Deliveroo IPO Platform: A 6-Week Sprint
Rebuilding an investment platform from Vue to React in 6 weeks while delivering 50,000+ registrations and £50M in investments for one of the UK's biggest IPOs.
- 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 for one of the UK's most anticipated public offerings with significant financial transactions at stake.
I owned the frontend and the Technical Director owned the backend. Tight collaboration, small team.
Delivery
The 6-Week Sprint
The Reality
Days regularly stretched until 3am. Full ownership of the frontend, balancing speed with long-term maintainability under a fixed deadline.
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 points 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 evolved them post-launch.
Deep ownership compounds.
Staying with the platform from sprint to scale gave me context that mattered as the team grew.
Stack