From Ideation to Investment Dollars
How Subatomic’s partnership with Elly expedited their time to market and contributed to high-profile investments.
Project Overview
Elly is the world’s first smart companion for people impacted by chronic conditions or ailments. Founded by Nikhil Pooviah, M.D., and Simon Holland in 2019, Elly Health initially approached Subatomic to build out APIs for their iOS Application.
Elly had been looking for a backend developer, but what they found was a long-term technical partner who would integrate deeply, working to understand the problem area in an intimate way. By the end of the engagement, Subatomic would have accelerated their time to market and become such an essential part of the team that Elly would include them in their investor decks.
Challenge
Elly had been through several iterations of what the product should look like and how it should function. As they were learning more about their customers’ needs, Elly was having to shift priorities and make significant changes to the product along the way – demanding valuable time and further complicating their vision.
With only mockups in hand, Elly’s goal was to launch in 3 months.
While they had an initial iOS developer on board, progress wasn’t being made quickly enough, and staying true to the problem area they were trying to solve was becoming more difficult.
Approach
Subatomic bridged the gap between product and engineering – providing unique expertise and guidance on everything from tech stack to team choices. Together, Subatomic and Elly took the time to uncover what was needed to release an MVP, or minimum viable product, as well as what it would take to build the business. Subatomic introduced Elly to a trusted partner who could help them rapidly evolve from prototype to v1.0 of their iOS application.
Before executing, Subatomic helped to identify Elly’s customers, weigh user feedback for new feature rollouts, and rigorously test assumptions. As a result, Subatomic was able to reduce wasted cycles and build out quality code for Elly the first time.
“Subatomic does not build in a vacuum. We talk to the customers, we gather validation for our design choices, and we aggressively test our output. Nothing wastes a client’s time like working from assumptions, then having to start over after learning more about your customers.”
— Justin Bean, Founder at Subatomic Agency
With so much content to manage on the backend, there was a need to streamline the uploading process. Rather than upload in segments, Subatomic advised they build a custom admin panel where all of Elly’s content could live. This simple solution saved Elly countless hours of administrative work.
Technologies
Elixir
Services
Software Development
Devops
Product Ownership
Technical Leadership
What Patients Are Saying
"I use Elly for self-care and for a clear mind. It's really an altruistic app."
— Colon Cancer Survivor
"Learning to live with a potential dark cloud following me all the time is really hard and being authentic to my fears is a lot. I’ve found real comfort with Elly."
— Ovarian Cancer Survivor
"I have told all of my support groups about Elly, try to encourage others to live life. Elly helps me remember this. I use it every day."
— Laryngeal Cancer Survivor
Technology Solution
Initially, Elly wanted to build out using Ruby/Rails; however, Subatomic recommended they code in Elixir.
Elixir offered enough similarity to Ruby to allow for a faster initial buildout while effectively increasing scalability as the user base grew. It also offered the secure audio/video streaming performance necessary to support Elly’s growth.
Result
From the start of the engagement to launching on the App Store, Subatomic built Elly: Health Companion from the ground up in only 3 months. Based on feedback from its users, Subatomic was able to help launch the second version of Elly within an additional 4 months.
What began as an audio/visual companion for cancer patients has since grown into a platform that encompasses condition-specific content and has a high level of QA processes.
Subatomic was instrumental in positioning Elly to be backed by high-profile investments from Google Assistant, Snap, and Bayer – all during a time when many other startups have been struggling.
Subatomic continues to provide technical leadership and support while operating as Elly’s in-house product and engineering team. Elly credits Subatomic for their expedited growth and frequently recommends them to investors and other companies in their network.
“Subatomic has been instrumental in the initial build and further development of our backend. Having a flexible team like Subatomic has allowed us to scale at the same pace of having our own in-house team but at a fraction of the cost.”
— Simon Holland, Founder at Elly Health
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Subatomic believes when their clients win, that’s all that matters.