Guusto · Recognition & Rewards · iOS + Android · React Native
Sole Frontend Developer, March 2020 – July 2026
I was the only frontend developer on Guusto's mobile app. I built it from scratch, shipped it to both stores, and handled every release for six years.
Guusto is an employee recognition platform. It has a 4.9 rating on G2 and Capterra, and its customers include Marriott and the Toronto Raptors. It's built for frontline workers such as nurses and drivers, who don't usually check work email. The mobile app is how those workers receive and redeem their rewards. An employee gets a gift on their phone and redeems it at a store.(App context only; web platform built by a separate team.)
What I did
- Designed the app architecture and built it from scratch in React Native + TypeScript, working from Figma designs, and shipped it to both stores.
- Integrated the app with Guusto's backend REST APIs.
- Implemented the app's client-side push notification handling (receiving, displaying, and routing notifications).
- Owned six years of continuous delivery: feature development, bug fixes, performance work, and release management for every version on both stores.
- Shipped features across the app's life: notification center, Google Sign-In, wallet integration, activity feed with department/location filters, multi-recipient recognition, AI-assisted message suggestions, physical Mastercard/Visa card support, and the v4.13 home experience redesign (June 2026).
- Worked directly with the web, backend, design, and product teams, from requirements through release, on a Bitbucket and Jira workflow.
- Used Claude Code and Codex in my daily work, mostly for code review and other routine work.
- Spent the last three months on handover as engineering moved to HQ hours: wrote the documentation, trained the incoming team, and answered their questions until my contract ended.
The closest call
A backend change broke gift sending days before Guusto's busiest week, in the middle of a code freeze. The fix was one line.
A few days before December 18, which is our busiest week of the year, we found out that users couldn't send gifts at all. If it had stayed broken, no one could have sent a gift during the highest-volume week of Guusto's year. A backend change earlier that week had broken the request format, and we were already in code freeze. QA's position was that nothing ships during a freeze. The core function of the app was down, so leaving it broken was the bigger risk. The fix turned out to be one line: the properties in the API request payload needed to be reordered. I tested it, released it, and gift sending kept working through the holidays. The director of engineering had left the decision to me, because I was the one who'd shipped every release before it.
- 6+ years sole ownership
- 2 platforms from one codebase
- 4.0★ App Store
- v4.13.0 current (June 2026)
- releases every 4–6 months or as features complete
Screenshots
Screens from the Guusto app, which I built and shipped.