Case Study
Buzy
In 2021, we helped launch Buzy, a startup with the goal to streamline and automate home maintenance for homeowners. During its run, the service handled hundreds of work orders in the Charlotte, North Carolina area and partnered with dozens of local vendors. Buzy received attention from a regional business accelerator.
Buzy home page
Our responsibilities included building the backend services and app admin. We partnered with Social Design House, who worked on the branding and app design. Front-end developer Will Jardine worked on the web and mobile apps, using the Ionic framework to target builds for browsers, iOS, and Android.
Before building out the backend, we worked directly with Buzy to identify business requirements and planned out the systems needed to handle home maintenance work orders in their unique way. We evaluated and set up cloud hosting infrastructure for the production and staging environments. Additionally, we worked closely with the team to ensure the backend planning supported the app design, front-end build, and the Ionic framework.
Buzy app service categories listing
Buzy app work order creation
For the backend, we used the Laravel framework as the foundation and structured the app using a domain-driven design inspired approach. We built a REST API following current standards and the JSON API specification. Many app requests required queued background tasks, which were processed with Supervisor. We used apiDoc to ensure that API documentation remained easy to update and generate for our small team. Laravel Nova facilitated the creation of the app admin and back office tasks.
Buzy’s business workflows depended on integrations with two main services, Stripe and HubSpot. When work orders were submitted through the app, the backend created a draft invoice in Stripe and two tickets in HubSpot, one customer-facing and one vendor-facing. Communication with the customer and vendor was then managed through the HubSpot tickets. Changes to the invoice and customer payments were synced back to the app through Stripe’s webhook. All transactional emails were delivered through SendGrid.
Buzy admin dashboard
Buzy API documentation
In the end, the team succeeded in building a bootstrapped app that leveraged existing services to keep the full focus on the business’ goals and not on recreating available systems and functionality.
Services
- Backend Development
- Web API Development
- Ecommerce
- Technical Direction
- Information Architecture
- Systems Administration