Châtaigne.ai
About the Project
Châtaigne.ai is an AI-powered conversational commerce platform that revolutionizes restaurant ordering through WhatsApp. The platform eliminates the need for app downloads or complex interfaces, allowing customers to order food naturally through text or voice messages while restaurants avoid marketplace commissions and maintain direct customer relationships.
As a Founding Engineer, Malik joined during the critical 0-to-1 journey, transforming an internal MVP into a production-ready, scalable platform serving 10,000+ users. Working closely with the CTO/Co-founder, he led the complete frontend architecture overhaul and contributed significantly to full-stack development, enabling the company to onboard 50+ restaurant partners.
The Challenge
When Malik joined, the frontend was not customer-facing—it existed solely as an internal tool for developers to manage backend operations. The codebase presented several critical issues:
- Non-scalable architecture: Monolithic components exceeding 500 lines with tightly coupled logic
- Poor code organization: Spaghetti code with no clear separation of concerns
- Major performance issues: Sluggish interface with poor rendering performance
- Unusable for clients: The interface was too poorly designed for restaurant partners to use
- Inconsistent styling: No cohesive visual identity across the application
- Zero test coverage: No confidence in deployments or refactoring
The platform couldn't be presented to potential restaurant partners, blocking customer acquisition and growth.
Key Contributions
Frontend Architecture & Scalability
- Rebuilt the entire frontend from scratch using React and Next.js with TypeScript
- Designed and built a comprehensive component library, breaking down monoliths into reusable components
- Established state management strategy using Zustand and TanStack Query
- Defined the platform's visual identity and styling standards
Performance Optimization
- Transformed a sluggish interface into a fluid, responsive user experience
- Implemented code splitting, lazy loading, and optimized rendering strategies
- Reduced load times and improved interactivity for restaurant owners
Quality & Testing
- Implemented comprehensive testing strategy using Vitest and Playwright
- Increased code coverage from 0% to 85%
- Set up CI/CD pipelines to automate testing and ensure code quality
Results
Malik's work directly enabled Châtaigne.ai's commercial success and market expansion:
- Enabled onboarding of 50+ restaurant partners: by making the dashboard presentable and usable
- Supported scaling to 10,000+ users: through a robust, performant frontend architecture
- Reduced production bugs by 60%: through comprehensive testing implementation
- Established technical foundation: for future feature development and team scaling
