How Peppermint Went from Idea to Infrastructure in Hours Not Days
Inside the launch story of a startup transforming offline payments—and how ComputeSphere helped them scale fast, without the cloud chaos.
Website
paywithpeppermint.comTimeline
2024-2025
When Ekene Agu set out to build Peppermint, she wasn't just
launching another fintech product. Instead, she was reimagining
how payments work in closed-loop communities like private clubs,
leisure centers, and affinity-based ecosystems. But like most earlystage founders, speed was everything. Peppermint needed to
deploy, test, and validate a real-world solution quickly. However,
what they didn't have:
- Time for complex infrastructure
- A full DevOps team
- Room for trial and error
We brought on a contractor to set up our cloud infra and he scoped a two-week timeline with layers of complexity. I turned to ComputeSphere after four days of back and forth for a quick sense check, and instead woke up to our infra live...that was the shortest contract I’d ever booked.”
Ekene Agu
FOUNDER, Peppermint
The Challenge
Peppermint's go-to-market strategy hinged on rapid deployment, security, and scalability. But with a lean engineering team and no in-house cloud specialists, they faced serious roadblocks:
Same-day Deployment
From setup to success, all achieved in one day
Weekend Testing
Experience peace, confidence, and clarity every single weekend
Urgent Deadlines
Meeting tough deadlines with speed, precision, and reliability
Tight Budgets
Enterprise-grade security needs on a startup budget
They didn't have weeks or months to figure it out. They needed a cloud platform that would just work.
Solution
Powering Peppermint's offline payments rails
Peppermint leveraged ComputeSphere's cloud platform to rapidly deploy a secure, scalable testing environment for their proof-of-concept solution. The containerized infrastructure provided enterprise-grade security and simplified deployment processes, allowing their small team to focus on product development while meeting tight deadlines.
The ComputeSphere Difference
With ComputeSphere, Peppermint deployed their infrastructure in a few hours, maintained 100% focus on product (not servers), and achieved enterprise-grade security without enterprise overhead. ComputeSphere is a cloud platform purpose-built for startups—offering developers and product teams the ability to deploy, test, and scale apps fast without DevOps complexity or pricing surprises.
“We had a big demo and were behind on the build, so we had to deploy the same day. ComputeSphere came through and we closed a major merchant. ComputeSphere really is the cheat code: enterprise-grade security with startup speed.”
Ekene Agu
FOUNDER, Peppermint
