DreamLabs
DreamLabs
[Who we are]
Alameda businesses work with our fractional product team to build custom iOS apps in about six weeks, using senior engineers paired with AI to cut both cost and timeline without cutting corners.
★★★★★
“Other app developer quoted 10X the price to create a live testable version. DreamLabs pricing structure has meant we can quickly get the app in users hands and see what they think!”
Jenn Brooks · Founder & CEO @ Nurture
As a fractional product team, we start by defining your vision and sharpening your strategy. We don’t just say “yes,” but always ask “why?”, helping your dev budget go further and faster.
We use AI-accelerated development to help teams of all sizes launch custom, scale-ready digital products. Ship in days/weeks, not months/years.
User testing is a bonus service we offer to all clients for free. This means we learn together from real users with each release.
[What We Do]
For Alameda clients, we combine AI-assisted architecture, implementation, and testing with direct senior engineering oversight at every stage of the build. AI handles a meaningful share of the boilerplate Swift and SwiftUI code and drafts the initial test coverage; our engineers review, adjust, and extend that work, then own every decision about how the app is structured. We move from requirements to a working prototype quickly, then iterate with you in short, visible cycles so you're seeing real screens and real functionality early, not waiting months for a single reveal. Continuous integration runs throughout the build, catching problems while they're still cheap to fix rather than after launch. Because Alameda sits at a crossroads between a tight local business scene and the broader East Bay and San Francisco markets, we build apps that need to perform for both: fast, reliable, and polished enough to compete for attention on a crowded home screen. We prepare every build for Apple's App Store review as part of the process, not an afterthought, so your launch date is the date your app actually goes live, not the start of a back-and-forth with Apple's reviewers.
[Deliverables]
Custom iOS applications built for Alameda companies, from Park Street retailers to teams building out of Alameda Point. Our AI-enabled process pairs senior engineers with AI-assisted development to deliver a scalable, secure app in Swift and SwiftUI, with senior developers reviewing every decision AI helps accelerate. We manage the full build, architecture through App Store launch, so you have one accountable team instead of several vendors to coordinate.
Enterprise-grade iOS development for Alameda businesses that need an app to connect cleanly with existing systems, from internal tools to third-party APIs. AI-accelerated implementation speeds up the integration work while our engineers retain full ownership of security, performance, and long-term maintainability, so the app you launch is built to scale as your business grows, not just to demo well on day one.
Interface and experience design built around how Alameda's residents and businesses actually use iPhone and iPad. We use AI-assisted prototyping to get working screens in front of you early, so design decisions get made with real feedback rather than guesswork, and engineering time isn't spent building the wrong thing before anyone's had a chance to react to it.
[FAQs]
Prototypes start at $6,000 and full MVPs at $15,000. A typical custom iOS build with our AI-enabled process runs around $20,000 all-in, well under the roughly $200,000 a traditional agency might quote for comparable scope. Most projects ship in about 6 weeks rather than the industry-standard 6 months, because AI handles a meaningful share of the scaffolding and testing work while senior engineers stay focused on architecture and the decisions that actually determine quality.
AI-enabled development compresses the engineering hours a build requires, which means an Alameda business can fund a genuinely custom, production-grade iOS app for around $20,000 instead of the roughly $200,000 a fully manual build might cost elsewhere. That difference changes what's realistic to launch with, not just how fast you get there, letting smaller local businesses compete with apps built to the same standard larger companies pay for.
Most custom iOS builds land around 6 weeks with our team, compared to the roughly 6-month timeline common at agencies relying entirely on manual development. AI-assisted scaffolding, code generation, and testing let senior engineers move through implementation faster, while still personally reviewing every line of Swift that ships and every screen that goes in front of Apple's App Store reviewers before submission.
Launch isn't the end of the relationship. We stay engaged after your app goes live to handle bug fixes, iOS updates, new feature requests, and the occasional back-and-forth Apple's review process sometimes requires for updates. Because the same senior engineers who built the app are the ones supporting it, changes get made quickly and with full context, rather than being handed off to a new team that has to relearn your codebase.
[01] Product Strategy
We start by helping you define your long and short-term product visions. We then break down the concepts into concrete features and functions, so we can piece them back together into a prioritized roadmap.
[02] Development
With the framework pinned down, we go heads-down on execution. We leverage AI-powered tooling and a modern Flutter + Firebase stack to develop your product in record time.
[03] Polishing + Launch QA
Your finished product to ensure that each feature works seamlessly, every color is precise and all copy is ready for publication. We then manage the entire app publishing process on mobile, web or both.
