C3 Mobile: Rescuing a Broken App with a High-Speed, Modern Rebuild

The Problem

A “completely broken” mobile presence and an expensive road to recovery.

C3’s mobile capabilities had hit a wall. The tools their team relied on daily were failing, and the path forward looked slow and incredibly costly:

• Platform Failure: The iOS app was completely broken and unusable, while the Android version was stuck on an outdated SDK that couldn’t be updated.
• The “Legacy Trap”: The apps were built on a framework that was no longer supported, making simple maintenance impossible.
• The $40k Roadblock: External vendors quoted approximately $40,000 and 6–8 weeks just to get the apps functional again—a price and timeline that didn’t sit well with the business.

C3 needed a partner who could bypass the “big agency” bloat and deliver a working solution before the operational delays caused further damage.

The Solution

Rapid rebuild and a “one-codebase” strategy.

We conducted a swift investigation and determined that patching the old code was throwing good money after bad. Instead, we executed a rapid, modern rebuild:

• Modern Architecture: We rebuilt the app using React Native and Expo, creating a single, high-performance codebase that serves both iOS and Android simultaneously.
• Record-Breaking Turnaround: We took the project from “broken” to “fully functional” in just 2 weeks, maintaining every original feature while upgrading the user experience.
• Future-Proofing: By moving to a modern stack, we ensured that C3 would never again be held hostage by unsupported legacy frameworks.
• Simplified Deployment: We streamlined the App Store and Google Play processes, making future updates a matter of minutes, not months.

Our approach was built on technical pragmatism: building exactly what the business needed, faster and smarter.

The Results

Functionality restored at a fraction of the cost.

The rebuild didn’t just fix the bugs; it fundamentally changed the economics of C3’s mobile strategy:

• Massive Cost Avoidance: We delivered the solution at a fraction of the $40,000 vendor quote, saving the business tens of thousands in unnecessary spend.
• Operational Uptime: What was expected to take two months was resolved in a fortnight, getting the team back to work with fully functional tools.
• Maintainable Future: With a unified codebase, C3’s maintenance costs have plummeted, as updates now only need to be written once for both platforms.
• Stakeholder Peace of Mind: Leadership praised the speed and transparency of the process, finally having a mobile asset they could rely on.

This project proves that technical insight and rapid execution can rescue a failing app, protect the bottom line, and set a business up for long-term digital success.