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Los Angeles is becoming a global hotbed for mobile app development. Sure, we may have a bit of hometown bias, but LA is trending as one of the world’s up-and-coming IT epicenters.

Recently, countless startups have been flocking to sunny LA, and tech talent demand is on the rise. Rootstrap has been in the Silicon Beach tech scene since its inception, and we’ve seen plenty of startups succeed and fail.

If you’re ready to launch your startup, we’re ready to help you do it. While we’re a global team, our headquarters is in Los Angeles – and we’re always thrilled to take clients on our home turf.

Rootstrap is a full-service digital creative studio offering ROI-focused web and mobile app development to the Los Angeles market. We’ve worked with everyone from stars like Tony Robbins to up-and-coming kids out of Idaho. Since opening shop in 2011, we’ve overseen more than 250 successful product launches.

Mobile app development is the core of our business identity at Rootstrap. As our home city, we have a world-class team of app developers rooted in Los Angeles.

Whether you have a nearly-finished app with a comprehensive go-to-market strategy or you have some scribbles on the back of an envelope from a moment of inspiration, the Rootstrap team is here to help you succeed.

Our focus is to strip the risks from your investment and deliver you a product that will engage your audience. We've developed 250+ products for 500 founders with combined revenue of 100m+. Our team battle-tests every idea that comes across our desk to make sure it can withstand the test of time throughout market shifts and trends.

Whether your company’s project is big or small, user-facing or B2B, startup or enterprise, Rootstrap scales to your needs.

At Rootstrap, we firmly believe in Agile development. Agile is a software development methodology that prioritizes building functional software above all else. Instead of spending excessive time in the planning stages and suffering analysis paralysis, we work to create a lean minimum viable product (MVP) and get it in front of users as soon as possible.

Here are the four main principles of the Manifesto for Agile Software Development:

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
• Working software over comprehensive documentation
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change over following a plan

We use Agile development because it works. Getting a functional product in front of users helps us get out of our heads and learn from the people we want to reach with the mobile app. Gathering this valuable feedback from your audience during the early stages of development lets us ground every succeeding decision in what real users want.

Rootstrap clients range from first-time, solo entrepreneurs to global enterprise organizations, but we bring the same agile strategy to every project we take on. Our Agile approach allows our global team of more than 60 full-stack engineers to adjust to your project’s specs.

Whether your company needs an entire mobile app development team or a single software engineer, we can accommodate any project’s scope and scale with you as your business grows.

Our focus is on creating apps that generate real ROI. No matter what industry we’re developing for, we strive to keep the company’s end goals in clear focus. Instead of blindly building a product, we take time to understand your business model, your industry, and your organization’s objectives.

Once we have a clear picture of how mobile app development fits into your company’s overall goals, we can start creating a mobile app that will propel your business forward. We design with your goals in mind by thoughtfully tying every element of the mobile app design and development process to overarching business objectives.

Whether it’s a simple Android MVP, a massive enterprise iOS app, or some crazy new technology we haven’t even thought of yet, Agile development lets us build functional, beautiful products that generate real ROI for our clients.

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Of course, development is impossible without design – and mobile app design is one of our core service offerings at Rootstrap. In fact, this is so important to us that we have a standalone process dedicated purely to mobile app design: Discovery. 

Discovery is the seed from which our greatest projects have grown as it creates a shared map to exactly where you want to be. It's a pre-development process that helps us answer the biggest questions before putting down big money for development: 

Discovery helps us answer the following questions:

• Who will use this app?
• Why do they need it? 
• Why is it better than what’s already out there? 

Discovery serves to define your concept, validate it in the marketplace, and map the course to launching the final product. 

We break the Discovery process into 4 key phases

Setting the Vision

Through our honed Discovery process, we work with you to unearth the unique value proposition your project represents. Having a shared, crystal clear understanding of the mission is essential to avoiding feature-creep and unnecessary distractions.

Accurate Estimates

Asking how much it costs to build an app is like asking how long is a piece of string. It depends on a wide array of variables and unknown unknowns. Discovery helps us co-create a shared understanding of what it will take to

build and release an MVP.

If you’ve already started down the path of building your product but are finding your current resources lacking, we will take a look at the existing work to see what can be used, what can be improved, and what needs to go. 

