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Beyond WordPress' constraints
Challenge
The initial platform was not scalable or easy to maintain, hindering international expansion. Third-party plugins broke without warning and security requirements were becoming roadblocks.
Solution
We developed a scalable architecture and redesigned the platform using Storyblok, React, Next.js and Vercel, focusing on backend and frontend enhancements for global reach and improved user experience.
OUTCOME
- Refactored MVP to V1
- Product strategy & roadmap
- Customer, Partner & Admin web app
- Scalable API
- Infrastructure as Code
- Transfer to internal team
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From bootstrap to build-for-real
Funkey started smart. A two-sided marketplace connecting companies with teambuilding providers, built on WordPress to get to market fast with minimal budget. It worked well enough to attract some of Belgium's biggest enterprise names.
Then it started to creak.
Enterprise clients come with enterprise security requirements. WordPress doesn't. Third-party plugins updated themselves into breaking things. The platform was held together by integrations Funkey didn't control. When you're the biggest teambuilding organiser in Belgium, "good enough to start" stops being good enough.
Time to stop patching. Time to build properly.
Finding the right partner
Tim, who oversees operations at Funky, did the rounds before landing on Dashdot.
I felt that Dashdot looked at things from a broader perspective, not just the application, but strategically. Maarten was someone who came across as very trustworthy. Calm. He already knew what he'd do and why, before anything was even agreed.
Building on solid ground
Funky came with a direction, not a spec. That's the right way to come.
Together, we worked through a detailed product analysis, user stories, role mapping, edge cases. The kind of session where someone from the outside asks "but what happens when..." and suddenly you realise you hadn't thought it through.
The stack we landed on: Next.js, React, deployed on Vercel. Future-proof, developer-friendly, and — as Funky discovered when hiring: exactly what good engineers want to work in.
You feel it immediately with developers we hire: they want to work in that stack. That's a signal you made the right call.
The core platform replaced the WordPress setup entirely: a custom two-sided marketplace handling the full quoting, booking, and partner handoff flow at scale.
Where Funkey is now
Market leader in Belgium. A team of around twenty. A full product roadmap being worked by three in-house developers. Active expansion plans they're (understandably) keeping close to their chest.
From a WordPress site buckling under its own success to a platform built for the next decade, that's the arc. And that's what we did.
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