IT Brains

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Director of AEY

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We're a digital platform studio — we spot niche opportunities and build the products, communities, and infrastructure to capitalise on them.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire IT Brains to accomplish?

• Rebuild an existing platform into a fully custom web application, migrating all users, data, and workflows without disruption.
• Develop and maintain a complex marketplace with payments, user accounts, chat, admin tools, and content access.
• Establish a long-term development partnership for ongoing feature development, maintenance, and support as the platform evolved.

SOLUTION

How did you find IT Brains?

Referral

Why did you select IT Brains over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from IT Brains were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

The core project involved migrating a WordPress-based platform to a fully custom web application, preserving all existing users, data, content, and business workflows throughout the transition.

Key deliverables included:

• User account system with roles, permissions, and profile management
• Paid content access and subscription/membership flows
• Full in-platform chat and messaging functionality
• Wallet system and payment flows, including third-party payment provider integrations
• Marketplace functionality connecting buyers and sellers
• Admin and moderation tools for platform management
• Anti-abuse features including link filtering and scam-prevention controls
• Ongoing bug fixing, maintenance, and continuous feature development post-launch

The project required both technical depth and practical understanding of operating in a sensitive, age-restricted industry — including robust privacy considerations and reliable payment infrastructure.

IT Brains have continued to support the platform beyond the initial build, acting as a long-term development partner rather than a one-off contractor.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Website traffic grew from approximately 2,000 to over 100,000 visitors, representing a 50x increase since the platform rebuild.
• Significant improvements to page speed and overall platform performance following the migration from WordPress to a custom stack.
• Chat functionality went from basic to a fully-featured, real-time messaging system — one of the most actively used parts of the platform.
• The platform now reliably handles real-money transactions and marketplace activity at a scale the previous setup could not support.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Project management has been consistently reliable throughout our working relationship. The team has always been responsive to our needs and proactive in suggesting the best approach to any given requirement — not just executing tasks, but explaining the reasoning behind their recommendations. 
What stands out is that Nikolai and the team take the time to understand the business context, not just the technical brief. When we've brought problems to them, they've come back with practical solutions rather than simply doing the minimum asked of them. Communication has remained clear and consistent over two years, which has been particularly important given the complexity and sensitivity of the platform we operate.

What was your primary form of communication with IT Brains?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

What sets IT Brains apart is their willingness to engage with the business, not just the code. Many development teams will build exactly what you ask for — IT Brains will tell you if there's a better way, and explain why. That consultative approach has saved us time and money more than once.

The other standout quality is their ability to operate confidently in a complex, sensitive industry. Finding developers who can handle the technical demands of a marketplace platform is one thing — finding a team who also understands the nuances of payment reliability, privacy, and abuse prevention in an age-restricted environment is genuinely rare.

Two years in, the relationship is as strong as ever. That says a lot.

Are there any areas for improvement or something IT Brains could have done differently?

No major issues to flag.