Verve Motion
How Verve Motion Found a Software Development Partner That Doesn't Need Managing
"That would have been my biggest anxiety going in, and it's been alleviated." — Jeff Adams, Verve Motion
Jeff Adams
Staff Software Engineer, Verve Motion
Verve Motion builds human-centered robotics for industrial environments.
Their flagship product, SafeLift™, is a motorized exosuit that supports workers during physically demanding lifting tasks, combining wearable hardware, monitoring software, and ongoing operational support. Their customers are companies in logistics, distribution, and retail.
Running a hardware-plus-software product means Verve Motion doesn't just ship a device. They need to monitor how it's used in the field, manage device assignments to individual workers, track performance over time, and handle the operational complexity that comes with a fleet of physical assets. That requires software infrastructure — and a team to build it.
OrangeLoops has been that team since 2022.
The technical scope was clear. The harder challenge was structural.
When OrangeLoops came in, Verve Motion had solid backend infrastructure — but no web interface on top of it. Their internal engineering team was small. They needed a portal built from scratch: a web application that could handle inventory management, device assignment to field workers, usage metrics and reporting, and gateway device management.
As a startup, Verve Motion's budget fluctuates. They couldn't commit to a fixed headcount. They needed a contractor model that could scale up when capacity was available and scale back when it wasn't, without losing continuity or quality. "We can dial up and dial back as things are necessary," Jeff explains. "But we needed a team that was very capable in front-end and now full-stack."
Time zone compatibility wasn't a preference — it was a requirement. And perhaps most importantly: with an internal team stretched thin, they needed a partner capable of real autonomy. Not a team waiting to be told what to do next.
The engagement started through a referral.
A former colleague who had worked with OrangeLoops previously joined Verve Motion and brought them in — trust built on firsthand experience, not a pitch.
What's telling is what happened after: the people who made the original introduction eventually moved on. The relationship didn't. To this day, OrangeLoops is still Verve Motion's development partner — and the scope of the engagement has grown, not contracted.
What kept them? "The biggest thing for me is just how capable the team is," Jeff says. "Everyone I worked with from OrangeLoops has been very knowledgeable technically, very capable, very quick with what they can do. Secondarily, the flexibility is great. Verve has gone up and down as a business, and we've scaled up and scaled down what we needed — and that's exactly what we need from a contractor, for a company of our size."
What Was Built
The core product is the Portal, a web application built from scratch that gives Verve Motion full operational visibility and control over their product in the field. Inventory management, device assignment to workers, usage metrics and reporting, gateway device management: all managed through a single interface that didn't exist before.
As the relationship grew, two complementary applications were added. The Kiosk is a web application built for use at the physical locations where Verve Motion's devices are deployed — warehouses, distribution centers, retail sites. It puts inventory management and device operations directly in the hands of on-site teams, without routing everything through central operations.
The Leaderboard gives warehouse teams visibility into goals and top performers, turning individual output into something visible and shared across the floor.
The stack is React, OrangeLoops' primary framework and the client's preference. Deliverables throughout the engagement have included production code, Figma design screens, and QA reports.
What began as a focused frontend engagement has grown into a full-stack partnership. That shift didn't happen by contract renewal. It happened by accumulation of trust. As Verve Motion's confidence in the team deepened, so did the scope of what they handed over. OrangeLoops moved from owning the front end to taking on backend responsibilities as well, becoming the partner that holds the full technical picture alongside Jeff.
How the Work Was Done
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OrangeLoops didn't operate as an external vendor.
They embedded into Verve Motion's workflow, using their project management system, participating in planning and backlog sessions, working alongside the internal team the way an internal resource would.
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Communication was direct: async channels, weekly syncs, open conversations about priorities and technical direction.
"It's obviously a discussion of what to work on," Jeff notes, "but it's not a day-to-day 'okay, what's the task of the day?' — that's the biggest thing."
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And it wasn't entirely remote.
OrangeLoops visited Verve Motion's offices several times a year to coordinate, plan, and align — a level of presence that goes beyond what most distributed teams maintain.
When Things Got Complicated
Midway through the engagement, Verve Motion decided to redesign the portal's UI — with the product already in production.
OrangeLoops handled it by running a parallel design workstream while continuing development. The main roadmap kept moving.
The sharper test came when Verve Motion went through a period of financial difficulty.
Budget tightened. Their internal QA resource was gone, and active development wasn't what the situation called for.
OrangeLoops pivoted. Within weeks, a dedicated QA resource was in place, a shift in engagement model that matched what the client actually needed at that moment, not what had been originally planned.
"That flexibility — you just had someone ready to go for SQA within weeks, helping us out — that was really huge," Jeff recalls.
Jeff Adams makes the comparison from a specific vantage point: he's the one who feels it firsthand when the workload spikes.
During a brief gap in coverage, the contrast became especially clear from Verve's side.
"The biggest thing is velocity. I'm the only developer on the team, so whenever anything comes up I have to handle it — and even with AI, that's a lot to keep in my brain and respond to quickly. Having someone from OrangeLoops, I can literally offload stuff all the time. The developers have always been very flexible — an emergency comes up, they drop what they were working on, fix it, and go back."
The ability to offload isn't just about bandwidth. It's about what becomes possible for a small, stretched team when they have a reliable partner to absorb the overflow.
When asked to put that in concrete terms, Jeff offered an image instead of a number: "It's kind of like having a team on call that we can scale up and scale down fairly easily. When I'm a team of one, suddenly having a team of one or two others can double or triple the impact for me."
Beyond delivery, the partnership has extended into technical direction. "One of the great things has been the expertise OrangeLoops brings. It's really nice to talk to the engineers and ask: how does our technical debt look right now? What do you suggest moving forward, what trends in technologies do we need to put into the roadmap so we aren't falling behind? I basically have someone who's an expert to help me plan for the next year of work."
What the Client Says
"Your people have always been very quick and highly experienced. That would have been my biggest anxiety going in, and it's been alleviated."
"Your team has been very self-organized around what to work on, figuring out what's next. I appreciate not having to actively manage all of that. It's obviously a discussion of what to work on, but it's not a day-to-day 'okay, what's the task of the day?' — that's the biggest thing."
Jeff Adams
Verve Motion
"Compared to any contractor Verve employees have ever worked with, OrangeLoops has been extremely independent, effective, and fast."
"They are very good at project management, and we fully trust the entire team to get things done quickly and correctly."
Brendan Quinlivan
former Technical Product Manager, Verve Motion
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