Building Microservices Architecture for Fundraising Platform
We partnered with a rapidly growing virtual fundraising startup to develop a comprehensive platform that seamlessly connects organizations, sellers, and buyers in fundraising campaigns. Over 7 years of collaboration, we evolved from developing an MVP to architecting a robust system capable of handling over 400,000 unique daily visitors and processing millions of transactions. The solution combines microservices architecture, serverless computing, and React Native mobile development to deliver an exceptional user experience while maintaining operational efficiency.
Industry:
Digital Transformation, Social Media
Services:
Back End Development, Cloud / DevOps, Front End Development, Mobile Development, QA as a Service, Software Testing
Location:
US
Challenge
The startup faced multiple technical and business challenges that required strategic engineering solutions.
Architectural scalability
The company needed to evolve from a monolithic system to support exponential user growth while handling seasonal traffic spikes and unpredictable load patterns. The critical challenge was ensuring that architectural decisions made early would withstand continuous growth over 7+ years without requiring constant system rewrites.
Business model uncertainty
During the startup phase, the company experienced frequent pivots between different user groups, including organizers, sellers, and buyers. This required supporting rapid experimentation and feature testing while maintaining system flexibility during the product-market fit discovery process. The platform needed to adapt quickly to changing business requirements without technical limitations blocking progress.
Performance and reliability requirements
The platform required enterprise-level performance metrics, including achieving a 99 Google PageSpeed Insights score to ensure a flawless buyer experience and prevent revenue loss. System stability during high-volume transaction periods was crucial, as any downtime or performance issues directly impacted financial results.
Development velocity vs quality balance
The business required rapid feature development, with 2–3 releases per week, while maintaining system stability and comprehensive testing coverage. The challenge was building cross-platform mobile and web solutions within tight timelines without compromising code quality or introducing technical debt that would slow future development.
Team integration and expertise sharing
The startup needed a technical partner who could become their product engineering function rather than just a vendor. This required establishing unified development standards across multiple teams while managing technical debt during periods of rapid business growth.
Solution
We delivered a comprehensive cloud-based solution that addressed all technical challenges while enabling business scalability through strategic architectural decisions and modern development practices.
Microservices architecture with serverless computing
Our approach centered on implementing a fully serverless backend architecture using AWS Lambda, which eliminated server maintenance overhead and enabled automatic scaling based on demand. We designed autonomous microservices, enabling the independent development, testing, and deployment of features. This modular system design proved crucial during the startup's pivot phases, as we could easily add, remove, or modify business logic without affecting core system stability.
The serverless approach delivered exceptional cost optimization, achieving infrastructure costs below 0.2% of total revenue. When the platform experienced sudden traffic spikes of 5x normal volume, our architecture automatically scaled to handle the load without intervention. We then fine-tuned performance within 24 hours to optimize for sustained growth, rather than requiring major system overhauls.
Frontend architecture and performance optimization
We built self-sufficient, decoupled frontend components using autonomous React modules hosted on AWS S3, integrated with AWS CloudFront for efficient content delivery and reduced latency. Our TypeScript-powered codebase utilized ReactJS and NextJS for enhanced maintainability and predictability, while MobX-State-Tree provided structured state management.
The implementation of the components catalog with Storybook enabled interactive UI development and component reusability across teams. This architecture directly contributed to achieving our 99/100 Google PageSpeed Insights score and was critical for the buyer experience. Any delays or performance issues could result in lost transactions, so optimizing load times and user interaction flows became a key business driver.
Cross-platform mobile development
Recognizing that users primarily accessed the platform via mobile devices, we developed a unified iOS and Android application using React Native. The initial MVP was delivered within a 2-week timeline, allowing rapid concept validation and user feedback collection. This quick turnaround was made possible by leveraging our existing React ecosystem and TypeScript standards, which maintained code consistency across web and mobile platforms.
The mobile application has been downloaded over 1 million times and delivers native performance on both platforms while maintaining a single codebase. This cross-platform efficiency significantly reduced development overhead while ensuring a consistent user experience across devices.
Comprehensive quality assurance strategy
We implemented a testing pyramid strategy encompassing eight different types of testing, including unit, integration, end-to-end, and contract testing. Our approach evolved in tandem with business maturity. During the early experimental phases, we maintained around 50% test coverage to support rapid development. As the platform stabilized and found product-market fit, we increased coverage to over 90% for critical business logic.
Quality gates were established as automated checkpoints to prevent the deployment of low-quality code, while continuous performance monitoring ensured optimal system performance. This comprehensive approach enabled frequent releases without compromising stability, supporting the business requirement of two to three deployments per week.
Advanced security and compliance implementation
Understanding the sensitivity of financial data and user information, we developed specialized systems for the secure handling of confidential details. We implemented a passwordless authentication system using SMS-based verification, which eliminated password-related security risks while simplifying the user experience.
Our fraud prevention mechanisms were designed to protect against various attack vectors while maintaining a seamless user experience for legitimate transactions. The security architecture includes comprehensive audit trails and compliance frameworks, ensuring adherence to financial and data protection regulations.
