Crypto School - Rescuing & Rebuilding a Crashing Education Platform
A crypto education business had built their MVP on LearnDash/WordPress. It crashed with just 200 concurrent users. Launch was imminent, the audience was growing, and the platform couldn't handle it.
View siteFrom 200 users crashing → 150k daily active users at peak
Stabilized a failing WordPress MVP, then rebuilt for real growth.
Full platform rebuild
Replaced LearnDash/WordPress with a modular Laravel + React system built for scale.
End-to-end architecture
Delivered auth, video delivery, analytics, and caching for high-traffic loads.
Approach
Led the emergency launch effort, then stabilized WordPress to buy time while planning and executing a full rebuild. Replaced the entire stack with Laravel and React, designing proper architecture for lessons, video delivery, user progress, and content management.
Outcome
Took the platform from crashing at 200 users to stable operations at scale. The rebuild gave the team a solid foundation and the ability to handle significant traffic during peak periods.
The starting point
Crypto School launched as a LearnDash-based MVP on WordPress - quick to set up, but not built for real traffic. The first major launch crashed the site with around 200 concurrent users. Pages broke, video playback failed, and the team was stuck firefighting instead of growing.
They needed someone to get them through launch, stabilize what existed, and then build something real.
Stabilizing and buying time
The first priority was getting them launched and keeping the lights on. I worked through the WordPress stack - patching, caching, optimizing queries, and reducing load wherever possible.
This wasn't a long-term solution, but it bought us the runway to plan a proper rebuild while the business continued operating and the audience kept growing.
The rebuild
Once stabilized, I led a full platform rebuild using Laravel for backend APIs and React for the frontend. The new architecture was designed around the core needs - structured lessons, video delivery, user progress tracking, authentication, and content management.
Key components included:
- Secure auth and user management
- Modular course and lesson architecture
- Stable video hosting and playback
- Analytics and engagement tracking
- Caching strategies for high-traffic pages
The frontend was rebuilt with a clean UX, and the backend was shaped for both speed and safety as traffic grew.
Results
The platform went from crashing at 200 users to handling significant daily traffic (150k) at its peak - serving a large, active audience during marketing pushes and content drops.
Engineering stopped firefighting outages. The platform was stable, performant, and built on a foundation that could actually support growth.
I moved on about a year ago, so I can't speak to where things are now. But the rebuild gave them a stable foundation during a critical growth period, and the project shaped how I approach platform rescues today.