Driving Transformation and Efficiency

Atlanta-based startup was founded in 2013 as a service company assisting B2B sales and marketing teams with social media engagement. Several years later, they developed a web application and transitioned into a tech-enabled services company. The company lacked a CTO, and a co-founder had been acting as the liaison to an external offshore development firm. When that co-founder departed, the remaining founder aimed to further scale the company by transforming into a SaaS model. To assess the requirements for this transformation and to gain investor confidence, the CFO recommended bringing on Keiboarder as a Fractional CTO.

The company faced numerous challenges with its existing setup:

• Offshore Engineering Firm Issues:
  • No maintenance agreement was in place.  
  • Monthly costs lacked transparency.  
  • Task prioritization was absent.  
  • The system had massive technical debt, the extent and resolution timeline of which were unknown.  
  • There were no unit tests.  
  • Company lacked control over its technical assets, including the code repository and DevOps processes.
  • Engineering workflow processes were nonexistent.  
• The offshore firm convinced company that obtaining credentials for their primary third-party integration was impossible.  
• Company was on the verge of agreeing to "lease" these credentials, creating a permanent dependency on the firm for updates and functionality.  
• Annual revenue was $2.4 million.  

Keiboarder's involvement brought about significant improvements:

• Company gained ownership of its engineering assets, including:
  • GitHub repository.  
  • DevOps processes.  
  • Third-party integrations.  
  • Non-production environments.  
• The marketing website became independently manageable, without requiring engineering team intervention.  
• Monthly engineering costs were reduced, resulting in thousands of dollars of savings.  
• Key reporting systems were documented.  
• Uptime monitoring was implemented.  
• A disaster recovery plan was created for a Fortune Global 500 company.  
• 156 bugs were identified and addressed within the first 90 days.  
• Consistent engineering workflows were established for priority items.  
• Technical due diligence was conducted to instill investor confidence.  
• Application outages were reduced by fixing previously unknown, long-standing bugs.  
• Areas for application scalability were identified.  
• Metrics for MAU (Monthly Active Users), DAU (Daily Active Users), and visit duration were identified.  

The engagement lasted 10 months.

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Keiboarder's work yielded substantial business outcomes:

• Increased Valuation: Technical due diligence and a clear path to scalability enhanced investor confidence. ‍
• Operational Efficiency: Establishing engineering workflows, reducing costs, and gaining control of technical assets improved operational efficiency. ‍
• Improved Reliability: Addressing bugs and implementing uptime monitoring increased the reliability of the application. ‍
• Data-Driven Decisions: Identifying key metrics like MAU and DAU enabled data-driven decision-making. ‍
• Reduced Vendor Lock-in: Gaining ownership of third-party integrations and other technical assets reduced dependency on external vendors.

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This case study offers valuable insights for technology leaders:

• Strategic CTO Leadership is Essential: Having strong technology leadership is crucial for aligning technology with business goals and driving scalability. ‍
• Vendor Management is Critical: Clear agreements, cost transparency, and control over technical assets are essential for effective vendor management. ‍
• Technical Debt Must Be Addressed: Ignoring technical debt can lead to instability, increased costs, and hindered development. ‍
• Data and Monitoring are Key: Implementing robust data tracking and monitoring systems is essential for understanding user behavior and ensuring application reliability. ‍
• Proactive Problem Solving: Identifying and addressing underlying issues, such as lack of processes and vendor lock-in, can prevent future problems and enable growth.

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