Cass Olholm: Train With Cass App Rescue & Performance Recovery
-
Seamless developer transition with ZERO business disruption
-
Eliminated underlying bugs causing frequent crashes
-
Improved app responsiveness and loading performance
-
Restored member satisfaction and subscription conversion rates
-
Established foundation for future platform development
The Brief
Trapped with an unreliable developer and crashing app? See how we rescued Cass Olholm's fitness platform and restored stability fast.
Train With Cass approached PixelForce in crisis mode. Their existing iOS app, managed by another agency, crashed constantly, performed sluggishly, and frustrated members at every turn. Free trial conversions plummeted. Paying members cancelled subscriptions. Maintenance costs consumed budget that should have funded growth.
Cass Olholm had invested heavily in the original build, believing in the developer's portfolio and promises. Reality delivered something completely different. The app crashed for days at a time. The previous agency blamed "normal new app behaviour" whilst charging retainer fees that delivered minimal value. When Cass attempted to exit the relationship, contractual complications made the transition difficult.
Beyond technical failures, the situation had taken a severe personal toll on Cass. As someone who deeply believes fitness changes lives, watching her platform fail members daily whilst feeling powerless to fix it caused significant stress and anxiety.
PixelForce needed to take over development without disrupting active members, identify the root causes behind persistent crashes, eliminate accumulated technical debt, and restore both platform stability and Cass's confidence - all whilst the business continued operating.
Our Solution
We executed a strategic rescue operation focused on immediate stabilisation and long-term reliability improvements.
- Seamless Developer Transition: Despite the previous agency making handover unnecessarily complicated, we managed a smooth takeover with zero disruption to active members. Whilst Cass's community continued training normally, we audited the codebase, mapped the infrastructure, and identified critical vulnerabilities requiring immediate attention.
- Root Cause Analysis: Rather than applying surface-level patches, we investigated why crashes kept happening. We discovered fundamental code quality issues and architectural decisions that created instability. These underlying problems explained why the previous developer kept failing to resolve recurring issues - they were treating symptoms rather than causes.
- Systematic Bug Elimination: We systematically worked through the codebase, fixing the structural problems creating crashes. Automated testing frameworks went into place, catching potential issues during development rather than after release. This shift from reactive firefighting to proactive quality assurance transformed the app's reliability profile.
- Performance Optimisation: We improved responsiveness through efficient caching strategies and optimised database queries. Loading times decreased. Animations smoothed out. The app started feeling fast and reliable - the way members expected it to work from the beginning.
- Maintenance Cost Reduction: By improving code quality and implementing continuous integration protocols, we reduced ongoing maintenance demands substantially. Budget previously consumed by endless bug fixes became available for feature development and member experience enhancements.
- Foundation for Growth: The stabilisation work created breathing room for Cass to consider her options: continue patching the existing platform or invest in rebuilding properly. Our successful rescue gave her confidence that PixelForce understood both the technical challenges and her vision - ultimately leading to the complete TWC 2.0 rebuild.
Our services included
Technical Breakdown
This rescue project demonstrated how quickly the right technical team can reverse an app crisis. By identifying root causes rather than chasing symptoms, we transformed Train With Cass from an unreliable platform hemorrhaging members into a stable foundation ready for strategic growth decisions.Retry
