SOCIAL MEDIA • RO • STARTUP
Mobile Application & Web Platform
Social platform for home cooking enthusiasts and food influencers
Salt&Pepper put together a full stack team to help develop the MVP version of a social media network focused around providing quality content for home cooking enthusiasts.
5 Team members
2020 – Present Collaboration
5 Team members
2022-Present Collaboration
The Company and Product
Prepino is a platform dedicated to cooking aficionados. The goal of the platform is to bring together passionate home cooks & cooking veterans (creators). By delivering content in the form of cooking recipes, cooking-related articles & unified shopping list to its main users, Prepino wants to grow into the first cooking social media platform in Romania.
Prepino consists of two user-facing applications:
- Prepino Mobile Application – for iOS & Android.
- Creator’s Portal – a web portal for Prepino’s Creators to post, edit & manage their content; they can also manage their social interactions with their followers.
S&P managed to deliver a mobile MVP of our app in under 3 months. After the initial release, they were able to quickly scale the team to help us develop new features for the mobile application and build another web application from scratch. The team is very proactive in putting forward ideas that would improve our product.
Ștefan Szakal
CEO at Prepino
Scope and highlights
In response to a fragmented culinary landscape in Romanian, Salt&Pepper and Prepino joined forces to develop an MVP. With successful validation of user needs and market fit, the product underwent continuous enhancements. Today, Prepino serves as a unified hub, bringing together over 20 content creators and a thriving community of cooking enthusiasts, streamlining their culinary experiences.
3 Months
Time to Market
4.9 out of 5
App Stores Average Rating
Mobile App MVP Development
In-app cooking details, with step-by-step directions and visuals, enhancing the user’s cooking experience.
Users could access a diverse collection of over 1,000 recipes (and counting) categorized by diet, cuisines, caloric values, and other specific preferences, making it easy to find the perfect recipe for any occasion.
Users can easily create a unified shopping list from multiple recipes, simplifying meal planning and grocery shopping.
Web Based Creators Portal
Following the success of the Mobile MVP, we launched a web-based portal empowering Prepino Creators to engage with their followers.
Prepino Creators gained the tools they need it to manage everything from ingredients to recipes, fine-tuning their public profiles, and fostering follower engagement.
Our portal keeps Creators in the loop with real-time push notifications, ensuring they never miss a culinary beat.
Cloud Architecture & Implementation
Design and implementation of a scalable and secure cloud infrastructure using Google Cloud Platform (GCP) to accommodate expected user demand.
Leveraged Google Cloud’s Cloud Functions and Pub/Sub services, to create a scalable notification system tailored to Prepino’s needs of growing into a social platform.
Integration of BigQuery analytics database for advanced data querying, providing valuable insights into user behavior & product performance.
Technologies
React Native
(iOS/Android)
Firebase
Mongo DB
NodeJS
Google Cloud
BigQuery
Google Analytics
The Challenge
With no major competitors in the Romanian market offering a comprehensive culinary app that provides users with valuable content such as recipes, articles, and social connections, Salt&Pepper saw the potential for Prepino to become a deliciously successful opportunity. Salt&Pepper put together a full-stack team to develop the initial mobile application, using React Native as a hybrid technology for mobile to ensure quick development.
At the core of the project was the need to create a platform that would bring together passionate home cooks and cooking veterans by delivering content in the form of cooking recipes, cooking-related articles, and unified shopping list. The ultimate goal was for Prepino to become the first cooking social media platform in Romania.
The Process
The Prepino project initiated with comprehensive market and user analysis. The first phase involved developing a React Native-based MVP mobile app, prioritizing recipe discovery and shopping list creation. Subsequently, the platform expanded to encompass social features, including user profiles, push notifications, recipe reviews, comments, and personalized recommendations. Additionally, a web application called Creators Portal was created, empowering Prepino Creators to manage their content, engage with followers, and track metrics. Throughout the project, scalability, user engagement, and cross-platform compatibility were integral considerations. The result was a successful product that met the needs of both cooking enthusiasts and creators, fostering a vibrant and interactive community.
Development Process
The Prepino project started with market and user analysis by the client. UI/UX design was presented to Salt&Pepper after the research. The development team included React Native developers, backend & React developers, a project manager, and a QA specialist.
In phase one we built the MVP mobile app with recipe discovery, search, and shopping list features. Emphasis was on a seamless user experience and a robust backend.
Later, in the second phase the app expanded into a social platform with user profiles, push notifications, recipe reviews, comments, and personalized recommendations. A web app, Creators Portal, allowed Prepino Creators to manage content and social interactions with followers, and track engagement metrics.
Scalability
The platform was designed with scalability in mind, so that it could accommodate a growing number of users and content creators.
User Engagement
The team focused on delivering a platform that would be engaging and useful for both cooking enthusiasts and creators, in order to foster a vibrant community of users.
Cross-platform compatibility
The mobile and web applications were designed to work seamlessly together, allowing creators to access the platform from any device.
Agile Way of Working
Employing a SCRUM Agile methodology, we collaborated closely with the Prepino team, delivering work iteratively in two-week sprints. Regular reviews and demos ensured effective stakeholder management and alignment throughout the project.
The Outcome
After a 3-month development period, the Prepino MVP was successfully delivered, offering an exceptional user experience. It featured a recipe discovery engine and a shopping list creator, enabling users to explore a wide range of cooking recipes and quickly generate grocery lists based on their selections. Positive feedback from beta users led to further platform enhancements. The addition of user profiles, followers, push notifications, shopping list filtering, recipe reviews, and comments transformed Prepino into a social media platform for cooking enthusiasts and creators.
Currently, the platform boasts 10,000 users, 1,300 recipes, and 21 content creators. It has attracted the interest of local food brands, who collaborate with Prepino to provide ingredients to content creators, fostering opportunities for product showcasing and audience expansion. Salt&Pepper’s expertise in delivering complex projects within tight deadlines and prioritizing user experience has been evident throughout Prepino’s development. The platform has become a thriving cooking community in Romania, offering valuable content, articles, and high quality recipes.
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