STRV

I am a senior applications engineer for a semiconductor manufacturing company.

We were looking to modernize our equipment because some of our UI components were becoming obsolete, and we wanted to create something new. Our goal was to base our UI software on an Apple product which is considered unusual, so we knew we needed external expertise.

We initially provided STRV with a detailed list of our requirements and a basic idea of what we wanted the software to do. Based on this information, they began designing an iOS-based app.

We work with about four individuals from STRV.

The decision to work with STRV was made before I joined the company.

I think it might be around $300,000.

We started working together in June 2022, and the engagement is ongoing.

We don’t have any concrete metrics because the product is still not out of the testing phase. However, what we have tested has received positive feedback. Their work is very good; we have run into a few bugs, but they are more on our side than STRV's.

Everything has been delivered on time. There have been a few pieces of the project that we didn’t plan for that have caused some problems, but they aren’t major. We are under the impression that their team is very well-managed because everything flows smoothly.

We have been particularly impressed with the first project manager we worked with and one of our developers. The team completes work quickly and responds promptly. They work in an agile manner and are enjoyable to work with. We appreciate STRV’s flexibility and ability to understand the issues we’re facing quickly. We think we get a lot of value for what we pay; the experience of working with STRV has been very pleasant.

We’ve struggled a bit working with an iOS product, but that’s an industry-wide issue. We wish STRV had a bit more of an understanding how little iOS is being used in silicon industry and designed a small introductory "crash course" for Macintosh and iOS platform. That would have helped tremendously in our company-wide adoption of the STRV products as well as the general customer adaptation.

We’ve had a really good experience working with STRV, so we would recommend their services to anyone. Collaborating with software companies can be a little different, and the working hours can be odd, but you should just focus on the project. Focus on project management as well because you need to ensure that everyone is aligned. There can be a gap in understanding concepts between engineers, and you want to make sure that communication flows well.

I’m the chief educational officer of an edtech startup. We’re working to create an app that helps families manage their technology use with their children.

We needed to develop an application. Our goal was to manage technology reduction and assist families by encouraging alternative activities within the family, especially for the youth.

STRV has developed a mobile application for iOS and Android. We initially presented a brief and historical data. The team worked with us to create a comprehensive plan.

We’ve worked with people in various roles at different project phases. However, we’ve had about five primary contacts.

We began our partnership in March 2023, and it’s ongoing.

We haven’t completed or released the project to the public, but STRV’s timeline has been incredibly reasonable. Although we’ve had some challenges, STRV has ensured that everything is in order to move forward.

They’ve been timely and prompt with setting and meeting goals. When we need to adjust things on our end, they’re flexible, gracious, and patient.

Fran (Product Manager) has been incredibly patient. Sometimes we fail to follow up on important items, but he continually prompts and reminds us what he needs from us.

They produce what we envision.

I came on late to the project, but I know the founder had a different team working with STRV at some point. Some of his original vision for the project was overlooked, but when he sat down and clarified what he wanted to the current team, they incorporated what we needed. I don’t know if that’s an area of improvement for them or a communication issue on our end.

Communicate clearly upfront and clarify your vision. Make sure that everyone is on the same page.

I am the Marketing Director of a media company

Creates media, including podcasts, courses, books, and videos.

Clutch Site

6-10 Employees

First STRV managed the production of an initial design and Figma prototype. They subcontracted the design work, but I was very happy with the work of the subcontractor, so I don't consider this a negative. This lasted about 2 months. I was impressed with how quickly STRV's product manager grasped the concept of our app, and I was also impressed with the intelligent recommendations he gave to improve the idea. Next, STRV built a minimum viable product, which took about 3-4 months. We released it to a small group of beta testers and refined the idea from there. This was a product without a paywall that contained the core features of the app. STRV's developers did a good job handling the tricky parts of working with Apple and Google's app store submissions while making sure our company was still the full owner of the app. Next we launched the app publicly, after about 11 months of work and beta testing. The app was very well-received by our customers, and reached #33 on the Apple's app store charts overall, and #1 in the Reference category. Hundreds of thousands of people downloaded the app and we experienced no significant issues. The backend and frontend worked beautifully and customers were very impressed with how polished the app was at release. After about two more months, we introduced a paywall and started collecting money. STRV is still helping us build features. We're been partnered together for about a year and a half at this point. The app will probably be finished after two full years, and we plan to retain STRV to maintain the app after that.

The app has over 30,000 five star ratings right now, and our customers have repeatedly told us how much they love and are impressed by the app. Our subscriptions are consistently growing. We have very few bugs or issues that need urgent attention.

