DreamLabs
DreamLabs
[Who we are]
Calabasas is home to a dense cluster of founders, wellness brands, and lifestyle companies, and we build their iOS apps with senior engineers and AI-augmented development, keeping the six-week, twenty-thousand-dollar build standard other markets pay far more for.
★★★★★
“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]
Our process for Calabasas clients pairs AI-assisted architecture, implementation, and testing with direct senior engineering review at every step, building in Swift and SwiftUI throughout. That combination lets us compress the traditional build timeline substantially, which matters most for founders operating on a tight runway. We move from requirements to a working prototype quickly and iterate with you in short, visible cycles rather than a long black-box development phase you only hear about when it's finished. Continuous integration and automated testing run throughout the build, catching issues early instead of during a rushed push before launch. Many Calabasas clients are building a brand as much as a product, so we spend real time on the interface and onboarding flow, not just the backend logic, using AI-assisted prototyping to get working screens in front of you fast enough to make design decisions with real feedback. We handle the App Store submission process directly, including the review back-and-forth that sometimes follows, so your launch date isn't dependent on a process you don't control. We also help founders think through what to hold back for a later release, since shipping everything at once rarely serves a first launch well.
[Deliverables]
Custom iOS applications built for Calabasas founders and lifestyle brands, engineered by senior developers using AI-accelerated development to compress the timeline without compromising on quality. We manage the full build in Swift and SwiftUI, from architecture through App Store launch, at a cost structured for an early-stage runway rather than an enterprise budget.
Interface and experience design for consumer-facing apps where brand and usability both matter. AI-assisted prototyping means you're reacting to real, working screens early, so your app's look and feel gets locked in before engineering time is spent building the wrong direction, all measured against Apple's Human Interface Guidelines.
Strategic guidance for Calabasas founders figuring out what to build first. We help you scope a launch feature set lean enough to ship in about six weeks and complete enough to hold its own on the App Store, using AI-assisted research to move through discovery and planning faster than a traditional consulting engagement would allow.
[FAQs]
Most builds take about 6 weeks with our team, compared to the roughly 6-month timeline common at a traditional agency. That speed comes from AI-assisted architecture, code generation, and testing, which let a small, senior team move fast without cutting corners on quality or App Store readiness, an important distinction when you're racing a runway, not a calendar.
Prototypes start at $6,000 and full MVPs at $15,000. Our AI-enabled process typically brings a custom iOS build to around $20,000 all-in, compared to the roughly $200,000 a traditional agency might quote for comparable scope, a difference that matters a great deal on an early-stage runway. AI reduces the manual hours needed for scaffolding and testing without lowering the bar on the senior review every build goes through.
We start with a discovery session to pin down what the app actually needs to do at launch, move into AI-assisted architecture and prototyping, then build in short cycles with your feedback built in. Senior engineers handle everything technical, so a first-time founder doesn't need an in-house engineering background to end up with a production-grade app.
Every piece of AI-generated code goes through review by a senior engineer before it ships, and we build with standard, well-documented Swift and SwiftUI patterns rather than anything exotic. That means if you eventually bring development in-house or switch partners, the codebase is something any competent iOS engineer can pick up, not a black box only we understand.
[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.
