Transparency and accountability are foundational principles in business. We believe sharing our experiences—both positive and challenging—can benefit the broader entrepreneurial community. In that spirit, we’re detailing our difficult journey with our former development partner. Idea Usher is a global software development firm.
Our engagement with Idea Usher began in early 2022. We hired them to build a robust music streaming app for both mobile and web, tailored specifically for musicians. The agreed-upon cost was over $20,000. It was paid in multiple milestones and fully documented through invoices, PayPal, and cryptocurrency transactions.
Despite our initial confidence, the project quickly faced serious challenges. Timelines slipped consistently, critical functionalities repeatedly failed, and their quality assurance processes proved inadequate. Months of delays turned into years, significantly affecting our business momentum and progress.
Unprofessional Conduct and Lack of Accountability
To address our growing concerns, we commissioned an independent audit by a third-party development agency, Weelorum. The audit confirmed significant foundational issues, including severe architectural weaknesses, improper state management, memory leaks, and poor overall code quality. This report validated our long-standing frustrations. It also provided objective proof of the deep-seated problems with the project. You can review the full report here.
Escalating Tensions and a Minimal Refund Offer
When we grew tired of waiting for Nitish Garg to deliver on his promises to make things right, we decided to explore ideas of sharing our experience publicly. We first offered him a final opportunity to resolve the issue. Instead of addressing our concerns, he responded with an insinuated threat. He said his 250+ employees could leave one-star reviews on our business in retaliation for us sharing our honest experience.The WhatsApp message was later deleted by Mr. Garg.
This threat, coming from a co-founder who had just acknowledged our project’s struggles and been given months to deliver a resolution, was shocking. After we raised this issue, both Nitish Garg and Tanya Bansal sent emails apologizing for their behavior. Despite these apologies, their resolution offer was grossly inadequate. They offered a minimal 10% refund of our entire project investment. This was unacceptable given the complete failure of the project and the immense cost of rebuilding the application.
The situation escalated further. We discovered that Idea Usher, without our authorization, was attempting to access our AWS root-level credentials. They had been granted access during our partnership. However, that permission was no longer valid. Their attempt was a clear effort to lock us out of our applications, presumably as a response to their false accusations that we hadn’t paid them. These baseless claims were later disproven by our extensive documentation. They forced us to halt all use of the platform and website we had already paid for.
Instead, our refund request was met with threats, not a solution. 
After we provided a screenshot of the USDT transaction to CEO Nitish Garg, co-founder Tanya Bansal still refused to offer a full refund. They offered only a fraction of our investment back, contingent on us first removing our negative reviews. This exchange highlights their continued pattern of shifting blame and avoiding accountability.
A Pattern of Blame-Shifting and Online Review Manipulation
Our experience highlights a consistent pattern of behavior. When we raised our concerns, Idea Usher offered a minimal refund. This was contingent on the removal of our factual reviews from platforms like Clutch. They requested that we lie to the platform and claim the review was unauthorized—a condition we found professionally unacceptable. Click here to listen to the evidence of now-deleted WhatsApp Voice note from Tanya Bansal.
Trustpilot removed our honest review of a company, Idea Usher, despite us providing evidence to support our claims. We are currently contesting their decision.
In a similar situation, after Idea Usher falsely claimed to Clutch that they had not provided services to us, we submitted documentation to Clutch to prove our engagement. Clutch then reinstated our review and dismissed Idea Usher’s request to have it removed.
Furthermore, we’ve observed a concerted effort to manipulate their online reputation. We’ve seen evidence of their employees leaving positive reviews on websites like Yelp and Trustpilot. This was to boost their rating. At the same time, they are attempting to silence honest negative reviews on their business by flagging them, as they have done with us. This approach of shifting blame and pressuring us to remove our reviews first, rather than addressing our concerns or providing a fair resolution, left us deeply disappointed in their lack of accountability and professionalism.
Idea Usher’s New Shell Game? Beware “Intellivon”
We’ve documented our nightmarish experience with Idea Usher, and it appears they’re now trying a new tactic to escape their reputation. We’ve discovered they are operating under, or at least using, another company called Intellivon to lure in potential clients who may have already read the warnings about Idea Usher.
Here’s what we’ve found:
The Key Player: Tanya Bansal
A key figure in this is Tanya Bansal. After our negative reviews and disputes gained traction, we noted that Ms. Bansal’s primary LinkedIn page was altered, changing or removing information about her direct experience and high-level involvement with Idea Usher.
Where is she doing business now? Under Intellivon.com.
This isn’t a coincidence. The domain for Intellivon.com was registered in June 2025. This date is critical—it’s just one month after our initial negative reviews and complaints began to circulate widely.
It appears to be a clear, calculated effort to create a “clean” brand, detached from the string of complaints, dissatisfied clients, and warnings associated with the Idea Usher name. They are hoping new, unsuspecting clients won’t make the connection.
A Pattern of Deception
This new shell company is, unfortunately, perfectly in line with how Idea Usher has treated us. As our readers know, our attempts to get a refund or a working product were met with gaslighting and manipulation.
Idea Usher went so far as to rescind any and all refund offers precisely because we refused to be bullied. They demanded we first post false, positive reviews stating they “fixed our problems” before they would return our money. We refused to lie for them, especially since it was clear they never had any intention of fixing the issues in the first place.
Our Warning: Do Not Be Fooled
We cannot recommend anyone do business with Idea Usher or their apparent sister company, Intellivon.
A new name and a new website don’t change the deceptive practices or the people running the show. Do your diligence, and steer clear of both.
Key Lesson’s for Businesses
Our experience with Idea Usher a/k/a Intellivon has been disappointing and unprofessional. Despite numerous assurances, they falsely claimed that we had agreed to additional updates. Over the course of more than 50 calls with their team, none of the bugs were resolved. The issues within the application persisted. We were frustrated by their lack of progress and unwillingness to refund our investment. Ultimately, we had no choice but to walk away.
We refrained from leaving reviews until both their CEO and Co-Founder explicitly stated they had no intention of refunding any part of our investment. In the spirit of transparency, we believe it’s important for other startups and businesses to hear honest experiences. We remain committed to integrity and mutual accountability as we continue forward with new development partners.
Our experience with Idea Usher underscores critical lessons for businesses hiring outsourced developers:
- Maintain comprehensive documentation of all agreements, payments, and communications.
- Demand independent code audits at significant project milestones.
- Be cautious about conditional offers tied to silencing factual reviews.