DevOps excellence and deployment automation
We established a comprehensive CI/CD pipeline automation that includes automated testing, building, and deployment processes. This enables frequent release cycles of 2–3 deployments per week, with automated quality assurance checks at each stage. Zero-downtime deployment strategies ensure continuous service availability, even during updates.
Infrastructure as Code practices manage all infrastructure through version-controlled configurations, ensuring consistency and reliability across environments. This approach supports the platform's ability to scale teams—currently, 7–8 parallel development teams can work without conflicts or deployment issues.
Technologies Used
The technology stack was carefully chosen to ensure scalability, high performance, and development efficiency across web, mobile, and backend platform components.
The workflow
Our long-term collaboration was guided by a transparent workflow designed to balance speed, quality, and adaptability while ensuring continuous business growth.
Discovery & Planning
We began by analyzing business requirements, user behavior, and growth expectations to design an adaptable system architecture that could support rapid pivots and future scaling.
Agile Development
Cross-functional teams worked in two-week sprints with clear deliverables, enabling the release of 2–3 new features per week while maintaining system stability and quality.
CI/CD
Automated pipelines ensured frequent, zero-downtime deployments. Quality gates and automated testing minimized production risks while supporting rapid release velocity.
Collaborative Product Ownership
Our engineers operated as an extension of the client’s team, participating in strategic decisions, maintaining shared coding standards, and ensuring alignment across all product areas.
Scalable Team Structure
As the platform grew, we scaled our dedicated teams to over 50 specialists across backend, frontend, mobile, QA, and DevOps, maintaining unified delivery standards across parallel streams.
Ongoing Optimization & Support
Post-release, we continuously optimized system performance, cost efficiency, and security. This ensured resilience during traffic spikes and sustained growth without costly rewrites.
About the team
Our dedicated team evolved over 8+ years to support the platform's growth from startup MVP to enterprise scale, integrating as the client's technical product engineering function rather than operating as an external vendor. This collaborative approach enabled unified development standards and strategic technical decision-making that continues to support business growth today.
Team composition
Developers across multiple teams (total number)
22
Team leads
6
Software architects
5
QA engineers (manual and automation)
14
DevOps engineers
6
Impact
Our 8-year partnership delivered transformative results across technical excellence, business growth, cost efficiency, and market positioning.
Platform scalability and performance excellence
The platform successfully scaled from startup MVP to handling over 400,000 unique daily visitors while maintaining exceptional performance standards. During peak periods, the system processes over $1 million in daily transaction volumes without performance degradation. When unexpected traffic spikes occurred at 5x normal levels, our serverless architecture automatically handled the load, and we fine-tuned performance within 24 hours rather than requiring emergency system overhauls.
The achievement of a 99/100 Google PageSpeed Insights score directly impacts business results by ensuring an optimal buyer experience. Fast loading times and smooth interactions prevent user abandonment during the purchase process, directly protecting revenue streams during high-volume periods.
Cost optimization and operational efficiency
Our serverless architecture strategy delivered remarkable cost efficiency, maintaining infrastructure costs below 0.2% of total revenue. For a platform handling 400,000 daily users, monthly infrastructure costs remain around $25,000, significantly lower than traditional server-based architectures would require for similar scale and performance.
The elimination of server maintenance overhead through AWS Lambda architecture freed the team to focus on feature development rather than infrastructure management. This operational efficiency enabled rapid development cycles with 2–3 releases per week while maintaining system stability and performance.
Mobile platform success
The mobile application achieved over 1,000,000 downloads, demonstrating strong market adoption and user engagement. Cross-platform development using React Native delivered native performance on both iOS and Android while maintaining development efficiency through a shared codebase architecture.
The 2-week MVP development timeline proved crucial for rapid market validation and the collection of user feedback. This quick turnaround capability continues to support business agility, allowing for the rapid testing of new concepts and features before full development investment.
Long-term stability
Architectural decisions made during the first year of our partnership continue supporting current growth without requiring central system rewrites. This longevity demonstrates the value of thoughtful technical planning and modular system design that adapts to changing business requirements.
Our comprehensive quality assurance approach, which maintains over 90% test coverage, ensures platform reliability and minimizes critical bugs. Automated quality gates and CI/CD processes enable frequent releases while preserving stability, supporting business requirements for rapid feature deployment.
Business growth enablement
The technical flexibility of our microservices architecture enabled successful business model pivots during the startup's product-market fit discovery phase. When the business strategy shifted focus between organizers, sellers, and buyers as primary user groups, the technical platform adapted quickly without blocking business experimentation.
Our role as integrated technical partners rather than external vendors contributed to strategic decision-making that continues to benefit the platform today.
Future-proofed tech solution
The adoption of cutting-edge technologies and architectural patterns positioned the platform for continued competitiveness and growth. Modular architecture supports diverse business requirements, while dedicated platform teams ensure continuous technical improvement and debt management.
