Sophos - Short Video App

In 2023, I had the opportunity to build a mobile app for a startup called Sophia Technologies, LLC. They had a problem with the trend of social media platforms becoming endless time sinks, where people subscribe for cheap entertainment and get hooked on algorithms.

They had an idea for a platform that took advantage of the benefits of social media, but with educational content only. It was an ambitious project, as they wanted a short-form video app with a custom video editor and streaming solutions.

When they came to me, I sat down with them over a video call and discussed the unique challenges of building and maintaining such an app. I helped them navigate which technologies they could use to optimize their business for a rapid development and release timeline, and a flexible system that could be iterated on quickly.

We decided on Flutter for the app codebase due to its cross-platform capabilities. On the backend, we used an API built using TypeScript with Express.js, a Mongo database, and Firebase Storage with ImageKit as a storage and CDN service.

I put together a spreadsheet showing what the costs of app maintenance would look like, then immediately began designing the application in Figma. Together we talked about the design they wanted for the app, and I wireframed it all so they could see exactly what it would look like.

From there, I began development - I started by setting up the database and backend API, including a version control system to account for future growth and scalability. After building out the API spec on the backend, I replicated it on the frontend in Dart code and began work on the mobile app. I set up the app architecture to be able to develop new features quickly. Working part-time over a period of around six months, I was able to deliver an amazing app with all the capabilities they had requested.

This included building an entirely new video editor platform that interfaced with native FFMPEG execution, allowing the user to stitch multiple video clips together, remove clips, and publish them to the platform.