Sapling Mobile: a multi-role platform in five months
A stalled MVP re-shaped and rebuilt into a production platform, running for two years on the client's own three-person team.
Sapling Mobile arrived with a half-built MVP and a roadmap their own lead engineer didn't believe in. Sunk cost was pulling them toward finishing the wrong product. The first two weeks of the engagement weren't code at all. They were re-shaping the core workflow around how their customers actually used mobile.
Re-scope first, then build fast
The re-shaped scope cut the surface area nearly in half and made a five-month build honest instead of optimistic. We rebuilt on our standard stack, Next.js, TypeScript, PostgreSQL, with working software in the client's hands every two weeks. No invisible-progress months; every review was something to click.
Built to be handed over
The success criterion was never launch. It was Sapling's own three engineers running the platform without us. That shaped everything: boring, hireable technology, typed code end to end, observability from day one, and documentation written for the team inheriting it. We trained their engineers during the build, not after it.
“They built it like it was their company. And handed it over so cleanly we never looked back.”