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Overview
During my 2 years at Brava, I was instrumental in building the eCommerce experience and community platform for an innovative smart oven startup. As one of the company's earliest engineers, I helped lay the technical foundation that powered Brava's successful market launch and fueled community growth.
Beyond technology, one of the highlights of working at Brava was daily access to chef-quality food—think grilled cheese sandwiches, filet mignon, and the best chocolate chip cookies you've ever had.
Core Achievements
Premium eCommerce Platform
I architected and developed Brava's flagship eCommerce experience, supporting both direct sales and subscription models:
- Built a high-conversion acquisition funnel that contributed to the sale of 1,000+ premium smart ovens ($1,295+ each) in the first year
- Integrated flexible payment solutions, including Stripe and Affirm, to offer financing options
- Designed a scalable shopping cart system that supported concurrent sessions with sub-second performance
- Developed membership tier functionality to enable access to premium content and exclusive community features
Technical Systems
I helped establish the technical infrastructure that fueled Brava’s rapid growth:
- Designed a distributed system architecture using Python/Django and React to integrate the product catalog, user accounts, and order management
- Developed REST APIs that enabled agile product iterations while ensuring system reliability
- Created a utility-first CSS framework that streamlined A/B testing and reduced UI development time by 40%
- Implemented caching strategies using Redis to ensure high performance during product launches and promotional events
Community & User Experience
I focused on fostering a vibrant user community and enhancing the overall customer experience:
- Integrated user-generated content systems for showcasing customer testimonials and reviews
- Developed infrastructure for recipe sharing and community engagement
- Implemented analytics tracking to monitor user engagement and optimize conversion rates
- Created a responsive design system to ensure seamless experiences across both desktop and mobile devices
Technologies
- Backend: Python, Django, Django REST Framework
- Frontend: React, SCSS (including a Tailwind-like custom SCSS framework)
- Infrastructure: AWS, Redis
- Payment Systems: Stripe, Affirm Integration
- Analytics: Sentry, A/B Testing Framework