Building Eveclass from zero

Context

Eveclass served creators and education businesses that needed their own white-label teaching platforms. The product had to make content, users, websites, payments, streaming, and learning resources work as one flexible system while the company was still establishing its engineering function.

My role and constraints

I joined as the first engineering hire. The immediate goal was to turn a broad product idea into a usable first version in about eight months, then grow the team and platform without losing the ability to ship. Budget constraints meant we needed to hire for potential and create a strong development environment rather than rely on a large, senior-heavy team.

Over time, I hired seven engineers and managed a team of six at its peak. My scope covered interviewing, onboarding, 1:1s, mentoring, performance feedback, product collaboration, technical decisions, and day-to-day delivery.

Decisions and execution

We shaped the platform as a set of capabilities that could support many independently branded learning businesses instead of a one-off course site. That meant keeping the core flexible across sales, content, users, websites, payments, streaming, and learning resources as the product expanded to more than 50 modules.

One important technical decision was to build an in-house streaming service rather than continue relying on a third-party provider. The change reduced streaming costs by 80% and gave the business more control over a part of the product that materially affected its commercial model.

On the people side, I kept close communication around progress and blockers, paired hiring with active mentoring, and made expectations explicit. Several engineers who joined with high potential later moved into senior roles at other companies.

Outcome

The first usable product launched in about eight months. The platform later supported 10,000+ white-label platforms, 250,000+ users, and 25,000+ courses, with 99.98% uptime since launch.

What this demonstrates

This was a build-from-zero leadership role: turn ambiguity into an initial product, establish an engineering team, keep technical and commercial choices connected, and create enough clarity for engineers to grow with the system.