Our client runs a consumer platform that holds sensitive personal data and moves it through a chain of third-party integrations. A small fixed-price codebase audit showed the existing foundation wasn’t built to carry their investor-promised B2B product, so the roadmap was re-sequenced: we rebuilt the platform in 7 months at a fixed price, and the enterprise product then shipped on top of it. We name the metrics, not the client.
The Situation
The client is a U.S. consumer company running a real-time platform that stores sensitive personal data and moves it through a chain of third-party integrations, every one a dependency that has to hold the moment it’s needed. They came to us to take over development and to build a B2B enterprise product promised to investors as a major roadmap milestone. The existing codebase, a Firebase mobile backend, a PHP web portal, and native iOS and Android apps from a prior team, had been built to reach the market, not to carry an enterprise product or the security and scale that came with it. The board wanted ground truth about the asset before committing to the new initiative.
What We Did
The sequence our service ladder is now built around, executed here first. A small fixed-price codebase audit across all platforms mapped what would and wouldn’t carry the enterprise build: code quality, maintainability, security, scale. Consulting turned the findings into a plan, covering security, performance, tech-debt catch-up, and the board made an informed decision: the enterprise product was deliberately postponed until the foundation was ready to carry it. Telling a client to delay the product they had promised investors is not what anyone hoped to hear from us; it is also the reason that product shipped at all. The rebuild then ran as a fixed-price project, with the delivery risk on us at the riskiest step: re-designed architecture, fixed API communication, new apps on a modern stack. The hard engineering lived in the product’s nature: sensitive personal data in motion, real-time behavior, and a chain of third-party integrations, every one a point that has to hold the moment it’s needed.
What Moved
The rebuild was delivered in 7 months at a fixed price. The audit converted uncertainty into a risk-ranked picture and the roadmap was re-sequenced on evidence rather than optimism. The enterprise product, the investor milestone, shipped on top of the rebuilt foundation; that is a fact of record, not a performance metric. These figures are as recorded at the time; they pre-date the standardized metric definitions our current proof loop uses.
Where It Went
The engagement continues as ongoing development under a monthly budget, building out the enterprise product and iterating on the platform alongside the client’s CTO and a dedicated product manager. The rebuilt platform has since passed a security certification. Diagnosis, then stabilization, then the new initiative, with a fixed price at the risky step: this engagement is where that order proved itself.