Ownable allows members to rent tech devices for a low weekly price, either owning them after 6 months of payment or returning them at any time.
Ownable’s unique service, which allows people to try before they buy or keep devices only for as long as they needed, had the potential to be an industry game-changer.
But the remote team they hired to build their website nearly destroyed that potential. It quickly became apparent to Ownable that the overseas team was fragmented and lacked leadership and project management. The team consisted of new developers hired as needed but had no vetting process to ensure compatibility with Ownable’s unique requirements.
Due to the significant time difference, communication between them and Ownable was limited and chaotic. Ownable had to review all of the code themselves because there were so many mistakes. Development dragged on much longer than it should have.
In a last-ditch effort, Ownable scaled the team to more than 20 people. But even though the site was finished in four months —just in time for Black Friday— it had poor design, was unstable, and unresponsive. It simply couldn’t handle the influx of users. But with only three months left until the following Black Friday, the stakes were high. Ownable could not afford to lose out again on the most traffic-heavy ecommerce day of the year.
Ownable received 4X as many orders as the previous Black Friday, and the site handled the increased user load with ease. Previous users were also migrated seamlessly. In that single day, we helped to drive $2.5m in sale
Best of all, Ownable had peace of mind. Instead of worrying about what might go wrong next, Ownable were able to focus completely on developing and growing their business.
Rootstrap is still working with the Ownable team to add more features and continually improve the site.