Sophia

Sophia was invented and incubated in 2009 by GoKart Labs, a digital design firm in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After being spun off as its own organization in 2010, Sophia needed an additional web development team to assist GoKart Labs to build the prototype into a scalable, stable, feature-rich flagship product, without overreaching the limits of the Series A funds.

Challenges

Scalability and Stability

High-volume public-facing website

Staffing

Needed an efficient, affordable team to complete development

Geography

Development teams were co-located in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Minsk, Belarus 

Technology Used

Offshore Development Center

Solution

Warecorp built a dedicated Offshore Development Center for Sophia, complete with project management, business analysts, architecture, engineers, testers, and deployment and operations specialists. This team utilized an agile development model to facilitate split-geography development (by bringing in appropriate tools, process modifications, and communications facilities). An international, collaborative effort – product management was done in Minneapolis by GoKart Labs, and Warecorp completed product development in Europe.

Results

Today, https://sophia.org is a trusted online learning solution for hundreds of thousands of students and across dozens of universities. It is the 2011 recipient of a Tekne Award for excellence in Edutech. In 2012, Capella University acquired Sophia.org. Warecorp continues as the foundational engineering team.