Kizuna
How Kizuna Built a Safe, Enterprise-grade Caregiving Platform and Avoided Startup Pitfalls from Day One.
About
Kizuna is a two-sided marketplace platform that connects families with professional caregivers. From sensitive healthcare data to real-time messaging, background checks, and financial transactions, Kizuna needed a platform that was secure, reliable, and built to scale.
Key Results
The Opportunity
When Kizuna’s founders started building their platform, they faced a common healthcare startup challenge: speed vs. stability.
Many startups rush to launch with quick fixes, WordPress plugins, or basic frameworks, but the costs pile up fast:
Kizuna wanted to avoid these traps by building a platform with strong foundations from day one.
The Impact
Challenge | With Better Software |
|---|---|
Risk of costly security breaches | Secure, compliant systems that eliminate vulnerabilities |
Limited scalability of quick MVP builds | Platform designed to handle 100× user growth |
Long onboarding cycles for new engineers | Smooth ramp-up with 40% faster development cycles |
Frequent platform downtime | Zero outages in the first 18 months |
The Solution
Better Software partnered with Kizuna to balance speed and scalability with an architecture that would support growth without constant firefighting.
Our Approach
Security-first foundation to meet healthcare data standards and avoid costly breaches Scalable architecture that could handle rapid user growth without performance issues Streamlined developer onboarding to accelerate feature delivery Environment isolation and automated processes to reduce deployment risks and increase reliability
Lessons for Other Founders
Good foundations are not over-engineering; they’re business insurance.
Focus on growth-ready, secure systems early to avoid technical debt that slows growth.
Expect your investment in strong foundations to pay back within 6–8 months through faster delivery, fewer outages, and long-term savings.
Better Software helped Kizuna build a caregiving platform that was secure, Enterprise-grade, and ready for growth, proving that with the right engineering approach, startups don’t have to choose between moving fast and building strong.
“By investing just 25% more time in getting our foundations right, we avoided over $750K in avoidable costs, skipped a painful platform rewrite, and reached product-market fit eight months faster than competitors still fixing their tech.”
