Mobile App Dev for Influencer Booking Platform
NineTwoThree turned ItsaVibe's concept into a functional influencer platform, revolutionizing how businesses and influencers collaborate
Please describe your company and your position there.
I’m a team manager for an influencer booking application. Our app connects influencers to businesses and brands so that companies can book them more easily.
What challenge were you trying to address with NineTwoThree Venture Studio?
We needed to engage a development company to help us develop an iOS app and launch it on the app store.
What was the scope of their involvement?
When we started working with NineTwoThree, we had a lot of ideas for the application. First, we spoke to the team about our concept and provided screenshots of how we wanted the app to look. They helped us hone in on our ideas to identify the most important features they’d need to create a viable product.
Then, they carried out comprehensive market research to identify potential competitors and see which features could set us apart. The insights determined that our ideas were sufficient to be able to create a new, unique application.
They’ve essentially taken our design ideas and developed them into a functional iOS application. For the most part, they’ve built the app from scratch, although the team has used some plug-ins to help with coding and APIs. We plan to collaborate on developing an Android version in the future.
What is the team composition?
We’ve worked with Andrew (CEO), Stephanie (Product Lead), and two developers.
How did you come to work with NineTwoThree Venture Studio?
We found NineTwoThree online.
How much have you invested with them?
We’ve invested roughly $250,000 in the partnership with NineTwoThree.
What is the status of this engagement?
We began working with NineTwoThree in February 2022, and the partnership is ongoing.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
We haven’t launched the application yet, but NineTwoThree has been able to bring our ideas to life beautifully. They’ve taken our broad vision and narrowed it down to give us a solid, user-friendly product. Since we’re still in the development stage, we’ve had a few bugs, but they’ve caught them immediately and resolved issues within 24 hours.
How did NineTwoThree Venture Studio perform from a project management standpoint?
NineTwoThree has excelled from a project management standpoint. Although each team member has a different position with a different goal, the team works well together to create the app. They know how to do their jobs.
We’ve met in person, but now we meet weekly via Zoom to keep track of the process and go over new developments. If we have questions in between meetings, we can give them a call.
What did you find most impressive about them?
NineTwoThree’s biggest strength is their team’s investment in our product. They’ve done a lot of legwork for us to make the product as successful as possible.
Rather than working on as many projects as possible to make the most money, they’re very selective about their partnerships. As a result, we feel they’re excited about building our product and care about our success.
Are there any areas they could improve?
I have nothing NineTwoThree could improve on.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
I advise maintaining an open line of communication with NineTwoThree. If you communicate with them, they’ll deliver a final product that meets your needs and makes you happy.
ItsaVibe is an innovative social media mobile application that is revolutionizing influencer marketing for both businesses and individuals who aspire to become or currently are influencers. By utilizing location and interests, the app enables businesses to connect with local influencers, who can effectively promote their products or services through social media to attract more customers and increase sales. Unlike other influencer marketing platforms, this app focuses on hyper-local advertising, which benefits local businesses and restaurants. With this platform, individuals can also become influencers and promote businesses to the people they know, providing a more authentic and impactful marketing approach. This mobile app offers a win-win situation for both businesses and influencers, by fostering better collaboration and driving more foot traffic and sales.
The itsaVibe team had a great big idea for a social media mobile application, but needed help narrowing it down and developing it from scratch. We first conducted a detailed foundation with their team that defined their ideas into its most valued features and performed market research that determined the optimal product-market fit to inform development. Our team of experts worked closely with them to create a seamless two-sided mobile application for businesses and influencers that met their specifications. We also designed a website to complement the mobile app and enhance their online presence.
One distinguishing characteristic of this social media platform is its ability to empower individuals, regardless of their follower count, to become and reap the rewards of being an influencer. However, the creation of a fair scoring system presented a significant challenge. The most daunting aspect was designing a system that enabled ordinary individuals to establish and expand their influence on the platform. Unlike the conventional method of becoming an influencer through constant content creation, we had to develop a scoring algorithm that fostered growth through app engagement.
The second aspect of the challenge involved developing an algorithm to authenticate the legitimacy of influencers, whether they were established or new ones.
Recognizing that our target audience consisted largely of younger users, we decided to gamify the entire process by drawing inspiration from other successful games and leveraging appropriate tasks for each level. Our approach involved offering small, achievable tasks at an affordable “cost” that rewarded users with experience points. Once a certain level of experience points is reached, the tasks become more challenging, but the rewards are also more substantial. As users climb the rankings, they earn more money from promotions, enabling those with fewer followers to expand their influence. Overall, this approach enabled us to establish a fair and effective means for users to grow their influence on the app.
It was equally important that their influence level - whether through the scoring system or from established influence on other platforms - was verifiable. The prevalence of websites that enable people to purchase followers has become a major issue in the world of social media. To combat this problem, we developed an algorithm that accurately measures authentic user engagement on posts, ensuring that the platform remains a trustworthy and reliable source for businesses and influencers alike.
We collaborated closely with the ItsaVibe team, immersing ourselves in the project as if it were our own startup, to bring their innovative concept to life. Our biggest impact was taking their ambitious vision and creating a practical and cost-effective platform that can be launched and utilized by both influencers and businesses.
Rather than simply adding all the possible features into an expensive application, we used our experience as entrepreneurs to carefully select the most valuable features alongside them to streamline the development process and create a mobile app with true product-market fit. This effort resulted in a platform that delivers significant value and seamlessly brings influencers and businesses together at a community level.
