Please introduce your company and give a brief about your role within the company?
Yield Interactive is a consulting company which started with an intent to provide code to concept solutions. I mainly focus on client interaction, product consulting and team interaction.
What was the idea behind starting this organization?
During my tenure as a business director in various agencies, I found a significant disconnect between what was needed and what’s built. When a client comes to us, they have their own set of expectations and understanding. Our job as a provider is to help them fine tune their requirements, guide them with the right inputs and help them build a sustainable platform and business model. Hardly any agency focuses on the business needs; their entire focus stays on the agreed scope and its delivery. As an agency, it’s essential to opt for a consultative approach and help clients to make the right choices. And thus we started Yield Interactive. We work with few projects at a time, and we focus on building a sustainable business model.
What are your company’s business model–in house team or third party vendors/ outsourcing?
Our business model is to deliver what’s essential for every project. And thus we use mix model of the in-house team as well as dedicated but contractual resources. We only employ highly experienced professionals who understand business as good as technology. We bill for their experience and not the hours they spend to build an excellent product.
How is your business model beneficial from a value addition perspective to the clients compared to other companies' models?
Most importantly, we are in total love with what we do. We believe in a well-thought product strategy. Our team spends enough time to understand requirements, do thorough industry research and plan before starting the execution. We ask a lot many questions and raise flags up front. Those who understand and respect our way of working, we build long-lasting relationships with them and those who are not ready to answer and clarify requirements properly, we wish them good luck. In short, We don’t falsely commit, or we don’t engage.
What industries do you generally cater to? Are your customers repetitive? If yes, what ratio of clients has been repetitive to you?
We are industry agnostic. So far we worked in sectors like Finance, Healthcare, Entertainment, Education, Food, Travel and many more. We strive to repeat clients. Almost none of our client left working with us except a few. Our repeat client is a whopping 82%.
Mention the objectives or the parameters critical in determining the time frame of developing a mobile app.
The most critical aspects while determining the time frame of a mobile app is– business model, flow, functionality, UI/UX expectations and how prepared client is with necessary content or data.
How much effort in terms of time goes into developing the front end and back end of a mobile app?
These days users are technology savvy unlike old days; thus front end is more critical for the acceptance of any mobile app. Our priority is to build an easy, quick and interactive front end. Back end is essential for making operations flawless and thus we custom design each backend as per the operational requirements.
What are the key parameters to be considered before selecting the right platform for a mobile application?
Core functionality, UI/UX expectations, Budget and Stage of the business. Depending upon these parameters we suggest an appropriate platform for application.
Which platform do you suggest your clients to begin with when they approach you with an idea (Android or iOS) and why?
First priority is always to go ahead with the web with proper compatibility on the mobile devices. A significant benefit of the web is, you get the advantage of organic traffic, you also understand repeat frequency of your users, device, and browsers used – Such insights help you to take right call for the next stage of the product. Many founders want to go with mobile first approach without thinking of a marketing and maintenance expense. So, we educate them about all aspects first and take a mutual call.
Android or iOS, Native or Hybrid — which platform is best to use to build your app? What are your recommendations?
Well, native is always the best, but it comes with its own set of maintenance requirements. So depending upon the nature of the business, we suggest a right platform for the app.
What are the key factors that you consider before deciding the cost of a mobile application?
We look at the business model, flow, functionality and UI/UX expectations and work on the effort estimation.
What kind of payment structure do you follow to bill your clients? Is it Pay per Feature, Fixed Cost, Pay per Milestone (could be in phases, months, versions etc.)
We are flexible in our arrangements. We enter into a relationship with the objective of making a lifelong association. And thus we work on a mutually agreeable arrangement. As a team, we need to maintain our liquidity so till the time our liquidity is being taken care, we are fine with any kind of arrangement. Pay per feature arrangement only works when we work on the enhancement of the app we built. For a new project, we either go with Fix cost with multiple milestones or agile arrangement with monthly billing option.
Do you take in projects which meet your basic budget requirement? If yes, what is the minimum requirement? If no, on what minimum budget you have worked for?
Our criterion to take any project is not the budget but the business idea. If we find idea enticing, we work on as small as $500 job. When a client engages us the first time, our primary objective is to help the client to scale up their business and start generating revenue asap through our technology solution. If the company gets required traction, technology budgets are bound to increase.
What is the price range (min and max) of the projects that you catered to in 2018?
During 2018, our project budget range has been USD 6500 – USD 100,000+.
Which business model do you suggest to your clients enabling them to generate revenue from mobile applications? Why?
Till the time the mobile application is bridging the gaps in the market and helps end user save time and money, it’s a good market fit. So, revenue streams can be subjective to each business model, but the core remains the same. You earn if you help end user save more.