DreamLabs
DreamLabs
[Who we are]
As the seat of San Mateo County and a hub along the Peninsula's 101 tech corridor, San Mateo companies build custom iOS apps with our team, using senior engineers paired with AI to launch in about six weeks.
★★★★★
“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 development process for San Mateo clients pairs AI-assisted architecture, implementation, and testing with direct oversight from senior engineers at every stage. That combination shortens the typical build timeline substantially while preserving the code quality and performance a production Swift application needs. We move quickly from requirements to a working prototype, then iterate with clients in short, visible cycles rather than a long, opaque development phase. Continuous integration and automated testing run throughout, so speed doesn't come at the cost of reliability, and we account for Apple's App Store review process from the earliest planning stages. Being situated along one of the most competitive technology corridors in the country means San Mateo clients often benchmark us against much larger firms, and we welcome that comparison: the same architecture rigor, the same attention to performance and security, delivered by a smaller, senior team moving faster because AI handles the repetitive work.
[Deliverables]
Custom iOS applications for San Mateo businesses, built by senior engineers using AI-accelerated development. We combine AI-assisted development with experienced human engineering to ship a scalable, secure, App Store-ready application, whether you're an early-stage company or an established business extending an existing product.
Enterprise-grade iOS applications built for San Mateo companies that need to integrate with existing technology stacks along the 101 corridor, from internal authentication systems to backend APIs and third-party services. Senior engineers own every integration decision AI helps accelerate, keeping security and performance central throughout.
Interface and experience design built specifically around Apple's Human Interface Guidelines and SwiftUI's component model. Our designers and engineers work in tight loops, using AI to speed up iteration on layouts and flows, so San Mateo clients see working prototypes early rather than waiting weeks for a first look.
[FAQs]
Prototypes start at $6,000 and full MVPs at $15,000. Costs vary with scope and complexity, but our AI-enabled process typically brings projects in around $20,000 all-in, compared to the roughly $200,000 a traditional agency charges for comparable iOS work along the 101 corridor. AI handles the repetitive parts of the build, which means less billable engineering time without a drop in code quality.
Most custom iOS builds take about 6 weeks with our team and run around $20,000, versus an industry-typical 6 months and roughly $200,000 at a traditional agency. AI-assisted scaffolding, code generation, and testing let our senior engineers move through a build far faster than manual development alone, while still reviewing and owning every line of Swift that ships.
A typical agency along this corridor staffs a large team and bills for every hour of manual coding and QA. We pair a small, senior team with AI across architecture, code generation, and testing, so you get the same caliber of production iOS software with fewer hours billed and a much shorter timeline.
It depends on your users, but most launches benefit from clean onboarding, solid handling of core features offline, intuitive navigation that follows Apple's design conventions, and dependable performance on real devices and networks. We help you prioritize a launch feature set during discovery, so the first release is lean enough to ship fast.
[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.
