Mobile app studio · İstanbul
We design, build and run
our own consumer apps.
Strategy, design, engineering, launch. Every step under one roof.
What we do
Everything an app needs, from concept to launch.
01
Product strategy
Deciding what the thing is before a screen gets drawn. Scope, the core loop, what ships in v1 and what gets cut without regret.
02
Interface design
Screens, motion and the design system underneath them, built to survive the next twenty features rather than just the launch screenshot.
03
Mobile engineering
Production apps, built to last: strict layering, typed error handling, offline states, and the unglamorous work that stops a release going wrong.
04
AI integration
Generation, retrieval and speech wired into a product where they change what it can do, and left out where a plain function is faster and more predictable.
05
Store launch
Listing copy, creatives, review submission, subscriptions and pricing. The last mile that decides whether anyone ever sees the app.
06
Growth & retention
Onboarding, paywalls and cohort analysis after launch, because the first release is where the work starts rather than where it ends.
Selected work
Proof, not promises.
Products we scoped, designed, built and launched ourselves, and still run today. Every one of them is on the App Store where anyone can check the claim.
- 01
Pody
The morning briefing writes and records itself.News · 2026 - 02
Moto Trip
A route planner that understands why you took the long way.Navigation · 2026 - 03
HomeAI
Redesign a room, a facade or a garden from one photo.Lifestyle · 2026 - 04
GuiGo
Say where you are going and how long you have. It plans the days.Travel · not live yet
How the work happens
Same rules, every app.
Whatever an app does on the surface, underneath it is built and run the same way.
01
The model is the product, or it stays out
A model goes in where it changes what the product can do, and nowhere else. Where a plain function does the job, it stays a plain function.
02
The boring parts are solved once
Every app runs on the same foundation: the same layering, the same backend, the same paywall. Accounts, analytics and localisation are shared infrastructure rather than per-project work, so a new product starts most of the way built and the effort goes into the part that is genuinely new.
03
We stay on after launch
The support inbox and the one-star reviews come back to the same desk that shipped the release. Owning the consequences turns out to be the most efficient quality process available.
Why we bothered
Nobody was going to fund the first version.
Upside exists to find out how far an idea can get without a client, a committee or a round in front of it. Everything on this site was picked, funded and shipped from inside the studio, which means we choose the problem, carry the mistake, and keep whatever comes of it.
The studio
The people behind the apps.
Before you ask
The things everyone asks us.
What is Upside App Studio?
Upside App Studio is an independent mobile app studio in İstanbul, shipping since 2026. It designs, builds and operates its own consumer mobile apps rather than taking commissions: Pody, Moto Trip, HomeAI and GuiGo. The studio is woman co-founded and keeps strategy, design, engineering and launch in-house.
Which apps has Upside App Studio built?
Four, all for iOS. Pody is a daily news briefing that writes and voices itself. Moto Trip is a route planner for motorcyclists. HomeAI redesigns a room, a house facade or a garden from a single photo. GuiGo builds day-by-day travel itineraries.
Where is Upside App Studio based?
İstanbul, Türkiye. The studio works remotely with partners elsewhere, and the contact inbox is read by the two founders rather than routed to a support desk.
Are you an agency?
No. The products on this site are ours: chosen, funded and still run from inside the studio. Nobody commissioned them, which is also why we can be blunt about what works and what does not.
Do you ever take client work?
Occasionally, when the problem is close enough to ours that we would learn something too. Tell us what you are trying to build and we will say plainly whether we are the right studio for it.
Where does AI actually sit in your apps?
In HomeAI it is the entire product: one photo in, a photorealistic redesign out. In Pody it is a chain that decides what mattered today, writes the script to a chosen length and tone, then voices it. In Moto Trip and GuiGo a model produces structured plans, waypoints and day-by-day itineraries, which are validated against real routing data before anyone sees them.
What does the studio actually do?
The whole chain: product strategy, interface design, mobile engineering, AI integration, store launch and everything after it. Strategy, design and code sit in the same conversation, so nothing gets lost in a handoff.
Are you raising, or open to grants?
Yes to conversations. We are a woman co-founded studio and we talk to funds and programmes backing small independent teams. Ask and we will send the deck and the real numbers.
Are you hiring?
Rarely, and never through a job board. If you have built something you are proud of, send it. We read everything, and we pay particular attention to people nobody has taken a chance on yet.
Still reading?
Then you probably want to say something.
No form that routes to nobody. Write and you get an answer from someone who can act on it.