CASE STUDY – SOFTWARE DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT

How Taivara Co-Created the World’s Largest Performing Arts Ecosystem

by Taivara, Enterprise Results at Startup Speed

500+ top programs including Juilliard. Cash-flow positive in 19 months.
Acquired by Togetherwork in 2021.

The Audition Problem

Every performing arts program at every college and university has one thing in common: the audition. For decades, that one thing meant a lot of travel for aspiring students. No matter where you lived or what your financial situation was, if you wanted to study at a top program, you bought a plane ticket and took your one shot in front of a panel of adjudicators.

The burden ran both ways. Students were spending thousands of dollars for a single audition day. Faculty were sitting in auditoriums for days at a time, reviewing back-to-back performances on a fixed schedule. Programs tried to modernize by accepting CD and DVD recordings, and quickly found themselves buried in stacks of discs and mismatched paper applications. The process was broken, and no one had fixed it.

Founders With a Vision, But No Technical
Co-Founder

The startup founders came to Taivara with a clear idea: move the entire audition process online. Applicants would record themselves and upload files directly to their application. Adjudicators would log in and review submissions on their own schedule. The concept was sound. The path to building it was not yet clear.

Before a single line of code was written, Taivara worked alongside the founders to pressure-test the idea. We helped research market viability, identify early adopters, and secure customer commitments that would give investors confidence. Once the signal was there, we helped the company raise enough capital to get off the ground.

This is what co-creation looks like before the build starts.

Uncovering the Real Complexity

The founders had engaged another firm to build an MVP. It looked the part but could not hold up under real usage conditions. The architecture was not designed to scale, and critical industry requirements had not been addressed.

Taivara took over and went deep. We mapped the actual workflows of both applicants and institutions. What we found was a product with far more complexity beneath the surface than the MVP had addressed.

Applicants needed a single account to apply to multiple universities, often reusing the same audio and video files across submissions. Programs needed tiered permission structures for different adjudicator roles, with individual accounts that could span multiple departments or programs. The platform needed to process large video files reliably, handle application fee payments, and maintain data integrity across hundreds of simultaneous institutions.

None of this was insurmountable. But it required the kind of structured product thinking that separates a durable platform from a prototype. We prioritized what had to exist at launch, roadmapped everything else, and built accordingly.

Engineered for Peak Load

The performing arts application calendar created a unique technical challenge. Top programs shared common deadlines, and applicants being applicants, thousands of them would wait until the final hours to submit. That meant the platform had to absorb massive spikes in simultaneous traffic, thousands of users uploading large video files at the same moment, without degrading performance or dropping submissions.

Taivara designed the infrastructure to handle peak load without over-provisioning for the rest of the year. The platform stayed stable when it mattered most and remained cost-efficient when it did not.

Built to Improve

After launch, we established structured feedback loops with the programs that mattered most. Their input, combined with our ongoing product analysis, drove a continuous cycle of iteration. Features were prioritized based on real usage patterns, not assumptions. The product got meaningfully better with each cycle, which directly supported client retention and new program acquisition.

The Results

Within two years, the platform had earned the trust of more than 200 performing arts programs, including some of the most selective and prestigious institutions in the world, among them Juilliard and the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music.

By the end of year three, the network had grown to over 500 programs. The platform Taivara co-created had become the world’s largest performing arts ecosystem.

At roughly 19 months in, the company had reached sustainable cash flow. Taivara helped the founders source, interview, and onboard an in-house development team. Ultimately, handing off a stable, well-architected product and the product management foundation to support it going forward.

In 2021, the platform was acquired by Togetherwork, a validation of the market position built over those first three years and the technical foundation Taivara helped put in place.

“Taivara turned my ideas into reality. They helped me design a scalable product, built the platform, and set the foundation for our product management methods for when we brought on in-house talent. Without a technical co-founder, Taivara played a crucial role in getting my startup off the ground.”

Derek Brown

Founder & CEO, Acceptd

What This Means for Your Organization

Whether you are a founder without a technical co-founder or an enterprise team with an idea that has not yet found its form, Taivara brings the strategic and technical depth to take you from concept to a product your market will trust. Let’s build something together.

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