Defining the Goal

By understanding your vision, assessing any existing assets, and co-creating a plan for the core functionality needed for an initial release, we can shave weeks or months off the project timeline - and the budget.

Design/Code Assessment

Our team is global, which gives us the flexibility to work when you do and adjust to any time zone. Still, LA is our home town, and starting here means you can work with our Los Angeles mobile app developers in person.

Who are we? We’re a team of mobile app developers, product fanatics, and dreamers, just like you.

The Apple App Store is a lucrative marketplace many startups are eager to join.

“In 2020, customers spent an estimated 72.3 billion U.S. dollars on...in-app purchases, subscriptions, and premium apps in the Apple App Store,” reports Statista.

Still, this massive marketplace does not guarantee a product will meet with success. Creating an app that’s worth downloading starts with enlisting a good team.

The Rootstrap dev team has been building world-class iOS apps for years. Our software engineers are masters in iOS development. How do we do it?

We’re militant about the code standards for our iOS apps. We’re equally at home in Swift, C, C++, Objective-C, or any other language you prefer. Beyond that, our commitment to Agile means we work hard to make sure we’re building as lean and efficient as possible.

Pro tip: Our experience equips us with insight into what it takes to get apps featured in the App Store. We’ll work with you to give your product the best chance possible.

Still, all the world’s technical proficiency is nothing if you don’t reach a positive ROI. From inception to design to development, we base every decision on users’ needs and your company’s long-term goals. That way, we can help you tap into the juicy Apple market and get a strong ROI.

iPhone apps may get more of the spotlight, but companies should not overlook Android app development’s growing value.

“In 2020, Google Play users worldwide downloaded 108.5 billion mobile apps, up from 76 billion apps in 2018,” says Statista. “Google Play generates significant[ly] more downloads than the Apple App Store, as it is available for a wider range of devices than Apple's closed iOS ecosystem, which is only available for Apple devices.”

On another level, Android is a more flexible platform than iOS in several key ways. User acquisition costs less for Android apps than iPhone apps, which means it’s cheaper and easier to build a user base for an Android app than on iOS.

Additionally, Google Play allows you to publish updates faster than on the Apple Store. This flexibility makes iterative development easier and more efficient. Google Play will enable us to publish an initial v1.0 on Android, gather data from users, and iterate the app in real-time.

We always recommend releasing an app for both Google Play and the Apple App Store. However, if money is tight, we’ve seen success by building an initial user base on Android, then launching on iOS once your app gains traction and has a stronger market position.

If you’re stuck debating between launching an Android or iOS app or both, don’t stress it too much. Ultimately, there’s no right answer. How you choose to allocate development resources and bring your mobile app to market all depends on the specifics of your app concept, your key value proposition, and your target user demographic.

When you work with Rootstrap, we help you answer all these questions before building the app.

If you’re considering building a mobile app in Los Angeles (or New York, or anywhere else for that matter), we would love to hear from you. We’re always looking for new projects and want to talk with you whether you have a detailed plan or just a spark of an idea. 

Drop us a line, even if it’s just for a quick chat. After all, the world’s biggest companies started as just that: quick, friendly chats over coffee. 

Who knows? Maybe we’ll help you start the next one. Anything can happen in this town.  

San Francisco is an undisputed hub of app development due to its proximity to Silicon Valley and VC funding. Similarly, the Los Angeles tech scene (Silicon Beach) is now home to tech industry leaders such as Hulu and Google.

While San Francisco has a deeper talent pool, Los Angeles app developers continue to flourish due to its industries’ diversity and access to LAX. Financially, the two cities have hourly rates ranging from $100 - $199.

Please get in touch with us to learn more about app development in Los Angeles.

The development costs of an app can range anywhere from $80k to $250k+, depending on the app’s complexity and scope and its intended platform and category.

An app development agency’s location and its development methodology approach also contribute to the final cost.

See how companies are using IT staff augmentation as an alternative to help lower app development costs.

When shopping around for an app developer in Los Angeles, the three most important questions to ask are:

• What development methodology do you use (Agile vs. Waterfall)?
• How do you handle strategic planning?
• What is your market validation process?

Get to know their track record of past work and return on investments. Read up on testimonials and browse their portfolio.

Please feel free to contact us at Rootstrap with these types of questions and ask for a quote. 

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