PoggoPay

The Challenge

David Lozano approached Bright Sol Tech with a vision to create a "Buy Now, Pay Later" (BNPL) payment solution specifically designed for veterinary clinics. The challenge was significant: pet owners often face unexpected medical expenses for their animals, and existing solutions like CareCredit require credit checks that many customers cannot pass.

PoggoPay needed to differentiate itself by offering a no-credit-check payment plan that would allow customers to split purchases into 4 easy payments while providing clinics with reliable payouts. The platform required complex financial logic including automated payment processing, late fee calculations, loan default handling, and ACH bank transfers to merchant businesses.

Solutions Delivered

Custom Ruby on Rails BNPL PlatformWe built a complete payment infrastructure from the ground up including customer signup with identity verification, credit decision logic, automated payment scheduling, and business merchant management.

Multi-Party Payment ArchitectureThe platform manages three distinct user types: end customers making purchases, business admins (clinic staff) creating transactions, and PoggoPay super-admins overseeing the entire system.

Automated Payment ProcessingImplemented Sidekiq background jobs to automatically charge customer cards on schedule, handle failed payments with retry logic, apply late fees at 7, 14, and 21 days, and flag accounts as defaulted after 42 days of non-payment.

Business Payout SystemIntegrated Dwolla for ACH bank transfers to pay out merchant businesses every 2 business days, including funding source management and transfer tracking.

SMS & Email Notification SystemBuilt comprehensive notification pipelines for payment reminders (5-day and 1-day), successful payment confirmations, failed payment alerts, and credit limit increases. Migrated from Twilio to MessageBird for SMS and Mailgun to Resend for improved deliverability.

Technical Stack

Framework Ruby on Rails 7 Database PostgreSQL Background Jobs Sidekiq / Redis Payment Processing Stripe Bank Payouts Dwolla SMS Provider MessageBird (migrated from Twilio) Email Provider Resend (migrated from Mailgun) Hosting DigitalOcean Error Monitoring Honeybadger Landing Page Webflow

Key Features Implemented

Customer Portal

• Phone/email verification (2FA)
• Digital PoggoPay card display
• Transaction history and payment tracking
• Manual payment functionality
• Credit limit display ($400 starting limit)

Business Admin Portal

• Create customer transactions
• View transaction reports and payout history
• Bank account connection for receiving payouts
• Customer management and search

Payment Logic

• 4-payment installment plans
• 3% service fee per transaction
• Automated payment scheduling
• Late fee calculation and application
• Payment retry logic after failures
• Account locking for overdue payments
• 42-day default flagging with admin notifications

Key Milestones

• May 2022 Project kickoff,
• MVP development begins
• July 2022 SOW modifications, Plaid/Dwolla integrations scoped
• October 2022 Business admin portal and payout functionality
• December 2022 Full payment flow demo with client
• May 2023 Landing page launch, first clinic onboarding (Eastlake Clinic)
• June 2023 Production deployment, first live transactions
• August 2023 Beta testing with employees, successful transactions processed September 2023 Email migration (Mailgun → Resend), improved deliverability
• March 2024 Two additional clinic contracts signed, MessageBird SMS activation
• January 2025 Strategic discussions on licensing and platform expansion

Ongoing Engagement

PoggoPay continues on an active development retainer with Bright Sol Tech. Current and recent work includes:

• SMS notification improvements and MessageBird compliance
• Payment retry logic refinements
• Extending payment due dates feature
• Removing social security number requirements (privacy concerns)
• Working toward lending license compliance
• Super admin portal enhancements (Motor Admin integration)
• Email notification logging for better visibility

Business Impact

The platform successfully processes BNPL transactions for veterinary clinics, allowing pet owners to split unexpected medical expenses into manageable payments without traditional credit checks. The 3% service fee model and automated payout system provides clinics with a reliable payment collection method while reducing the burden of managing payment plans internally.

Development Approach

The project followed an iterative cycle-based development approach over the MVP phase (112 days, 25 points per cycle goal), with ongoing maintenance and feature development continuing through a monthly retainer. Complex payment edge cases were addressed through detailed collaboration documented via Linear issues and Basecamp discussions, with Honeybadger integration enabling rapid identification and resolution of production issues.

This case study demonstrates BST's capabilities in fintech development, complex payment integrations, and long-term client partnerships requiring ongoing regulatory and technical evolution.

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