The App Lab
Shipped products, hackathon builds, and experiments — from the Swyft Studios workbench. Culture-driven apps built to solve real problems.
This is where we build things that matter.
The App Lab is our public collection of shipped products, hackathon entries, and experimental builds. Some of these serve thousands of users. Some were built in 24 hours. All of them sit at the intersection of technology and culture.
Every product here was built with the same tools and engineering rigor we bring to client work. Think of this as our public portfolio — and proof that we ship.
Download. Try. Give feedback.
Shipped Apps
CardCraft
A greeting card design, print, and mailing service. Browse hundreds of designs from a global artist community, personalize with our robot handwriting system, and mail directly to recipients. No stamps, no post office.
Squad Up
A charades-style party app centered on Black culture. Gather your squad, grab themed decks — Hip Hop, R&B, Black Girl Magic, TV Shows — and guess the word before time runs out. Built for social energy and fast sessions.
Trivia Black
The #1 Black culture quiz app. Head-to-head trivia across six categories: Black History, Music, Film, Geography, Sports, and Black Girl Magic. Challenge friends, family, or strangers. Claim all 6 category pieces to win.
CutUp
A platform that takes the frustration out of finding hair care services for people of color, anywhere in the world. Connecting users with barbers and stylists who understand their needs, with integrated payments and booking. One of our earliest products tackling an underserved market.
Hackathon Builds
Products we built under pressure — proving that constraints breed creativity.
SXSW 2017 — Winner
Jukebox
A music discovery and sharing platform built in 24 hours at the SXSW Hackathon. Users discover, purchase, and share high-quality audio and video clips from major artists. Send your favorite song excerpts to friends while content creators earn revenue from shared digital content.
Built with a real-time media pipeline, payment integration, and social sharing — all in a single overnight sprint. Selected as a winner from the full competitor field.
Cloudinary
Square API
iOS
“It is rare to see a company send actual developers on-site instead of marketing folks.” — Square Developer Team
The Team
Two Virginia Tech engineers who met in school and never stopped building.
Damola Omotosho
Co-Founder & Engineer
B.S. & M.S. in Engineering from Virginia Tech. Speaker on building MVPs. 2023 OEN Early Stage Entrepreneur Award winner. Leads CardCraft and product development.
Eric King
Co-Founder & Engineer
B.S. & M.S. in Engineering from Virginia Tech. Full-stack engineer focused on mobile and web. Co-architected every Swyft Studios product from Squad Up to CardCraft.
Dev Notes
We try to learn something from every product we ship — even the ones that don’t scale. A few things the Lab has taught us:
On underserved markets
The best products we’ve built serve communities that existing apps ignore. CutUp, Squad Up, Trivia Black — each started by asking “why doesn’t this exist?” When your users feel seen by the product, adoption isn’t a problem.
On MVPs
Ship the smallest thing that proves the value. CardCraft started as a basic app sending cards. Now it has a robot handwriting system, a global artist network, and an OEN Award. But version one was just “pick a card, type a message, we mail it.” That was enough to learn.
On hackathons
The 24-hour constraint is a feature, not a bug. Jukebox at SXSW taught us more about prioritization than any sprint planning session. When you have one night to ship, you learn what actually matters. We bring that discipline to every project.
On AI-assisted development
AI tools have changed how we explore product ideas. We prototype faster, test more variations, and spend less time on boilerplate. But the product decisions — who it’s for, what problem it solves, how it should feel — those are still human calls.
Rapid Build Sprints
Fast, focused builds for indie makers, side projects, and early experiments. Ship something real in weeks.
Prototype Sprint
2 Weeks
Best for: Testing a single idea or user flow fast
$4,000
Fixed scope
- One core feature, functional
- Single-platform build
- Clean project handoff
- Basic documentation
Lab Sprint
3 Weeks
Best for: Shipping a working app with core user flows
$6,500
Fixed scope
- Core user journey, end-to-end
- 2–3 supporting features
- Single-platform with backend
- Check-ins + one iteration round
- Full handoff with docs
Full Sprint
4 Weeks
Best for: Polished builds ready for App Store or public beta
$9,000
Fixed scope
- Complete app with polished UX
- Backend + API integrations
- Multi-platform option
- Post-delivery iteration round
- App Store submission support
- Demo-ready quality
Sprints are fixed-scope, fixed-price. No hourly billing. Ideal for indie projects, hackathon follow-ups, and early experiments.
Want Us to Build Something Like This — For You?
The App Lab is where we build our own products. The same engineering, architecture, and production standards go into every client engagement — from rapid sprints to full product builds.