What it is
Zèya lets people nearby swap what they have for what they need. Listings, offers, chat, trust and payments all live in one app. If a trade isn't even, you add cash.
It's live in the US, Canada, the UK, France and Germany. In September 2026, Refresh Miami reported 100,000+ downloads, 12,000 to 15,000 monthly users and $2.45M raised.
The problem
The old app was slowing the whole company down.
- The same feature was built several different ways
- Too much knowledge lived in people's heads, not in the code
- Every change was risky, for humans and for AI tools
- The team spent its time fighting the code instead of growing the product
What I did
I rebuilt the entire app in 90 days with one teammate. Two engineers, a full rebuild, and not a single user's data lost.
- Kept all existing product and user data
- Moved the database to PostgreSQL
- Cleaned up the architecture and removed the mess
- One source of truth, so people and AI can ship in it safely
- A team culture built around speed and AI-first work
How I work
I owned the rebuild across the app and the backend. In one stretch I pushed 295 commits and closed 69 tickets, top of the board on every metric.
“Insane run. 295 commits, 69 tickets closed, top of the board on every metric. Locked in since day one.”
The result
The relaunch went smoothly. The team now ships fast on a clean codebase, and the app kept growing past 100K downloads.
