Web App Makers Unite in Cambridge

Above the Fold and Active Frequency announce new partnership providing innovative design and development of custom applications

Kevin Grinberg & Joe Baz

Above the Fold, LLC, a user experience design company founded in 2004 by Joe Baz, and Active Frequency, a boutique web development company founded in 2007 by Kevin Grinberg and Yoni Samlan, announced a strategic partnership today to provide consulting, design and development services to Web startups and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies.

The link between the user experience design services of Above the Fold and custom web and mobile application development by Active Frequency allows Web startups and SaaS companies to take advantage of quality, first-to-market custom online solutions. These solutions give companies the edge to secure investment funding, drive user engagement and build a reputable online brand.

User experience design, a growing discipline that stresses usability in the design of websites and applications, gives entrepreneurs and business executives the recipe needed to properly design their Web product and validate it with their customers.

“We are in an unprecedented time of innovation on the Web – new Web services are launching every day and the attention span of users is getting thinner and thinner. We try to capture that attention by designing applications that are engaging and effortless to use,” says Joe Baz, CEO & Founder of Above the Fold. “There is no reason why a great idea should be hindered by a poor user experience.”

Prior to this partnership, Above the Fold focused primarily on design-oriented engagements and provided the final design work to the client for coding. “We find that many clients already have developers or have already engaged with a development shop. However, we also see high demand of Web entrepreneurs that need a complete Web solution,” says Mr. Baz.

Enter Active Frequency. Their expertise lies in custom web and mobile application programming for businesses.  “We build custom, bespoke software when existing commercial and open-source solutions don’t fully meet the customer’s needs, “ says Kevin Grinberg, co-founder of Active Frequency.  “This can mean anything from extending or customizing an existing open-source offering to building something completely novel ‘from scratch.’”

While Active Frequency provides expertise in a number of programming languages and environments, the company has a particular focus on the Django framework due to its efficiency and modularity.

The new partnership between Above the Fold and Active Frequency allows the companies to provide an integrated service offering to clients. Through constant collaboration, both disciplines are fully engaged throughout the life of the project, dismantling the barrier between “design” and “development.”

The two companies recently relocated to a new space located in Central Square, Cambridge, a hub of innovation in Massachusetts. This new co-location will allow the two businesses to operate in a cost-effective and efficient manner that will ultimately benefit the client.

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