requiring major refactoring later.
What was the scope of Dashbouquet Development's involvement?
Dashbouquet was responsible for designing and implementing many of the core pieces of Bivvi as we evolved it from a working prototype into a production-ready product. They worked across product design, user experience, front-end and back-end engineering, branding, and technical architecture. Their scope of work included refining the Bivvi brand, designing and building the corporate website, redesigning the application's user interface, implementing and refining the video calling experience, developing content sharing functionality, building collaborative gameplay features, and creating administrative tooling such as the Author Dashboard and Super Admin interface. Beyond feature development, they also acted as a technical partner by providing guidance on architecture, technology selection, CI/CD, coding standards, and engineering best practices. One of my goals was to build Bivvi on a solid foundation from the outset, and Dashbouquet played an important role in helping ensure the product would be maintainable, scalable, and well-positioned for future growth.
How did you find Dashbouquet Development?
Online search.
Why did you choose Dashbouquet Development over other options you considered?
Because Bivvi is a self-funded, pre-revenue startup, I was looking for a development partner that offered exceptional product quality while remaining cost-effective. I focused my search on firms in high-value engineering markets, but price alone wasn't the deciding factor. Bivvi is a product where design and user experience are fundamental to its success, so I evaluated firms by the quality of their own work. Dashbouquet stood out because their website was polished, intuitive, and thoughtfully designed. It reflected the same attention to detail and user experience that I wanted for Bivvi. Their process for requesting a proposal, discussing the project, and refining the scope was also straightforward and professional, giving me confidence that they would be a strong long-term partner rather than simply a development vendor.
What is the status of this engagement?
The project began in June 2025 and is ongoing.
How much have you invested with Dashbouquet Development?
$50,000 to $199,999
How many teammates from Dashbouquet Development were assigned to your project?
2-5 people from Dashbouquet Development were assigned to the project.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Because Bivvi was still in development, I couldn't point to revenue or user growth as measures of success. Instead, I measured progress by whether the product we envisioned was actually being built to the standard I expected. For every feature, I documented the functional requirements, user flows, and the experience I wanted users to have. Once Dashbouquet completed the implementation, I tested it extensively, provided feedback, and we iterated until both the functionality and the overall user experience met my expectations. A feature wasn't considered complete just because it worked—it had to feel right, integrate naturally with the rest of the application, and reflect the quality bar I had established for the Bivvi brand. The clearest evidence of their impact is what exists today. Together we delivered a fully branded corporate website, a polished onboarding experience, the core video calling and shared content experience, collaborative gameplay features, the Author Dashboard, and the Super Admin interface. Those aren't isolated features—they're the core building blocks of the business. When I hired Dashbouquet, I had a working prototype and a vision. Today I have a complete, cohesive product that I would be comfortable putting in front of customers. To me, that's the most meaningful measure of the value they provided.
What was your primary form of communication with Dashbouquet Development during the project?
We primarily communicated through virtual meetings, email and Slack.
How would you describe Dashbouquet Development's project management?
Dashbouquet's project management was one of the reasons the engagement worked as well as it did. They had enough structure to keep the project organized without making the process feel heavy or meeting-driven. We used Linear to manage feature requests, bugs, and implementation work, which gave me complete visibility into what was being built and what was coming next. I could leave comments directly on individual issues or discuss broader topics in Slack, so feedback rarely had to wait for a scheduled meeting. As trust developed between us, we actually canceled our recurring weekly check-ins because asynchronous communication was working so well. With the exception of one budget communication issue early in the engagement—which we discussed, resolved, and never experienced again—the project stayed on track. Features were delivered on schedule, communication around progress was clear, and later phases remained within budget. I also appreciated how receptive the team was to feedback. They never treated comments as criticism or defended an implementation simply because it was already built. If I thought something could be better, we'd discuss it, iterate, and keep refining until we were both confident in the result. Written and verbal communication was consistently strong, and I always felt informed about important product decisions without feeling like I needed to micromanage the team's day-to-day work. Overall, their project management struck the right balance between structure and flexibility. I always knew where the project stood, but the process never got in the way of building the product.
What did you find most impressive or unique about working with Dashbouquet Development?
What impressed me most was that Dashbouquet behaved like a product partner, not just an implementation shop. I've worked with consulting firms where the statements of work are so generic that you're left wondering what you're actually buying. That was never the case here. Everything—from the proposals to the discussions to the implementation itself—felt specific to Bivvi rather than pulled from a template. I always understood the tradeoffs we were making and why. I also appreciated how approachable the team was. While I work in technology, software engineering isn't my specialty. They never talked over me or made me feel like I should already know the answer. They were happy to explain architectural decisions, technology choices, and implementation tradeoffs in a way that helped me make better product decisions without oversimplifying the technical details. The design team was equally impressive. They challenged ideas when they thought there was a better approach, but they never forced their opinions. Instead, they gave me room to process major design changes, explored different iterations with me, and helped steer the product toward what would ultimately create the best experience for users. Good product design is about more than making something look nice—it's about having the judgment and taste to know what should be built. I thought that was one of Dashbouquet's greatest strengths. Across every discipline, the team combined strong technical ability with excellent communication and interpersonal skills. They were simply enjoyable to work with, and throughout the engagement I felt like they were genuinely invested in making Bivvi the best product it could be—not just completing a list of tasks.
Is there anything Dashbouquet Development could have done better or differently during the project?
Beyond the one budget communication issue I mentioned earlier, I don't have any meaningful critiques of the engagement. What mattered more to me than the mistake itself was how the team responded. They listened to my concerns, worked with me to resolve the situation fairly, and changed their process so we wouldn't find ourselves in the same position again. Since then, we've completed additional phases of work without a recurrence of the issue. I don't expect any long-term engineering partnership to be perfect. What I do expect is that feedback is taken seriously and that the same mistakes aren't repeated. Dashbouquet met that expectation. If anything, the experience increased my confidence in the team because it demonstrated that they genuinely care about maintaining a strong working relationship and are willing to adapt when something isn't working as well as it should.
