Case Study
RenovationRoute
Building trust through architecture
A payments platform for home renovation. Where architecture decisions determine security, compliance, and operator confidence. How we got it right from day one.
The Problem We Solved
Why Most Platforms Fail Here
They bolt on compliance and security after launch. By then, architectural decisions have already created debt.Fragmented Workflows
Contractors juggling payments, quotes, and project timelines across spreadsheets and text messages.
Payment Friction
No clean way to handle deposits, progress payments, and final settlements. Manual reconciliation. Disputes.
Trust Gap
Homeowners and contractors lacked visibility. Who held the money? Were their details protected? No clarity.
Compliance Uncertainty
Handling money means handling regulations. Payment processing, escrow rules, data residency. Not optional.
How We Built It
Architectural decisions made at founding, not retrofitted
Multi-Tenant from Day One
Every feature designed for isolated data. Not because "we might scale" because money and trust demand it.
Payments as First-Class
Payment processing not bolted on integrated into the core domain. Escrow, holds, and reconciliation by design.
Compliance Ready
Built for payments regulation from the start. Know Your Customer (KYC), transaction monitoring, audit trails native.
Data Security Foundation
Identity-first design, encrypted sensitive data, PCI compliance paths clear from architecture, not archaeology.
Operator Visibility
Every action logged and auditable. Contractors and homeowners see money movement. Clear, trustworthy, verifiable.
Resilient to Failure
Payment disputes, chargebacks, regulatory reviews, architecture handles edge cases without manual intervention.
The Build Journey
Phase 1: Architecture First
Before code. Map the domain. Understand payment flows, tenant isolation, compliance touchpoints. Design the foundation.
Phase 2: Security by Design
Identity layer, encryption strategy, audit logging. Not features added later. Part of the domain model.
Phase 3: Compliance Integration
Work with compliance experts. Understand regulations. Build evidence trails into operations. Make audits simple.
Phase 4: Operator Launch
Real users, real money. The platform handled it because architecture anticipated the complexity, not reacted to it.
Key Architectural Decisions
Domain Driven Design
The business logic (payments, disputes, escrow) became the center. Technology served the domain, not vice versa.
Event Driven Payments
Every payment state change is an event. This creates an immutable audit trail. Compliance comes naturally.
Tenant Isolation by Default
Database row-level isolation isn't an add-on. It's the schema design. Data leaks become architecturally impossible.
Third-Party as Integrations
Payment processors, compliance vendors, and analytics are adapters, not core. Clean boundaries = easier to swap.
The Results
Why This Matters Beyond RenovationRoute
Every platform handling money, trust, or regulation faces these same decisions. The difference between systems that scale safely and those that don't is usually made in month one, not year two.Launch Ready Compliance
No surprise compliance work. Security and audit readiness came from architecture, not after launch scrambling.
Operator Confidence
Homeowners and contractors trusted the platform because it clearly showed money movements and protection.
Minimal Technical Debt
Architecture decisions made decisions for us. We didn't have to "refactor for security" later. It was always there.
Scalability Without Compromise
Adding features didn't mean re-examining security or compliance. The foundation held. We scaled features, not rewrote.
The Philosophy
Architecture First, Security Second
You can't bolt on security if the architecture doesn't support it. Get the foundation right. Everything else follows.
Compliance as Domain Knowledge
Regulations aren't obstacles. They're constraints that clarify what your system actually needs to do.
Trust is Operational
Users trust systems that are transparent about money, data, and decisions. Make that transparency architectural.
Minimize Technical Debt
The easiest time to get architecture right is day one. Retrofitting is expensive, risky, and visible to users.
Building Something Similar?
We've navigated these decisions. Let's apply what we learned to your platform.