Deliveroo IPO Platform

Rebuilding an investment platform from Vue to React in 6 weeks while delivering 50,000+ registrations and £50M in investments for a high-profile UK IPO campaign.

Company: PrimaryBid
Role: Senior React Engineer
Timeline: 6 weeks

50,000+
Subscriptions in 2 weeks
£50M
Total investment volume
6 weeks
From Vue to React rebuild

Context

The Challenge

Rebuild the IPO platform from Vue to React in 6 weeks for the Deliveroo IPO launch. No room for delay. Significant financial transactions at stake, fixed deadline, no flexibility.

I owned the frontend and the Technical Director owned the backend. Tight collaboration, small team.

Approach

The 6-Week Sprint

Technical Decisions Made Under Pressure

Stack: React · Apollo · CSS Modules

Mature ecosystem, efficient GraphQL caching, scoped styles with zero runtime cost.

Content: Static JSON as a Deliberate Trade-off

Decoupled frontend delivery from backend readiness. Intentional trade-off for speed which later evolved into Sanity CMS.

Testing: Iterate First, Test Once Stable

Prioritised functional completeness during rapid iteration. Automated tests added once flows stabilised.

Engineering

Technical Approach

State Management

Apollo Client handled the entire multi-step flow client-side (user state, validation, progression) with server calls only on completion. This reduced backend coupling and kept a complex journey predictable.

Component Architecture

Composable components with shared UI primitives but phase-specific logic. Built for speed under pressure, this foundation later evolved into the company's form component library.

Testing

Prioritised iteration during the sprint, adding coverage once flows stabilised: Jest for business logic, React Testing Library for interactions, Cypress for full E2E journeys.

Performance

Code splitting, lazy loading, and aggressive caching ensured the app handled traffic spikes during peak registration.

Outcome

The Impact

1.50,000+ subscriptions and £50M+ processed in 2 weeks
2.Platform stable during peak IPO traffic
3.Key proof point in PrimaryBid's $190M Series C raise
4.Frontend patterns later evolved into company's CMS architecture and component library

Reflection

Lessons Learned

Ship fast, iterate smart

Pragmatic decisions (like static JSON) met the deadline and let us evolve them post-launch.

Deep ownership compounds

Staying with the platform from sprint to scale gave me context that mattered as the team grew.

Stack

Technologies Used

ReactTypeScriptApollo ClientGraphQLJestReact Testing LibraryCypressCSS Modules