What It's Like Working With Abtin Valerie: A Client Review

We recently received an incredibly detailed review from a client we’ve been working closely with throughout the development of their product. Rather than pulling out only a few lines, we thought it was worth sharing the full review here.

"I’ve worked with quite a few freelancers and companies over the years, and Abtin and Valerie are genuinely a diamond in the rough.

When I first reached out to them, I already had a very refined concept for the product I wanted to build, including a lot of the market research, user problems, and overall experience I wanted to create. What I didn’t have was the actual product. They helped take that concept and turn it into something fully designed and developed, including helping create many of the physical designs themselves from what were originally just broad themes and ideas.

One of the biggest reasons I chose them was their understanding of manufacturing. Even before I hired them, they were already helping me think through different ways the product could potentially be made. Instead of giving broad answers like “this would probably be injection molded,” they were able to discuss different manufacturing methods, explain the advantages and limitations of each, and even show examples and prototypes from previous projects to help explain their thinking. That knowledge has been extremely valuable throughout the project.

What has probably impressed me most, though, is that they don’t just wait for instructions. I could give them a relatively vague explanation of what I was trying to achieve, and instead of simply coming back with more questions, they would actually think through the problem and come back with a proposed solution and the reasoning behind it. If they disagreed with one of my ideas, they weren’t afraid to say so either. They would explain why, suggest another approach, and then we could work through it together. It always felt collaborative rather than like I was just hiring someone to follow directions.

Their attention to detail is also exceptional. A good example was the 3D rope used in the product. Rather than simply wrapping a rope texture around a cylinder, they broke down the actual geometry and construction of the rope and recreated it properly in 3D. That mentality carried through pretty much everything they worked on. Their drawings, presentations, renders, and technical documents were consistently clean, organized, and very easy to understand.

One of the things I value most about their work is their willingness to put in the final 10%. Getting something 80% or 90% of the way there is often relatively straightforward. That last 10% is usually the hardest part. It’s where the details become more demanding, the time investment increases, and it takes considerably more thought and effort to keep refining something instead of simply calling it finished. Abtin and Valerie consistently put in that work. In my experience, that final 10% is what separates good work from exceptional work, and they clearly understand that. The project also evolved quite a bit over time, which I was initially worried might become frustrating for them. It never really did. They were extremely flexible with changes and revisions, and when something legitimately fell outside the original scope and required additional work, they were fair and transparent about it. They weren’t trying to charge for every small change.

Communication has been equally good. They’re responsive, their emails are thoughtful and clear, they deliver when they say they will, and even during periods where they were working on other projects, I never felt like I had become a second-place client. When something was difficult to communicate through email, I started sending Loom videos, and they adapted immediately. Meetings were productive, but also genuinely enjoyable.

The original timeline did extend because of unexpected prototype-testing challenges and because we kept pushing to get some of the details right, but I don’t view that negatively. This became a complicated product, and I would much rather work with people who care about getting it right than people who rush something through just to hit a date. Probably the biggest compliment I can give them is that my trust in their judgment has gone from good when I hired them to extremely high today. I regularly ask what they would prefer or how they would approach something because I genuinely value their opinion.

They seem to take an interest in the project almost as though it were their own business. They’re open-minded, they don’t cut corners, and they’re willing to put in the work when something needs to be figured out.

They’re not the option I would choose if the only goal was finding the cheapest designer available, but the quality of the work is nowhere close to cheap labor either. For what they deliver, I think they’re worth every penny. If another founder asked me whether they should work with Abtin and Valerie, my answer would be pretty simple: “You should have hired them yesterday.”

I fully expect to work with them again, and it’s something I’m actually looking forward to."

- Cody O., Founder of Bark & Byte (Coming Soon)

We really appreciate the time taken to write something this detailed. More than anything, it’s great to know that the way we work - the problem-solving, manufacturing thinking, attention to detail, communication and collaboration - is being felt on the other side of the project too.