Case Studies
Deep dives into real projects showing the challenges faced, solutions implemented, and measurable business outcomes achieved.
ClassCharts EdTech Platform
Scaling from startup to millions of users
The Challenge
Joined ClassCharts as the first developer hire after the CTO when the platform was serving thousands of UK schools. The challenge was to scale the system to handle millions of users while maintaining reliability and adding new features for teachers, students, and parents.
Key Technical Challenges
- Database performance bottlenecks with growing user base
- Real-time notifications for millions of users
- Complex permission system for schools, teachers, students, and parents
- Mobile app synchronization and offline capabilities
- GDPR compliance and data protection
Solutions Implemented
Frontend Modernization
- Rebuilt the legacy jQuery application in React and Redux
- Split features into separate micro apps, one at a time
- Owned the webpack build pipeline, with both stacks running side by side
Mobile
- Rewrote all three apps - teacher, student and parent - from native Android to React Native
- Six store listings across iOS and Android from one codebase
- Push notifications, offline handling and the release and signing pipeline
Infrastructure
- Containerised development and production with Docker, then moved onto Kubernetes
- Rackspace to GCP to AWS, from three servers to roughly 100 instances
- Migrated 40+ TB of images and assets between clouds, writing the migration tooling
Quality Assurance
- Introduced Cypress and the GitHub Actions workflows that ran it
- Built out unit and integration coverage and the CI deployment pipelines
- One of four code owners, reviewing work across the codebase
Business Impact
Engineering Outcomes
- Legacy jQuery application replaced by React without a big-bang rewrite
- Three native apps replaced by one React Native codebase on both platforms
- Development and production containerised, then orchestrated on Kubernetes
- End-to-end suite running against every pull request
Business Growth
- Grew from a few dozen schools to thousands across the UK education system
- Platform scaled to serve millions of teachers, students and parents
- Homework file submission with virus scanning shipped in under two weeks when schools closed in March 2020
- Company acquired by TES Global
Technologies Used
Government IoT Smart City Platform
Nationwide infrastructure for connected devices
Project Overview
Designed and implemented the backend architecture for a Middle Eastern government's nationwide smart city initiative. The system needed to securely process and analyze data from thousands of connected devices across multiple urban areas while meeting strict government compliance requirements.
Architecture Highlights
- Microservices architecture with Kubernetes orchestration
- APISIX as the API gateway, Keycloak for identity
- Event-driven design using Apache Kafka
- Time-series data storage with Cassandra
- Real-time analytics and alerting system
- Multi-region deployment for high availability
Security & Compliance
- End-to-end encryption for all data transmission
- Role-based access control with audit logging
- Government-grade security protocols
- GDPR and local privacy law compliance
- Penetration testing and security audits
Technical Stack
Philips Healthcare & Lighting
High-Compliance Frontend Architecture for Enterprise
The Challenge
Lead frontend architecture for Philips' digital innovation projects, specifically focusing on complex B2B configurator tools. The requirement was to build pixel-perfect, high-performance applications that integrated seamlessly with legacy enterprise systems while adhering to strict regulatory and brand compliance standards.
Solutions Implemented
Enterprise Configuration Engine
- Developed a dynamic rules engine for complex product configurations
- Ensured real-time validation of thousands of component combinations
- Integrated with SAP/ERP systems for real-time pricing and stock
Compliance & Security
- Implemented strict data handling protocols compliant with GDPR
- Ensured accessibility compliance (WCAG 2.1) for global markets
- Built secure authentication flows integrating with corporate SSO
Technologies Used
RWE & Innogy Energy Systems
Real-Time Data Visualization for Renewable Energy
The Challenge
Developed critical energy management applications for RWE and its renewable subsidiary, Innogy. The goal was to visualize complex telemetry data from renewable energy assets in real-time, providing actionable insights for energy management and grid stability.
Solutions Implemented
Data Visualization
- Built interactive dashboards using D3.js and Canvas
- Visualized kilowatt-hours, peak loads, and generation mix
- Optimized rendering performance for high-frequency data streams
System Reliability
- Architected fault-tolerant frontend systems for critical uptime
- Implemented offline-first capabilities for field engineers
- Ensured secure data transmission for critical infrastructure
Technologies Used
MarketAlerts
AI-powered market intelligence and trade ideas
Status: Defunct (May 2026). The product was wound down; the marketing site at marketalerts.com is no longer active.
The Challenge
Build a comprehensive AI-powered financial platform that monitors global markets 24/7 and provides intelligent alerts for various market events. The system needed to process real-time market data, analyze patterns using AI, and deliver personalized notifications to traders and investors across 20+ international markets.
AI-Powered Features
- Earnings call and report summarization
- Technical chart pattern recognition
- Insider transaction monitoring
- Analyst rating change detection
- M&A and product announcement tracking
- Financial guidance change alerts
Technical Architecture
- Real-time data ingestion from multiple sources
- AI-powered content analysis and classification
- Scalable notification system
- Multi-market data normalization
- Advanced watchlist management
- Mobile-responsive dashboard
Key Achievements
Platform Capabilities
- 24/7 monitoring of global financial markets
- AI-driven pattern recognition and alerts
- Support for 20+ international stock exchanges
- Real-time price and volume analysis
- Intelligent notification prioritization
User Experience
- Intuitive watchlist creation and management
- Customizable alert preferences
- Mobile-optimized interface
- Interactive market data visualization
- Product Hunt featured launch
Technology Stack
Metis: AI Market Intelligence
Real-time News Aggregation & Trading Signals Platform
The Evolution
Originally born as a spin-off from Plutus (a personal trading platform), Metis evolved into a standalone beast. The goal was simple but ambitious: ingest news from thousands of sources in real-time, understand it using AI, and correlate it with market data to find trading signals before the market reacts.
Advanced Data Pipeline
- Ingestion: 5000+ RSS feeds, newsletters, and archives monitored 24/7
- Storage: Polyglot persistence using PostgreSQL (relational), ClickHouse (analytics), and Meilisearch (search)
- Queueing: Robust event-driven architecture powered by RabbitMQ and BullMQ
AI & Intelligence
- Classification: Auto-tagging topics and detecting relations between entities
- Summarization: LLM-powered summaries (OpenAI, Anthropic, Ollama)
- Market Data: Integration with Alpaca and Binance for real-time price feeds
The Tech Stack
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