The product management has been excellent. Lucas understood our product very quickly, and was able to communicate our expectations to the rest of the team clearly. Not only did he understand the product we wanted to build, he is able to regularly provide intelligent suggestions to improve the product. I feel like we couldn't have a better product manager even if we hired someone ourselves. When Lucas was on vacation, STRV made sure we had another product manager to fill in so no work was lost, and I felt that product manager was excellent as well. I am always aware of when features will release, the app released on the date we agreed on, and important deadlines that I set are respected.

I'm impressed by how quickly they understood the concept and how valuable their suggestions have been. I know a lot of companies claim to do this, but with STRV I really do feel that they're part of our in-house team. I also found it impressive how STRV is able to flexibly replace or add team members as the project requires without delaying or negatively impacting the project.

I'm not convinced STRV always needs the amount of people they have included in our SOWs, but instead of pulling those people off the project to save us money, STRV finds work on the project for them. This isn't the end of the world, because the work is always good, but it makes me struggle to believe that STRV is taking opportunities to keep the project affordable for us. Specifically, once we had a designer on the team who didn't have work to do at that time in the project. Although technically this should mean we don't pay him, he was assigned work that really didn't need to be done. When I asked if he was really needed, they said "yes of course", but when i really made an issue of it, they took him out of the next SOW and guess what, we didn't need him for months. This was an unfortunate incident that made me wonder about the need for roles that I know less about, like backend or frontend engineers.

I’m the senior director of digital marketing and technology for Barry’s. We’re a boutique fitness company with 85 locations across the globe. Our development partners help bring this gym experience to life for our clients. We utilize B2B technology to make this happen and integrate all of our systems together.

We hired STRV to be our development partner.

STRV does custom development for us, including backend, frontend, web, iOS, and Android development — they do it all. When we have a new piece of work, our teams discuss what we’re trying to accomplish and talk about high-level requirements. I work with their product management team to scope out and estimate the work. Then, they present their proposals back to us. We agree on a solution and SOW and start the project from there.

The team composition depends on the scope of work. It depends on our timelines, budget, and what is the right team size for a particular project. My primary account contacts are Tyna (Senior Product Manager) and Ligia (Director of Client Services).

Our company’s relationship with STRV predates my joining the company. I didn’t make the decision to hire them, but we decided to continue using them as our primary development partner.

We’ve invested over $1 million.

We started the partnership in April 2022, and it’s ongoing.

We haven’t had any technical issues with STRV. One example of their resilience is when one of our partners accidentally deleted our entire staging instance a week before the launch of a new feature. This could have derailed the entire project, but Tyna came up with a creative solution and found a way to test and release the feature on time.

STRV has been highly transparent in terms of deadlines and budgets. We’ve been paying attention to that, and they’re highly collaborative in that sense. We’ve had some tight deadlines, but they’re honest with us about what’s realistic and what’s not. We collaborate to find the best ways to meet our needs in the most effective manner.

Their collaborative and problem-solving skills are excellent when compared to other providers I’ve worked with, so I highly recommend them. Moreover, they’re highly flexible in terms of scheduling and meeting with our partners. Their resources are willing to work across time zones to meet necessary parties.

No, there aren’t any.

Treat STRV as a partner and work on solutions together. Be clear about your objectives and collaborate with them to figure out the best technical solutions to meet those needs.

I’m the CEO and co-founder of a company that is building an observability tool or developer tool for engineers to monitor and observe the correct behavior of their applications in production.

We were about to launch our beta platform, and we hired STRV for development work to help meet a deadline.

STRV was responsible for working on a specific feature set within a product. We had 2–3 calls with STRV to determine our needs. After that, we had a kickoff where we spent time onboarding their engineers. Their team helped us with specific parts of delivering the robot and worked side by side with our team.

We worked with two engineers from STRV.

We’d heard about them previously and had been impressed with their work. They were also referred to us, and at that point, we decided to move forward.

We worked together between February–May 2023.

We were able to deliver everything within the deadlines, and wouldn’t have been able to complete the project without their assistance. We now have more than 250 users since launching three weeks ago.

The engineers and product and project managers joined our weekly sprints and daily meetings; STRV worked as a part of our team. The team worked remotely for the most part, but we met in person a few times. STRV stayed on budget and within deadlines. We used Linear for project management and Slack, email, and Around for communication.

Their ease of integration was incredibly smooth, and they got up to speed quickly. STRV had strong communication skills, and they collaborated effectively. The team was professional and kept our needs in mind throughout the engagement. We were impressed with their ability to put together a team that was passionate about our project and the level of experience they brought to the engagement.

There’s nothing we can come up with.

Clearly scope the project and communicate your expectations because that will make the whole process easier.