Relay, in stories

Every system fails somebody.
These are their stories.

Three seasons, each following one small, fast-growing company into the problems every team eventually hits. Light on code, honest about the pain — read with a coffee, not a compiler. When a story makes you think “oh no, that’s us”, follow the Go deeper links into the tutorials.

Season 1

Pemberton & Crumb

Pemberton & Crumb — artisanal pickles, by subscription

A small online retailer hits the classics: the lost money nobody can explain, the email that sent itself five times, the tenant who saw someone else's data, the 2 a.m. page nobody could read.

Featuring Dana, who deserved better tooling.

Start season 1 →
Season 1 — Pemberton & Crumb
  1. 01The Spreadsheet That Ran the Warehouse
  2. 02The Case of the Missing $4,000
  3. 03The Payment That Published But Never Happened
  4. 04The Email That Sent Itself Five Times
  5. 05The Black Friday That Melted
  6. 06The 2 A.M. Page Nobody Could Read
  7. 07The Tenant Who Saw Someone Else's Data
  8. 08The Order That Got Stuck Forever
  9. 09The Auth Check Everyone Forgot
  10. 10How a Tiny Team Shipped Like a Big One

Season 2

Frontrow

Frontrow — live-events ticketing

A live-events ticketing startup goes viral and learns about scale the hard way: the last seat sold twice, the database hugged to death, the payout that ran on every server at once, the refund nobody could explain.

Featuring Mara, who deserved better tooling.

Start season 2 →
Season 2 — Frontrow
  1. 01The Two People Who Bought the Last Seat
  2. 02The Ticket Page That Hugged the Database to Death
  3. 03The Reminder That Arrived a Day Late
  4. 04The Nightly Job That Quietly Stopped
  5. 05The Payout That Ran Twice
  6. 06The Read Model That Lied
  7. 07The Field We Forgot to Add
  8. 08The Customer Who Asked to Be Forgotten
  9. 09The Partner Who Spoke a Different Language
  10. 10Who Did This, and When?

Season 3

Magpie

Magpie — a friendly neobank

A neobank grows up the careful way: an account that went negative, a deposit that did too much, a 500 that leaked a secret, an onboarding lost in if-statements — and learns, in the end, how to account for its own past.

Featuring Kemi, who deserved better tooling.

Start season 3 →
Season 3 — Magpie
  1. 01The Account That Went Negative
  2. 02The Five Things That Should Happen When Money Moves
  3. 03The 500 That Leaked the Stack Trace
  4. 04The Onboarding That Got Lost in If-Statements
  5. 05The Transfer That Needed Undoing
  6. 06The Customer View That Was Always a Bit Wrong
  7. 07The Transaction Feed That Fell Behind
  8. 08The Fraud Team Who Showed Up Late
  9. 09The Log That Ate the Storage Budget
  10. 10What Did My Balance Say Last Tuesday?