Problem
Keeping API contracts in sync across web and mobile clients without drift.
Solution
Adopted Hono RPC to generate client types directly from server route definitions, providing end-to-end type safety from database to UI.
BeBlended
BeBlended
A two-sided marketplace connecting clients with licensed hairstylists for Black hair care services.
- Role
- Founding Engineer & CTO (engagement began as a freelance contract)
- Timeframe
- Jan 2023 — Present
- Status
- Maintenance
- Team Size
- 3
- Domain
- Beauty / Hair Care Booking Marketplace
Overview
BeBlended is a two-sided marketplace that connects clients with licensed hairstylists specializing in Black hair care. As Founding Engineer and CTO, I led its V3 rebuild — migrating a legacy Go backend onto a type-safe TypeScript stack and shaping the platform's architecture, payments, and infrastructure.
The product spans three clients sharing a single type-safe API: a Next.js web app, an Expo/React Native mobile app, and a Hono backend. It handles the full lifecycle of the stylist–client relationship — from geo-aware discovery and booking with deposits, to Stripe Connect payouts, real-time chat, subscriptions, and a job-posting marketplace — all organized across 15+ domain-driven modules built for long-term maintainability.
My Role
Founding Engineer & CTO (engagement began as a freelance contract)
- Owned the platform's technical architecture and engineering direction as CTO
- Led the V3 rewrite from a legacy Go/GORM backend to a TypeScript stack (Hono + Drizzle ORM)
- Built and maintained core systems: payments (Stripe Connect), booking, subscriptions/billing, and notifications
- Managed infrastructure, CI/CD, deployments, and observability across staging and production
Key Features
- Full-text and geo-location stylist search powered by Meilisearch
- End-to-end booking flow with deposits, scheduled payment holds, cancellations, rescheduling, and tipping
- Stripe Connect payments with automatic vendor payouts and webhook-driven reconciliation
- Real-time client-stylist chat via Stream Chat on web and mobile
- Subscription/billing system with versioned plans, pricing tiers, and feature gating
- Promotion engine with automatic and code-based discounts and redemption tracking
- Job-posting marketplace where clients post needs and stylists bid
- Google Calendar two-way sync for stylist scheduling
- Configurable per-stylist intake forms
- Admin dashboard with impersonation, analytics, and platform management
- Multi-channel notifications (email, SMS, push) via an event outbox and BullMQ queues
- Type-safe API across web and mobile clients using Hono RPC
Challenges & Solutions
Problem
Reliably charging deposits and balances while honoring cancellation/refund policies and appointment timing.
Solution
Built dedicated payment sub-services with scheduled payment holds captured/released via cron every 30 minutes and webhook-driven reconciliation with Stripe.
Problem
Delivering notifications across email, SMS, and push without coupling delivery to business logic.
Solution
Implemented a transactional event outbox with BullMQ queues to decouple and reliably dispatch multi-channel notifications.
Problem
Migrating from a legacy Go/GORM backend to a modern TypeScript stack without losing domain coverage.
Solution
Performed a V3 rewrite onto Hono + Drizzle ORM organized by domain-driven design with a repository pattern and DI container.
Architecture & Tech
Languages
TypeScriptGoSQL
Frameworks
HonoNext.js (App Router)React 19React NativeExpoTailwind CSSshadcn/ui (Radix UI)React Hook Form
Databases
PostgreSQL 16Redis 7Meilisearch
Tools
Drizzle ORMDrizzle KitBullMQZodPinonode-cronHono RPCmoment-timezoneVitestPlaywrightTestcontainersDockerGrafana Alloy
Infrastructure
- Deployment
- Vercel (web client), DigitalOcean App Platform (production API), DigitalOcean Droplet (staging API, Docker Compose)
- Cloud
- DigitalOcean, AWS, Vercel
- CI/CD
- Vercel CI/CD, DigitalOcean App Platform CI/CD, Manual deploy script (infra/deployStaging.sh)
- Containers
- Docker (multi-stage build), Docker Compose
- Other
- DigitalOcean Container Registry, DigitalOcean Managed PostgreSQL, AWS S3 (file storage), Grafana Cloud / Loki (log shipping via Grafana Alloy)
Integrations
Stripe Connect
Payments, vendor payouts, subscriptions, payment holds, webhooks
Stream Chat
Real-time client-stylist messaging (web and mobile)
SendGrid
Transactional email (booking confirmations, receipts, verification)
Mailchimp
Marketing and secondary transactional email
Telnyx
SMS reminders and verification codes
Google Maps
Geocoding and geo-location stylist search
Google Calendar
Two-way booking calendar sync via OAuth
HubSpot
CRM, lead management, conversion tracking
PostHog
Product analytics and event tracking
AWS S3
User upload storage (images, documents, licenses)
Impact & Highlights
- Architected a type-safe, domain-driven V3 platform (15+ bounded domains, 50+ Drizzle repositories) shared across a Next.js web app, Expo mobile app, and a Hono/TypeScript API via Hono RPC for end-to-end type safety.
- Built a Stripe Connect payment system supporting deposits, scheduled payment holds (cron-captured), vendor payouts, subscription billing, and webhook-driven state reconciliation.
- Implemented a versioned subscription and feature-gating system (plan versions, prices, and per-plan feature flags) enforced at the API middleware layer.
- Developed an event-driven notification pipeline using a transactional outbox and BullMQ for reliable multi-channel (email/SMS/push) delivery.
- Integrated Meilisearch for full-text and geo-radius stylist and booking search with real-time indexing.
- Established a testing strategy with Vitest unit/integration tests (Testcontainers-backed PostgreSQL) and Playwright E2E coverage.
- Containerized the API with a multi-stage Docker build and shipped structured Pino logs to Grafana Cloud via a Grafana Alloy sidecar.
Have a project in mind?
Let’s talk about what you’re building and how Montgomery Labs can help ship it.
Start a project