ZeroCrewHow we build
How we build our apps
AI makes it easy to ship an app in a weekend. It doesn’t make it easy to ship one worth keeping. That part is still craft, and craft is the whole job here.
We start with the people
Every app begins with a group of people, not an idea for an app.
Before we build anything, we ask three questions:
- Do we know the people we’re building for?
- Do we understand the problems they have every day?
- If we don’t yet, do we want to learn?
If the answer to the last one is no, we don’t build it. An app made for people you don’t care about shows it on every screen.
Why we chose Apple
Apple cares about craft, privacy, and the details, and so do we.
In a world of noise, Apple still cares how things are made. So we build only for the App Store, on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, with the tools Apple makes: Swift, SwiftUI, iCloud, and StoreKit. No cross-platform shortcuts, and no web page wrapped to look like an app.
Privacy comes with it. We use what Apple gives us first: your device and your own iCloud. When an app needs a service outside Apple, we build it carefully. It collects only what the app needs, it’s protected, and it’s never sold or used for ads. Your privacy and your well-being come before any number we could grow. Each app’s section of the privacy policy says exactly what it stores and where.
How an app gets made
One person decides what’s worth making
Many ideas pass the first test. One person chooses the few worth months of work. If we can’t name who it’s for in one sentence, we don’t build it.
A swarm of AI agents helps with the work
Agents help build, test, translate, and check every detail: each screen against Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines, each feature with automated tests. The agents do the work. One person decides what’s good enough to ship.
Beta testers first
Every app goes to testers on TestFlight before it reaches the App Store. They use it in real life, and their notes decide what changes before launch.
Listen, then make it worth more
We use AI to read every note, review, and support message, so we understand what people value, which features matter most, and where the app can do more with what iPhone, iPad, and Mac already offer.
Kept up to date or retired
Every app gets the new versions of iOS, iPadOS, and macOS as they arrive. An app we can’t keep at that standard leaves the App Store rather than going stale.
What we don’t do
No clones of someone else’s app. No ads. No dark patterns on a paywall. No app shipped because a machine could make it.
I share more about how we build on X. Follow along.