Builtfirst is a cloud marketplace platform, which makes it easy to create any B2B marketplace to promote your SaaS or service partners i.e. deal, integration, or service marketplaces. Procurement is hastened when customers discover SaaS or services where trust has already been built, say their bank, venture capital firm, or existing software providers. GoGrow has helped Builtfirst from the ground up, overcoming technical challenges during growth, hiring engineering leadership, and scaling their development team with the highest-quality developers.
It's more than a product. It's a mission.
Simply put, Builtfirst makes it effortless to be a good partner. From day one, Michael and Aaron have been motivated to lower the barrier of entry for new companies to launch their partnership teams. In the process, their deal marketplaces have saved founders MILLIONs, not counting all the heartache time, and effort that has been saved.
The Challenges
The first challenge was learning what the leadership team wanted to build. This changed very often over the first year and half. Even with these struggles to find product market fit, we were able to help them staff up and down as need. We also helped them instrument their application to gain insights from their customers. Over time, they found their niche and we were off to the races.
The next challenge was scale. We needed to keep up with their demands as they grew. This meant ramping up the development team from 3 to 10 developers in three weeks! We were also able to help the Builtfirst team to onboard their first Head of Engineering, product manager, and designer.
One of our longest running customers.
Builfirst was among our first customers when GoGrow opened its doors. After 3 years, we are still going strong and staffing up their engineering team. Not only are we connected with their product owners, via Slack, email and video conference, we are also always up to hangout with the growing team!
Frontend Development
GoGrow developed and deployed a variety of interactive features, including search and filtering options, user dashboards, and product displays, as well as optimizing performance and scalability through effective caching and data management strategies. Through these efforts, the front-end team was instrumental in establishing Builtfirst as a robust, user-friendly, and highly competitive platform within the B2B marketplace ecosystem.
4 Developers
+ 10,000 Lines of code
Backend Development
Using Ruby and Ruby on Rails, we were able to create a flexible and efficient web application framework that enabled us to build and deploy complex features with ease. PostgreSQL provided a robust and scalable database management system, enabling us to manage large volumes of data and ensure data integrity and consistency. Redis was used for caching and data storage, allowing us to optimize performance and reduce server load.
4 Developers
+ 10,000 Lines of code
Quality Assurance
We determined the critical paths, built test sets, and established regression times to ensure user satisfaction. We automated this process using the Robot Framework, integrated it into a pipeline using Jenkins and an AWS EC2 server, ensuring stability before production releases. This approach resolved QA issues and established a reliable marketplace for Builtfirst's users.
2 Engineers
+ 10,000 Lines of code
Highlights
Prototype Development
We’ve helped Builtfirst built their first products. Furthermore, we’ve helped the product owners know what they need to pivot and find product market fit.
Scaling Engineering Team
More than tripled the team size in less than three weeks. We did with quality developers who were able to immediately drive results for Builtfirst.
Leadership Recruitment
We’ve helped Builtfirst grow their engineering capacity and scale the team. Still, we’ve also helped them onboard a Head of Engineering whose super-powered their growth.
Long-term Relationship
A relationship through all the ups-and-downs of building an enduring business over a three year period, which has driven us together, not apart.
Germán Santillán
QA Engineer at GoGrow
“Builtfirst presented me with a incredible opportunity to engage with marketplaces that were undergoing constant change and configurable. As the QA lead, I was able to leverage my extensive expertise in quality assurance, from analysis to automation.”
The Result
Showcased in TechCrunch
Highlighted in Business Insider
Raised over 3.6 million in Seed Funding
Our client's review
"We were looking for a functional platform at a rate which we could afford, and we got both. We also got a team that we could count on as we grew over time. No regrets at all."
