Building Mobile App Success: Is Pocketworks Right for You?

Since Pocketworks was incorporated, one thing I’ve always wanted to do was help clients almost guarantee success when they build mobile apps. In practice, this is a really hard thing to achieve, but we’re getting closer every year. 

I don’t want this to be a sales pitch, but I think it’s useful to highlight where Pocketworks is different so you can decide if we’re a good fit.

A Different Philosophy

The thing is, building successful apps isn't just about writing code. Over the years, we've evolved from just being an app developer to introducing different services that we believe increase the chances of success for a client. 

Our philosophy is largely based on what to do *after* an app is first launched - many agencies focus on the initial build, but honestly, that's just a drop in the ocean compared to how an app is managed and evolved.

And, to brag a little, it seems to be working — over the last 12 years we’ve helped one client grow from zero to 1.5M annual bookings. Another health app company has increase revenue by 900% over four years. Our two in-house startups are both revenue generating. 

This is all possible by building up layers of expertise that all contribute to a successful app journey.

Building Success Layer by Layer

Let me walk you through how we've built up these different layers of expertise, each one making your app more likely to succeed.

Getting Close to Your Customers

Back in 2015, Anna joined us, who has a background in user research. I realised from Amber Cars - one of our clients - that being close to your customer makes a huge difference to app success. I was really keen to figure out how to make that part of the app development process.

These days, we have customer-centric practices baked in. Take our work with Carbs & Cals - we conduct unbiased user research to get the real voice of their customers, which enables us to create better features for them. We also invite customers into user testing sessions so we can see how they interact with the app. 

And these practices are more widespread now. For example, Lloyds conducts user interviews and surveys to gather insights into customer needs and preferences. A Forrester study showed that customer retention rates were 1.7x higher for experience-driven companies

That app now enjoys 4 star reviews and month-on-month customer growth.

Quality That Matters

We have much better quality assurance now, which means that very few bugs get out to clients. The last thing you need is customers reporting bugs because that affects your brand reputation and perceived quality. 

Also, how can you trust us if you have to keep checking all our work for basic mistakes? As I mention later, we care about autonomy and trust, and being able to keep your app bug-free is key to that.

We're trying to give SMEs some of the maturity and practices found in large companies such as Lloyds Bank, Jet2 and HSBC.

Enterprise-Level Technology Practices

When it comes to robust solutions, we've built full-stack systems for Veezu that can handle hundreds of transactions per second in a secure and fault-tolerant way. It's proper enterprise-grade stuff, made accessible for growing businesses.

These are underpinned by code analysis tools that report on code quality issues. After all, leading companies allocate an average of 15% of IT budgets for tech debt remediation, according to Accenture.

Understanding Growth

To really complete the picture of what makes an app successful, we've added a new layer to our services focused on app marketing and growth. There's a whole piece around that - how you can use data to understand usage patterns and find out where customers bounce and where they drop off, highlighting new opportunities for improvement. 

Over the last 12 years, we've been building up all these layers and building up our own understanding and learning.

A Shift To Helping Purpose-Led Leaders

In 2024, we realised that we prefer helping purpose-led organisations more than others; we want our energy to go toward those that are trying to improve society and the environment. So, we’ve started exploring how we can help those companies amplify their impact in a sustainable way. 

These include:

• Health & Wellbeing companies like Carbs & Cals
• Manufacturers building a culsture of sustainability, with net-zero targets
• People trying to influence positive behavioural change in society
• Green transport companies
• Tech-for-good startups

We've gone from just being an app developer to becoming a strategic partner that brings long-term enterprise-level practices to purpose-led SMEs.

How We Work Together

All of this expertise is great, but what really matters is how we put it to work for you.

Annoyingly Autonomous?

Another area where we're probably a bit different is we're quite autonomous. We have one app that we manage where we literally do everything. We decide on the roadmap. We choose what gets built. We research what customers need. We then build that out. We test it, we launch it, we manage the timeline. For example, with some apps, the last thing you want to do is launch at the busiest time.

First, We Need Trust

Not everybody wants that level of autonomy, so it's important that you understand that although we're quite happy to be told what to do at times, we always push for more autonomy. But this requires trust, so we understand that you need time to build trust in us. 

Of course, we always keep our client partners in the loop and we always explain what we think and ask their opinion. Most of our clients know their business and their customers better than we do. So, we have to lean into that and make the most of their knowledge.

What's the Cost of Success?

Now, you might be wondering what this all means for your project. 

There is a cost to all this, so we have to try and find a way of doing it that fits within a budget while also guaranteeing that we can get you to some level of success - that's what we aim to do. 

As of December 2025, our budgets are typically £150K-£1.5m a year. As a £2.8m turnover business, this means we can manage a smaller portfolio of apps and give them the attention they need. We're employee owned, and growing our head-count and shipping tons of apps are not our primary goals. 

Instead, we want to enjoy working with you on challenging problems, enjoying success together.

Aside from that, there is a another slightly selfish motive behind all this too — we want to work with you for a long time. The only way we can do that is if we help you achieve success at every key milestone of your journey.

Right for you?

So, I wanted to give you this overview, a flavour of what working with us is like, to make sure that we're the right company for you. We're not just building apps - we're building long-term success stories, backed by real results and enterprise-grade expertise.