Overlooking the Reston, Va., WMATA metro station sits a developer of numerous mobile applications for both national brands—like the NFL Players Association—and the D.C. tech scene.
The company, Savvy Apps, has mostly flown under the radar for consumers, since its name hasn't been on most of the apps themselves. But along with the NFL players group, national brands such as PBS, Foreign Policy Magazine and Navient have turned to the company for their app development expertise.
On occasion, Savvy Apps will also develop its own apps—as it recently did with Today Weather, a simple weather app that was featured on the homepage of the popular site Product Hunt on Friday.
Founded in 2009, Savvy Apps has developed more than 20 apps that've been featured in the Apple and Android app stores in all.
Rather than being a multi-discipline digital design agency, CEO Ken Yarmosh has molded his 15-person consultancy—comprised of developers, strategists, media specialists and designers—into a dedicated mobile application shop.
Today, the Savvy Apps’ team develops mobile products for some major names in Washington politics, media and business, along with a select group of national corporate powerhouses.
Designed growth
In an interview with DC Inno, Yarmosh said that through the first half of 2015, Savvy Apps had already more than doubled their revenue compared to the same time period in 2014.
“Our margins have kept the same despite the heavy reinvestment into the company ranging from more hires, office expansion, a site re-launch, and other in-house/overhead expenditures,” Yarmosh added.
The company currently has approximately 15 clients on retainer and it fully expects to increase that number to between 20 and 25 clients within 12 months.
Importantly, Savvy Apps’ founder explained that his business’ clients are more like partners, because when the firm signs contracts with them it usually translates into a multi-year deal that involves the necessity for continued collaboration, commitment and at times, the creation of an unpredictable series of future updates.
Catering to big names
In just the past few weeks, Yarmosh and co. signed a contract to become the official app designer for the Cato Institute, the prominent D.C.-based libertarian think tank. The Koch Foundation-funded organization attracts national attention from politicians, political pundits, major campaign donors and voters—many of whom will could use the app at some point leading into a busy 2016 Presidential campaign season.
Locally, DC Inno has also learned that Savvy Apps will be partnering with Canvas, the Reston, Va.-based mobile organization and data analysis cloud software company, to build out an advanced mobile app over the coming months.
Canvas develops products that help organizations replace paper forms and manual processes with mobile apps capable of sharing information in real-time. Because the company’s central app is such a critical component to their business and in establishing a positive user experience, the decision to go with Savvy Apps is important.
The Cato and Canvas deals serve as big “wins” for Savvy Apps, as it hopes—with the establishment of a new office and the addition of several high-profile clients—that it can “take it up a level," Yarmosh said.
As Yarmosh put it, “there’s really no one that can compete with us, locally, especially from a dedicated app development standpoint … we’ve really always worked to be the best and I believe it starts with being the best in your own backyard.”
Savvy Apps’ other D.C. tech clients include names like music sharing social platform, Musx; recently launched, Jonathon Perrelli-founded smart water bottle company, Lifefuels; enterprise communications platform Speek, recently acquired by Jive Communications; and Steve Case-funded real estate services startup, HomeSnap.
It’s not all sugar
With every update to Apple’s iOS or the Android OS, more has to be done, tweaks need to be made and previous clients return to the creators of their now crucial apps to account for the software change.
Navigating this unique, industry-specific business relationship, however, can be challenging, Yarmosh said.
Disney "just wasn’t the right fit for us."
Due to the limited number of clients that Savvy Apps can accept at any given time—and the intimate relationship needed to design the very best products for them—deciding which projects and brands are the best fit can become difficult.
The only other option would be for Savvy Apps to expanding the size of their team, and Yarmosh said that’s probably not something he’s looking to do. He added that with more employees, it's also more difficult to maintain quality control. “We’re focused on doing the best we can do, without stretching ourselves, and becoming known more so for the consistent high quality of our apps rather than creating thousands of them in a short time span.”
Case in point: Just last year, Savvy Apps decided to part ways with their largest revenue-generating client, Yarmosh said, though he declined to name the client. Months later, Yarmosh made the difficult decision of turning down a prospective mobile app contract with Disney. “It just wasn’t the right fit for us,” Yarmosh said.
The bottom line is that design agencies must also be selective with their clients, in order to best maximize their staff while still developing quality mobile apps.
A branded mobile app can be central to molding how a massive demographic of users view a certain brand—virtually everyone has a smartphone and access to free downloads—and the usually intensive and high-pressure process can be draining, Yarmosh explained.
Hiring
Even though Savvy Apps is still unpacking boxes and decorating their unique new, hybrid-open office space that’s five times larger than their previous Reston Town Center digs, they’re currently looking to hire six new team members—increasing the size of the team by a third.
For more information on Savvy Apps’ employment opportunities you can check out their website, directly.
