Education SaaS Platform

Context

An education technology company needed to launch a new product: a learning management system for corporate training programs. Their existing platform couldn't support multi-tenancy, and they required real-time collaboration features that off-the-shelf solutions didn't provide at their price point.

They had already validated demand with pilot customers but were manually managing content delivery through a patchwork of Google Workspace tools. To scale, they needed dedicated software.

Problem

The core challenges:

• Multi-tenancy: Each corporate client needed isolated data, but managing separate deployments wasn't sustainable.
• Real-time collaboration: Learners needed to co-edit documents and participate in live sessions without third-party tools.
• Scalability: Expected to grow from 50 to 50,000+ users within a year.
• Timeline: 4-month hard deadline to replace manual processes and onboard paying customers.

Constraints

Technical and operational constraints I worked within:

• Fixed budget aligned with Series A fundraising round.
• No existing in-house development team (I was the sole builder).
• Client wanted to own the codebase and eventually hire internal devs.
• Had to integrate with existing payment processor (Stripe) and SSO provider (Auth0).

Approach

Architecture first: I spent the first two weeks designing the system before writing any code. The client got detailed database schemas, API specs, and infrastructure diagrams. This prevented scope creep and ensured alignment.

Core feature focus: I resisted feature requests that didn't serve the MVP goal. Video hosting, advanced analytics, and mobile apps were deferred to post-launch phases.

Iterative delivery: Every two weeks, I deployed working features to a staging environment. The client's pilot customers tested and provided feedback, which I incorporated in the next sprint.

Infrastructure automation: I set up CI/CD from day one. Deployments were automated, and monitoring dashboards were configured before the first line of application code.

Solution

I built a full-stack web application with these components:

• Front-end: React with TypeScript for type safety. Real-time collaboration via WebSockets.
• Back-end: Node.js with Express. RESTful API with role-based access control.
• Database: PostgreSQL with row-level security for multi-tenancy. Redis for session management and caching.
• Infrastructure: AWS (ECS for containers, RDS for database, CloudFront for CDN). Terraform for infrastructure-as-code.
• Integrations: Stripe for subscriptions, Auth0 for SSO, SendGrid for transactional emails.

The system supported tenant isolation at the database level, ensuring one company's data never leaked to another. Real-time features used socket.io for low-latency collaboration on shared documents.

Outcome

Delivered on time, 16 weeks from kickoff to production launch. Key results:

• 50,000+ users onboarded in the first 6 months without performance degradation.
• 99.8% uptime in the first year (exceeded SLA).
• Zero critical security incidents. Passed SOC 2 Type II audit 8 months post-launch.
• 15+ enterprise clients migrated from manual processes to the platform.

What Changed

Before this project, the client manually onboarded each corporate customer with custom Google Workspace configurations. Support overhead was unsustainable.

After launch, onboarding became fully self-service. New tenants could sign up, configure their environment, and invite users without touching the ops team. This freed up the client to focus on sales instead of operations.

The platform became their primary revenue driver, supporting a successful Series B raise 14 months later.