Case Study

When Speed Matters
Helping a Start-Up Launch a Two-Sided Marketplace App in Just Six Months

In 2018, in the Twin Cities start-up scene, there was a lot of excitement around Runerra, an app that would help people arrange to pick up items from stores or restaurants and then receive a fee for delivering those items to their neighbors.

The excitement was well founded. Runerra had a talented, experienced digital product team, as well all the benefits that come with admittance into the Minneapolis-based Target+Techstars Retail Accelerator program. What Runerra did not have, however, were the resources and expertise needed to build an application in less than six months.

What Runerra Needed

Runerra knew its app would need to support a two-sided marketplace (those running the errands and those receiving them) as well as payment processing. In addition, it needed its app to be ready for on-campus testing at the University of Minnesota before the start of the 2019 college year—a deadline that left the company with roughly six months of runway.

To find the right partner, Runerra met with a handful of digital product agencies and vetted each carefully. Ultimately, it chose Modern Logic. “We could see their talent right away,” says Runerra Co-Founder and Head of Product Sam Lerdahl, “and we felt that they were both honest and cautious. We were confident that they could do what they said they could do on time.”

What We Provided

Modern Logic helped Runerra prioritize the app’s must-have functionality and requirements, streamlining the project and bringing clarity to all its stakeholders. “Modern Logic provided insights into the costs and timelines associated with various features,” says Sam, “which helped us make decisions on what we truly needed as well as on what should be built first.”

With the app’s requirements in hand, the Modern Logic product and design teams worked with Runerra’s in-house talent to generate wireframes. Once the wireframes were approved, the Modern Logic development team got to work, building the app in React Native, a code framework that spans both iOS and Android.

Outcomes & Results

With Modern Logic’s help, Runerra launched its app in time for the fall semester. Sam says this first version of the app had very few bugs, a fact he attributes to Modern Logic’s development talent. ‘They know how to build solid systems that can scale,” says Sam, “but they also know how to balance that perfection with some scrappiness to get things done. It’s rare to find developers this gifted and efficient. Working with Modern Logic was a slingshot forward.”

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