The Challenge
The guys at SpacetoCo had big plans to take their idea of listing local spaces worldwide. Their vision was to provide a peer-to-peer platform that would better utilise people’s resources, drive local economies and most importantly – reconnect the community.
To make this dream a reality SpacetoCo needed to partner with an agency capable of delivering a web application that can leverage an Airtasker, Uber and AirBNB (esk) technology stack.
The Thinking
After several strategy sessions held by BirdBrain in collaboration with SpacetoCo it was agreed that BirdBrain would prototype, design & develop a full function web application built in Facebook’s ReactJS frontend library and integrated with ‘Stripe Connect’ to launch a peer-to-peer marketplace for listing spaces, earning host funds and collecting a platform service fee.
The Solution
The desired web application is both complex in user interactions and 3rd party API dependant. This required a full JavaScript stack (ReactJS, Redux, NodeJS, Express, Firebase). This allowed us to seamlessly integrate some powerful API’s and leverage out-of-the-box authentication tools. A big technology consideration when scoping this project was the Stripe Connect Marketplace which allows Hosts, Spacers and Spacetoco to essentially get paid. Stripe gave us the control of everything from the UI to the timing of transfers and assisted with the instant identity verification.
Another intricate feature was the Geo & availability search tool which allows customers looking for a space to search by their location and filter by: space availability. attendees, amenities and price. Other bespoke core functionalities included; event triggered email notifications, in dashboard peer-to-peer messaging, Facebook sign-up and login, Host and Spacer reviews and a custom built drag-n-drop space image upload via Google Cloud Storage integration.
“SpacetoCo was a unique project from our first meeting with the guys, we could tell they were tech savvy and willing to invest in future tech. This gave us the opportunity to pick a technology stack that we felt would deliver a strong infrastructure, speed and cutting-edge UX. It allowed us to deep dive into the possibilities for building a user-centred, real-time, full stack JavaScript application. The project didn’t come without it’s complications but the end result separates it from similar marketplace applications and has the potential to challenge other sharing economy heavy weights.”
– Sam Logan (Technical Lead)
Every now and then, you come across relationships in life that tend to defy explanation. Whether they be personal or business, when you find something that works, the day-to-day communications are enriched by a deep understanding of the purpose & end goal.
Our 12 months of design and development work with Birdbrain has been nothing short of incredible. The focus, determination, attention to detail & perseverance have been invaluable to our start-up business. Every phone call, email & Google Hangout has always resulted in a step forward with great clarity, explanation & vision.
We’ve often been asked throughout our journey, who we’ve worked with in the development of our platform and what the experience has been like. Without hesitation, we have gloated at the fact we found such an amazing team. From David’s calm approach & understandable tone to Sam, Nick & Puravin’s attention to detail on every pixel, the entire journey has been epic.
We love our application, as it’s been our baby for the last 12 months. We know though that when customer after customer describes to us how incredibly beautiful, fast, professional and trustworthy the application is, that we have created something really special. Starting a business isn’t easy. Starting something that has the potential to go global brings even more challenges. At every level, the Birdbrain team have exceeded our expectations, and have pushed our customers experience to levels we never anticipated
spacetoco.com
