- 11 weeksRepository to first revenue
- 1,200+Sellers onboarded in year one
- $0Rewritten after launch
The challenge
Verdant had committed to a launch date tied to a funding milestone and needed a working two-sided marketplace — seller onboarding, split payments, disputes, the lot — inside eleven weeks, without the shortcuts that make month four unbearable.
What we did
- 01
Cut scope hard in week one, agreeing explicitly which features would ship after launch rather than pretending everything would fit.
- 02
Used Stripe Connect for marketplace payments and KYC rather than building compliance surface we would then have to own.
- 03
Shipped seller onboarding first and recruited real sellers during the build, so launch day had inventory rather than an empty catalogue.
- 04
Kept test coverage on payments and payouts at 100% — the one area where a bug is not recoverable with an apology.
The outcome
Verdant launched on the committed date and processed its first transaction within eleven weeks. Two years on, the original architecture still runs the platform — nothing has needed a rewrite.
“What I remember is them telling us what to cut. Everyone else said yes to everything and would have missed the date.”