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One team. Not three vendors.

An app agency, a backend contractor and a web studio can each do good work and still ship a product that does not fit together. Here is what the handoffs really cost, and what changes when one team owns every part.

For startups4 min readPublished By Eryk Kruk, CEO
Museo screenMuseoPrenta screenPrenta
Museo and Prenta: the app, the backend, the admin panel and the website, each built by one team.

It usually starts sensibly. You hire a mobile agency for the app, a backend developer you trust, and a studio for the website. Each one is good at what they do.

A few months later, the app waits for an endpoint, the endpoint waits for a decision, and the website promises a feature the app does not have yet. Nobody is lying. Everyone is waiting for someone else.

Where the time really goes

On a split project, every feature crosses a border. The app team writes a ticket for the backend team. The backend team asks a question. You answer it on a call that two of the three vendors join. The fix ships in one place and breaks something in another.

Each step is small. Together they turn a quick feature into a slow one. And when something goes wrong in production, the first meeting is about whose fault it is.

What one team changes

When one team builds every part, a feature is one conversation. The person changing a screen can change the endpoint behind it in the same week, and test both together. You get:

  • One plan and one fixed price per milestone, for the whole product.
  • One weekly build that shows every part working together.
  • One place to ask, and one team accountable when something breaks.
  • An admin panel and a website that match the app, because the same people built them.

What it looks like in practice

Museo, an AI museum guide, went from concept to a live product in about 3 months: the visitor app, an app for museum staff, the admin panel and the AI pipeline, all by one team. It is live in 28 languages.

Prenta started as a founder's idea and an AI prototype. One team built the app, the backend, the admin panel, a calendar agent, the emails and the website, from the first call in February to the store build in September.

An MVP starts at $15k. App Launch is also from $15k, typically $15-50k, and it includes the admin panel you can talk to.

The admin panel you can talk to

Every App Launch includes an admin panel with MCP. You can ask Claude or ChatGPT about your analytics, your database or your content, and change it in chat. Prenta's catalogue of more than 1,000 tasks is edited this way.

That only works smoothly when the same team built the app, the data and the panel.

Fast, without cutting corners

We build with AI because it makes us faster: many directions for the key screens, a clickable prototype in the first 1-2 weeks, a new build every week. AI tests every build, and Codigee experts review every line.

Speed comes from the tools. Quality comes from the people checking them. And you own the result: the code, the cloud account and the store accounts.

Is one team a single point of failure?

It is a fair worry. If one team holds everything, what happens if you part ways? Three things protect you. You own the code, the cloud account and the store accounts from the start. Every part is documented and handed over, so another team can pick it up. And you pay per milestone, so you can stop at any time and pay only for finished work.

Behind the people on your project stands a team of 20 designers and engineers, and a technical network of hundreds of experts. One team does not mean one person.

Five questions to ask any team

  • Who builds the backend, and can I talk to them directly?
  • Who builds the admin panel, and is it in the price?
  • Who handles the store release and the review?
  • Who fixes a bug that sits between the app and the server?
  • Do I own the code and the accounts from day one?

If the answer to the first four is a different company each time, you are managing the gaps yourself.

Already have a team?

Then you do not need us for everything. We can take one part, mobile, backend or design, and work in your repository with your tools and your code review.

That is Team up: $60/h, a minimum of 120 hours a month, 2 weeks notice.

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