Cross-Platform Messaging

A solution for community building and professional development used by thousands of users worldwide.

The company and product

Guild is a digital tool for building professional communities where participants can connect, communicate, and collaborate.

It was built with safety in mind, so it’s a perfect tool for anyone concerned about the security of other messaging platforms. Its main purpose is to bring people together so they can exchange information related to their work roles and do good things together.

The platform is now used by thousands of users with background and experience in such sectors as sustainable development, PR and marketing, and nutrition.

Client’s feedback

Ashley Friedlein

CO-FOUNDER AND CEO AT GUILD

Usage is up 20% every month

We launched on time and have continued to show a great velocity in shipping new features. We release an update to the app every week. Usage of app has grown at least 20% every month.

The Challenge

Gettin the business value fast along with quality code.

Since both Guild founders have a long track record as entrepreneurs, we knew they needed a smart solution to the problem they were trying to solve so they get the business value fast along with quality code.

First of all, we had to decide on a tech stack for Guild. They needed a fast, intuitive app, which delivered unique value. Cross-platform solutions seemed a viable option due to the great balance between performance and cost. And user experience is critical if you’re competing with giants in the messaging field like WhatsApp.

Key challenges of the project included:

Delivering a product with an exceptional user experience.
Handling real-time events — a critical part of any messaging app.
Handling push notifications, camera access, access to images and other files.

Guild App Screenshots

The Process

Focus on performance, communication, and "deep diving".

Given that Guild is a messaging application, performance is crucial for its success. Node works well for this type of product and due to its async I/O, it is capable of handling a great deal of concurrent requests. We also decided to use Apollo and GraphQL and handle real-time events through the Ably platform. This setup helps us handle real-time parts and offline support. On the other hand, we wanted to achieve the same seamless experience across different devices. Going with React Native and React XP was a great balance between performance and cost.

The team uses Slack, Jira, and works in weekly sprints. Every six months they organize physical meetups to discuss features, prioritize the backlog, and simply hang out.

One unique aspect of the collaboration was in recurring meetings called "deep dives," a collaborative space for the client, product designer, and development team to focus on exploring and discussing 2-3 features that required a closer look from different angles. These meetings were instrumental in achieving goals such as the notification system redesign and can be a valuable tool for any complex design challenge.

This is how we made it happen:

Development with React Native and ReactXP.
Backend work with Node.js.
Increasing stability and maintainability by generating types based on our GraphQL.

Team’s voice

Grzegorz Hajdukiewicz

Chief Delivery Officer

Great fit from the start

Guild seemed like a great project for us. They have an empowering mission of helping professionals feel pride and fulfillment by sharing expertise with, and learning from, like-minded peers. And, since at Monterail we’re all about delivering meaningful software, it was a great fit.

The Outcome

Right tech stack in the right hands.

With the right tech stack in the right hands, our code for mobile versions of the app is now shared in around 99%. That is an amazing score that never felt achievable. For the Web version, we managed to reuse around 80% of our JS, which was still above Ashley and Matt’s expectations. All in all, using Node.js and React Native brought us a significant difference in terms of time and cost.

The app was first released to beta testers in July 2018 and four months later we released the app to app stores with all the features we planned at the first release. The Guild team kicked off this year with a bang, raising $1.2M (£880.000) in seed funding for further development and growing sales. Since then, Guild has been recognized by Red Herring's 2019 Top 100 European Startups.

The success of this project hinged on the following factors:

Choosing the right technology stack for the real-time app.
Regular on-site meetings and implementing best practices of Agile development.
An open feedback loop between the client, their customers, and the Monterail team.