Helping Circuit get 5X MAUs and later raise $11M in funding whilst making their customers happier than ever
Circuit is an all-electric shuttle service offering free & low-cost first and last mile rides in key urban destinations. Their ultimate goal is to reduce congestion and its harmful effects on the environment and quality of life - using innovative technology to make mobility easier, smarter, more affordable and fun.
monthly active users
raised by Circuit in Series A
rated on Apple Store
previously rated at 3.1 starsrated on Google Play
previously rated at 3.2 starsHaving validated the market with their MVP, Circuit needed a strong tech solution to achieve their goals of expanding business operations, improving user experience, and getting the funds to scale up. Working with Whitesmith helped Circuit become a product-led company able to deliver on those goals without compromising on the aggressive shorter term objectives, positioning them to be able to raise Series A investment.
“Whitesmith brings [a lot more] curiosity and need for detail to our projects. You’ve only ever helped us come out on the other side with a better project and meet the expectations that we had from the start.”
Tucker Costello, Executive Director at CircuitWhen Circuit engaged Whitesmith, they already had a working MVP with mediocre ratings and a slowly growing user base. They had two key challenges to tackle: Grow the user base whilst keeping the underlying tech infrastructure stable and prepare for rapid growth that would at least double MAU per year. These objectives had to be met without compromising on their larger long term goal of raising Series A funding.
“We wanted to improve the ratings and we really did. We didn't hire any bots to do that - we just improved the app.”
Tucker Costello, Executive Director at CircuitTransforming MVP into a successful product requires a significant shift to being a Product-led Company. This is a continuous process of adapting to customer needs, re-evaluation and course correction. In Circuit's case, added complexity lies in the fact that they employ their drivers and work directly with customers to deploy, own and operate fleets, so their platform needs to serve these customers too. The work of admin, sales and operations is intertwined and this had to be considered.
Having mostly focused on operations and business goals until this point, Circuit needed a strong tech team that could lead them to the next phase of the product lifecycle, and ultimately help their company grow as they became increasingly tech focused. The aim was clear: to help Circuit turn into a product-led company that meets user expectations and offers them a very different experience, transitioning to a high-scale product with stellar ratings.
Setting a company up for long-term success requires more than just shipping features - it means supporting the entire product development lifecycle, and the transition between phases. Over the last 4 years, Circuit has cooperated with Whitesmith to build a truly successful product. This started with a clear, shared vision of what success was based on clear objectives and defined metrics to measure it.
A Whitesmith product team was deployed and truly integrated into Circuit to collaborate on strategy, development, release, and monitoring. The integrated team developed a feedback loop from customer insights ot executive decision- making. By linking proxy metrics for customer success ot North Star goals, the feedback cycle enabled the team to adapt to changes while staying focused on the endgame. The work was transformed from being focused on pushing features to pushing the company consistently towards its objectives.
“You all brought a lot of confidence and a lot of structure to the process. You listened. You were able to hear us, ask the right questions and build what we were imagining. Our expectations were met without us necessarily knowing how to explain what we needed.”
Tucker Costello, Executive Director at CircuitWhitesmith has been supporting Circuit in their transformation not just through product, but also by impacting company operations and promoting a culture of collaboration. From daily standups to monthly strategy reviews, the collaboration is nurturing an obsession with product experience and focus on company goals. Whitesmith thinking has been adopted by Circuit and empowered data-driven decisions, experimentation and continuous improvement; equipping Circuit to continue scaling. Most importantly, we helped Circuit's team shift towards product thinking, linking al efforts to overarching objectives. Together, we've taken an MVP to a stellar product loved by users.
Circuit and Whitesmith formed a truly cooperative relationship, with our experts becoming part of Circuit’s team and culture, having brought in the curiosity and need for detail that were needed. Circuit underwent a real transformation to a high scale, product-led company hitting business goals and dramatically improving the experience of passengers and drivers.
Circuit’s way of operating, collecting data, and even the work of the sales team changed for the better as a result of implementing the strategy and using the feedback loop in the right way. Whitesmith’s approach and top notch product team, paired with dedication and collaboration flowing both ways, resulted in:
— Alignment between business and product strategy with optimised measures and continuous improvement, incorporating customer feedback in strategy and development
— 5x the number of monthly active users, who are loving the experience
— Improved mobile app ratings: 3.2 to 4.4 in Google Play and 3.1 to 4.8 in App Store
— 366% increase in number of passengers moved, from 30k+ in Jan 2021 to 140k+ in July 2023
— Circuit subsequently being able to raise $11M in Series A investment
Our cooperation continues, with Whitesmith still playing an important part for Circuit, as product development and strategy team.
"I'm excited to continue all the work we're doing with Whitesmith. We can't work without you guys and we need more of you"
Tom Callahan, Technical Project Manager at CircuitSchedule a call to learn whether Whitesmith are a good fit for your product.
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