SCALING
SUCCESS
How Zing helped Alex Shtutman take Authentic Detective to the next level
Authentication Confidence
Hailed as a private eye for luxury buyers, Authentic Detective provides purchasers with authentication confidence when investing in new and used luxury goods.
Founded in 2014 by entrepreneur Alexander Shtutman, the app-based business is a huge leap from the business’ beginnings.
At the time, Alex worked as a physical therapist assistant. In his spare time, he began reselling luxury shoes and accessories via social media. Success happened early on and what began as a hobby quickly became a full-time job.
The business grew from nothing to generate $600-700K annually…until the day he found his social media accounts were blocked: bringing his fast-growing business to a standstill.
Gaining control
It was a huge change and a really bad time in my life,” he recalls.“I knew I had to figure something out that would put me in control of everything.”
After pondering next steps for his brand, Alex felt that an app would appeal to the luxury sector.
While he had a vision for the app and could see the value it could lend his brand, the founder struggled to make his dream a reality.
“I began working on an app that I’m still working on four years later,” admits Alex.
And that’s when he realized he needed to find a partner capable of delivering a finished product.
Enter Zing
Alex began looking for a partner. Impressed by Zing’s good reviews, he decided to “shoot his shot” and reach out to its team. Setting the scene, he explains:
“I just said ‘All right let's just figure it out’. We pretty much clicked right away. I can tell a good human from a bad human. And I trusted them immediately.”
EASIER COMMUNICATION
Alex values the open working relationship he’s built with Umair, his main point of contact at Zing. He confesses
“I might talk to this guy all day long… I literally call at all hours of the night! I’ll do the math: if it’s 7pm here, it’s probably the middle of the night… and he’s always there. I don’t have experience of one-to-one with other developers.”
It’s a stark contrast from his previous web building experience around six years ago.
“I had some big company do it for me. It took them like six months and I maybe spoke to them once or twice week via email. I was definitely just another number and it was just horrible!”
Unlike ‘old-school’ development teams, Umair and his colleagues at Zing prefer one-to-one conversations via text channels over traditional emails.
Alex couldn’t be happier, explaining: “I definitely value the one-to-one texts as I don’t do emails.”
Greater understanding
Through these discussions over the past four years, the pair have developed an understanding of one another.
Umair knows I will change my mind a hundred times,”comments Alex.
“If I wait until I really figure out what I want to do I will never do it. That’s why - and this is for any entrepreneurs out there - you just need to come back to what you really started or just work and figure it out.
“Zing’s building a business for me right now that I don’t even know the name of so I just gave them a plug-in domain and I’ll figure it out the day before I launch because it doesn’t matter what it’s called.”
Non-stop support
Alex recognizes that growth is only as important as the foundation it’s built upon. When issues arise, however, Alex knows that the team at Zing are ready and able to respond. “We had an SOS situation last week,” recalls Alex.
“It was like literally the middle of the night and I had three or four guys working in my iOS back end and the web developer, too.
“They all made it into work at 2am on a Saturday morning. Little things like this are priceless. They step up when they’re needed and they do well.”
Scaling the heights of success
After four years of working together, Alex and Zing’s
relationship continues to grow stronger.
The Authentic Detective Fashion Forums app launched in 2023 to great success, including:
- Initial and subsequent releases in iOS and Google Play stores
- High user ratings (5.0 stars and 4.6 stars)
- >1K downloads to date
Alongside this, the partners are currently developing a further 10 applications.
“Zing’s team has proved itself over and over again,” enthuses Alex. “Sometimes people say that developers from overseas will build you a house of cards. They clearly don’t know my guys!”
Working with Zing for more than four years has also transformed the northern New Jersey native’s life.
The former physical therapist assistant explains: “Apparently, I now build apps for a living!”
“It’s been a crazy change in my life and I had not done anything like this before meeting Zing. I was very blessed to have that happen.”