From Idea to Product: Impromek’s Startup Journey
Industry
EDTECH / ONLINE LEARNING / COACHING MARKETPLACE
Technologies
STRIPE, NODE.JS, REACT
Team Size
Dedicated development team
Duration
~3 MONTHS
Project Overview
A young founder, fresh out of college, had a vision but was stuck with an unfinished product and a tight budget. After months of struggle, Gabriel Sotomayor turned to us. We stepped in with a clear plan: build a solid MVP, keep things lean, and make it maintainable. The result? A fully functional platform with admin, teacher, and student panels, launched fast, on budget, and ready to scale.
From Problem to Product
Impromek is an online coaching marketplace designed to connect students with expert mentors through a simple, structured platform. It includes dedicated panels for admins, teachers, and students, built-in messaging, feedback, and secure payment features. The client approached us with an incomplete product, a limited budget, and ongoing maintenance issues. We stepped in to deliver a streamlined, scalable solution ready for real users.
Client Pain Points
He was a developer and tried to build the platform himself as fast as he could, but couldn’t complete it.
He was a single founder focusing on investment and engineering simultaneously, which was impossible.
The product didn’t have a clear or working MVP (Minimum Viable Product).
He had a limited budget, which made development and scaling difficult.
The platform was hard to maintain and needed a more reliable structure.
He needed help turning the unfinished system into something users could actually use.
Our Solution
We built a clean and functional MVP that covered all core features like lesson booking, feedback, and chat.
Our dedicated development team developed separate panels for admin, teacher, and student to organize roles and workflows.
Integrated Stripe (payment gateway) to simplify and reduce payment processing costs (replacing Escrow).
Set up a lean maintenance plan so the client could manage the platform without needing a large tech team.
How Stripe Made Things Simpler
At first, the platform used an Escrow system for handling payments, but it was expensive and hard to manage. We replaced it with Stripe, a more affordable and developer-friendly solution. This change made payments smoother, reduced transaction fees, and helped the client run the platform with less hassle and more control.
Key Functionality
We built the platform to be simple, flexible, and easy to use for both students and mentors. It includes three separate panels for admin, teacher, and student, making roles and tasks clear for everyone.
Students can request lessons, share their challenges, and get direct feedback from mentors.
A built-in chat system allows open communication between student and mentor.
Mentors can rate students and also receive feedback through a star rating system.
Stripe was integrated to handle payments securely and reduce high transaction costs compared to Escrow.
The system is designed to be lightweight, making it easy for the client to maintain without a full tech team.
A refund feature ensures trust—students can get their money back if a lesson isn’t delivered as promised.
Project Results
Launched a complete MVP that allowed the founder to finally bring in real users and start operations smoothly.
Solved months of solo struggle by giving the founder a working, easy-to-manage platform.
Teachers could reply with video messages, making the learning experience more personal and engaging for students.
Students and mentors had clear roles through separate panels, making the platform simple and easy to use.
Replaced Escrow with Stripe, which made payments cheaper, faster, and fully controlled by the client.
Reduced ongoing tech stress by building a clean system that didn’t need a whole dedicated development team to maintain.
Gave the founder time to focus on growth and investment, instead of fixing technical issues (we handled that part).
