The number of service providers grows directly with the demand on a certain type of service. Software development market follows the same rule. Along with the spread of smartphones and computers, we see more and more companies that create apps for them. 

There are a plethora of benefits for consumers that come with such competition. Special price plans, a variety of approaches, and innovative solutions are only some of the diversity’s fruits.

At the same time, the mass of service providers swarming around the internet may confuse you and make it hard to find the company that fits your reqs. Especially, when you are a start-up newbie with little or no expertise in software development. If it applies to you, you are in the right place to find out what kind of software development company will be ideal for start-up projects. In this article we’ve collected 7 tips on how to choose the right start-up software development company. that’ll be able to create a unicorn-level application.

Check the software company reviews 

To make sure that your future partner is credible enough, you can find the reviews on them. First, you can go to the resources like Clutch, that compile the tops of tech companies by different software development domains. If you find your company in one of them it’s a sign of the team that will be earnest about developing the application for your start-up. Regardless of the place at the top. But keep in mind that not all the excellent companies find their way to such high-rated tops. So it makes sense to search for other sources of feedback.

To get more info on the tech company, dedicate some time to looking through start-up forums. Find the topic of the best companies for start-ups or create the discussion yourself and get the info. There you will find some genuine opinions and real-life stories to ensure a software developer is what you are looking for. Reading user's feedback, give special attention to the developer’s: 

• Customer service;
• Developers’ expertise level;
• Inclusiveness of the services;
• UI/UX design;
• Agile project management practices;
• Communication style. 

However, the best way to learn about a company is to ask the people who have collaborated with them before. Inquire your fellow start-uppers or businessmen what software development companies they hired and what their experience was. 

In case you have little or no friends that can give you a recommendation, attend specialized start-up events. On such events you will have an opportunity to chat with other entrepreneurs and even start-up software developers themselves.Beyond creating space for start-uppers and developers to meet, Start-up gatherings attract investors too.

Pro tip: If a company shows off their successful projects, you can inquire their customers directly about the quality of services.

Have a face-to-face conversation with the start-up company representatives

A picture worth a thousand words. Meeting a company’s representative is a nice way to have a glimpse of the whole organization. If the frontman of a start-up software development company is a tech-savvy, well-spoken, and well-bred person, it’s much more likely that the other team members will be too. Anyway, the start-up software companies won’t charge you for the first meeting. Therefore, you only win by having such meetings.

When at the meeting, it will be helpful to interrogate the customer engagement manager about their previous projects in the start-up sector. Also, ask him or her about their prices, time-to-market, project delivery method, and the ownership rights. 

Pro tip: Make notes of these parameters to be able to use them when you make the final decision.

Read company’s case studies 

The case studies will tell you about the tech company's experience and success rate. It’s another source of information about the actual time to-market, price, and their delivery model efficacy. Moreover, you can compare the info from the case studies with the feedback from the company's customers. This will allow you to see if the company matches its words with actions and catches up with deadlines.

When reading the case studies, pay attention to details that can seem unimportant. Aesthetic design, coherent presentation style, and well-structured information are the hallmarks of the right company too. The meticulous approach to portfolio presentation is likely to be projected onto your start-up application development. The more work and attention someone’s put into a project the more care the person will put into presenting it afterwards. 

Look if a company has paid and open-source products.

First of all, if your potential developers created their own products they know how it feels to be in a start-upper’s boots. Probably they have been through the process themselves and understand how to nail start-up software development. You won’t need to explain your needs and pains to such companies. Thus, such companies will be more  reliable for a start-up app development. 

In addition, open-source products show that the developers have real passion for their work. That’s because open-sources born from the genuine desire to make an impact on the tech world and prove one’s professionalism. 

However, there are a whole lot of crippled open-source software. So, it would be great to show this product to your CTO or other 3’d party expert that can evaluate the quality of a start-up developer’s products. Otherwise, you can read some feedback on GitHub or other sources where a product is shared. Of course, it’s not mandatory, but will spot the light on the real abilities of the company’s devs.

Opt for the company with the post-development support

Due to the fast time-to-market, the software can have some flaws or minor bugs just after the development. It’s quite a common thing. Surely, no one wants to fix them without professional assistance. Especially, having paid the due amount of money for custom start-up software development. That’s why it’s wiser to choose the company that won’t leave you alone when the project ends. Discuss this point with the company’s representatives at your first meeting. 

Apart from post development support, a company can offer other special collaboration terms like discount or free discovery phase.  

Focus on the inclusiveness of services

A company that offers the full cycle of software development services is able to take as much responsibility for the product delivery as you can delegate. The more software-related tasks you can free yourself of, the more time you have for business and brand development. This is the core plus of wide specialization of your start-up app developer.

How do you define a start-up company that is ready to take full responsibility over app creation? Look if the company has the following departments: 

Quality assurance

Takes on the testing routines. You won’t need to look for these services aside.

Project management

Project managers of a company take responsibility for the orchestration of the start-up software development process. a tight connection with the developers and other team members that you hire, so there will be some productivity boost 

Business analytics

BA’s translate your ideas and requirements into the tech concepts and tasks for developers. They facilitate the development process significantly, structuring the developers’ workflow. 

Design services

Almost any software development company should have a UI/UX designer вdepartment. If a company takes design seriously, your start-up application users will have an amazing experience interacting with your brand. 

Diverse development services

The company has specialists in different software development fields and programming languages. Such companies are more likely to use all the arsenal they have to make great solutions that will be actual for years to come. Among the most popular technologies nowadays are:

• React Native and Flutter for mobile app development;
• Angular and React for web development;
• Amazon and Azure cloud services for storage and 3’d parties.

Pay attentions to prices

The charges are one of the most essential parameters of a software development company for start-ups. As you have a strict budget  every penny So, your company should offer their development and supplementary services for a reasonable price. 

Get the developer rates of a company and match them with the company’s brand, number of successful projects, and the rank of professionals involved in the process. Then decide what level of quality you need for your app to be future-proof and hit the nerve of customers. This matching will allow you to see if the company’s service is worth paying as much as it charges. To make your number crunching a lot easier, you can use a free estimation template for software development projects.

Wrap up

Now you are ready to pick up the right software development company for your start-up. You just need some practice to solidify your knowledge that you can get right away, here. Check our case studies and portfolio services we offer, look how many successful start-up applications we’ve already created, and book a free start-up consultation at Akveo to discuss your own project and how we can help you.  

Akveo start-up software development company provides a full spectrum of start-up MVP development services including web/mobile apps development, start-up consulting, QA, cloud, post-release support, and design services that are truly amazing. 

Moreover, we offer a free/discount discovery phase for start-up projects to help our clients get into the process and test the viability of their ideas in regard to the latest technologies. Akveo has an affiliate software start-up UI Bakery and 5+ years of hands-on start-up and enterprise-grade software development experience. We create custom MVPs and fully-fledged applications from scratch for different industries and have a number of great success stories with our partners.