CarpeDM Membership Platform

Overview

CarpeDM is a DC-based, member-only dating platform and personalized matchmaking service designed for professional Black women and those seeking to date them.

As a consulting Founding Software Engineer and UI/UX Advisor, I partnered with the founding team to design and build the web-based membership experience that guided users from registration and verification through subscription activation and ongoing account management.

The project required creating a seamless digital experience across onboarding, payments, background verification, subscriptions, rewards, and member services.

View App

The Challenge

CarpeDM needed a scalable membership experience that could support a premium, application-based dating model.

The platform required a system that could:

• Guide prospective members through registration and verification
• Collect deposits and subscription payments
• Manage membership status and account information
• Connect users with matchmaking services
• Provide members with rewards, content, and account controls

The challenge was creating a simple user experience while coordinating multiple backend services, payment states, and third-party integrations.

My Role

Founding Software Engineer + UI/UX Advisor (Consultant)

I was responsible for:

• Defining the onboarding and membership experience
• Advising on UX flows and interface architecture
• Developing the membership onboarding microservice
• Building the member dashboard
• Integrating payment and reward systems
• Establishing technical documentation and workflows for future development

Solution

I designed and developed a web-based membership platform that connected the entire customer journey, from application to active membership.

Member Onboarding Flow

A guided onboarding process supported:

• Account creation and authentication
• Deposit payment collection
• Background verification workflow
• Matchmaker scheduling
• Membership plan selection
• Subscription activation

Membership Dashboard

A centralized member portal allowed users to:

• Update profile information
• Manage subscription plans
• Access rewards and discounts
• Read member content
• Contact their matchmaker
• Delete their account

Payment & Subscription Infrastructure

Stripe was integrated to support:

• Initial deposit payments
• Subscription checkout flows
• Payment state synchronization
• Subscription lifecycle management

Rewardful was integrated with Stripe to enable:

• Reward tracking
• Discount credit management
• Member incentives

Impact

The platform enabled CarpeDM to:

• Launch a complete digital membership experience
• Automate key onboarding and payment workflows
• Reduce manual account management tasks
• Provide members with self-service subscription controls
• Establish a scalable foundation for future product development

Technical Implementation

Frontend Development

Built a responsive membership experience using:

• Vue
• Vuex
• Express

Implemented:

• Authentication flows
• Dashboard interfaces
• Subscription management experiences
• Shared session state across multiple web properties

Payment Architecture

The Stripe integration included:

• Checkout Sessions for deposits and subscriptions
• Webhooks for payment state synchronization
• Metadata linking frontend user context with backend processes

Payment events were synchronized with MongoDB to maintain accurate membership states.

Development Infrastructure

Improved engineering workflows through:

• Docker containerization
• AWS CodePipeline CI/CD configuration
• Technical documentation
• User-flow diagrams
• System architecture diagrams
• Engineer onboarding materials

UX Collaboration

Partnered with Talooka Studio to refine the onboarding experience and membership dashboard.

Contributed:

• User-flow strategy
• UX architecture feedback
• Technical feasibility guidance
• Interaction considerations

Key Challenge

The most complex part of the project was coordinating asynchronous systems across:

• Payment processing
• Subscription states
• Background verification
• User authentication
• Dashboard permissions

Through close collaboration with the founders, structured communication, and detailed documentation, the team was able to make informed product decisions while maintaining technical clarity.