Every digital product startup hits the same sticking point. The idea is validated, the audience is mapped, the founder knows exactly what to build. And there’s no one to decide how to build it.
That’s the point at which PetMesh’s founder came to Pura. The proposal was clear: a platform for dog and cat owners to organize their pets’ health, log day-to-day care, keep memories and share experiences with other pet owners.

The audience’s pain was clear too. Anyone with a pet knows the scene: the animal falls ill on a Sunday, and the vet asks about the last vaccine, the last deworming, the medication it takes. The answer is on a piece of paper from the clinic, in a photo lost on a phone, in a conversation from months ago. In an emergency, time matters, and the information is never at hand.
The dilemma of having no tech team
The founder had two traditional paths. Build an in-house team, which would mean months of hiring and high fixed costs before the first user. Or hire a software house, which would deliver code but leave without an owner the decisions that determine whether a product can grow: architecture, infrastructure, security, operating costs.

What he needed wasn’t just developers. It was someone sitting beside him, making the technical decisions together, with the same responsibility for the outcome.
A CTO.

How the partnership worked

Pura took on that role. The founder acted as Product Owner, setting priorities and validating each delivery. Pura took the technical leadership: prototyping, stack selection, architecture, infrastructure, hosting, integrations and support.
The first decision was the most important. Instead of building new infrastructure from scratch, the project leveraged the base Pura already runs in production for other clients. Servers, deployment pipeline, monitoring and security practices, all already tested. That eliminated weeks of work and risks that usually only show up after launch.
The chosen stack was Next.js on the front end and NestJS with PostgreSQL on the back end, a modern, well-documented and easy-to-maintain combination. The platform runs in the browser and can be installed on a phone as an app (PWA), with no dependence on app store approval. The pet owner community runs in real time, recurring payments go through Pagar.me and emails are sent through SendGrid.

Speed with responsibility

Pura used artificial intelligence to support development, which sped up the work considerably. But speed without control sends the bill later. That’s why some rules held from the first day to the last: all code versioned on GitLab, deployments only through the automated pipeline, no direct changes on the production server and restricted access to the infrastructure. In the application, two-factor authentication, rate limiting and error monitoring with Sentry.

Beyond the code: ready to sell

A product that’s live with no marketing structure is a product nobody finds. Pura also built the brand’s entire digital ecosystem: Meta Pixel and ad account, connection of the Facebook and Instagram pages, Google Analytics and Search Console.
WhatsApp took on a central role. As a Meta Tech Provider, Pura connected PetMesh’s WhatsApp Business account through the official API, using Pura’s own app and n8n automations. That’s how pet owners receive the platform’s notifications.