Ollon | Flow Ventures

Flow Ventures

Flow Ventures, a SaaS company automating SRED evidence gathering for startups, pivoted to a service model and let its dev team go, but still needed the platform maintained. Ollon stepped in as a fractional resource, then migrated the app off Google Cloud to AWS to meet Deloitte's standards after acquisition. The application still runs as part of Deloitte's ecosystem, with Ollon continuing to support it.

Situation

Flow Ventures (formerly Hockey Stick) is a consulting company that helps startups with funding from government and venture capitalists. They primarily offered a SaaS product to track funding progress, however they pivoted to provide a full service offering as well as rebranded during the pandemic.

Solution

Ollon stepped in to provide a flexible, fractional resource to maintain and enhance their legacy SaaS product, as well as nimbly managing the development of other applications for new and evolving offerings established very dynamically throughout the process.

Results

Flow Ventures was able to maintain their existing customers without having to maintain an entire development team, resulting in cost savings and efficiency gains. Flow was acquired by Deloitte, and we continue to support the application as part of Deloitte, including integration within the Deloitte ecosystem.

Technologies

Python, Javascript, Cron, Docker, AWS, Office 365, PostgreSQL

Our Expertise in Action

Fractional DevOps Support

Flow Ventures needed infrastructure support for its platform without keeping a full development team on payroll after shifting to a service model. Ollon provided a fractional resource to manage the AWS environment, covering ECS, Application Load Balancer, S3, CloudFront, Secrets Manager, and KMS, alongside scheduled Cron jobs and Docker based deployments. This let Flow keep the platform running reliably for existing customers without the cost of a dedicated team. When Flow was acquired by Deloitte, that same fractional model carried into migrating the infrastructure to meet Deloitte's technical standards.

Application Triage and Rescue

Flow Ventures pivoted away from its original SaaS product for tracking startup funding progress, letting its development team go, but the application still had to keep running for existing customers. Ollon stepped in to maintain and enhance the legacy platform, working through a Python and Node codebase with no in house team left to explain how any of it worked. The team kept the product stable while Flow's business focus shifted underneath it, avoiding a costly rebuild. That work carried through Flow's acquisition by Deloitte, where Ollon updated the application to meet new standards, keeping it in service.

Security and Compliance Audit Preparation

Flow Ventures' acquisition by Deloitte meant its SRED application had to meet Deloitte's internal security and architecture standards before it could stay in use. Ollon integrated Azure AD single sign on, moved secrets management to AWS Secrets Manager and KMS, and migrated the database and Python processing off Google Cloud to meet those requirements. The work also included replacing Google based document generation with Microsoft Office formats to fit Deloitte's existing systems. This got the application through Deloitte's security review and kept it running as part of the Deloitte ecosystem.

Data Science and Data Engineering

Flow Ventures' platform automates SRED evidence gathering by pulling project and time tracking data from tools like Jira, Confluence, Monday, and Asana, then processing it through Python scripts to generate supporting documentation. Ollon maintained and extended these pipelines, moving the data and processing off Google Cloud onto AWS as part of the Deloitte integration, and replacing the original Google based document output with Microsoft Office formats. This kept the SRED claim process automated even as the infrastructure underneath it changed.

Google Cloud

Flow Ventures' SRED platform was originally built entirely on Google Cloud, with a Cloud SQL database and Python scripts that ran inside Google Colab notebooks instead of as part of the deployed application. Ollon kept that inherited environment running for existing customers, cleaning up brittle Google Drive specific calls scattered through the scripts and managing the GCP based extract, transform, and load process feeding the SRED evidence pipeline. That operational work kept the platform stable through Flow's changing business focus, before Google Cloud was retired during the later move to AWS under Deloitte. Understanding that original architecture firsthand made the eventual migration possible without losing client data.

Business System Integrations

Flow Ventures' SRED platform pulls project and time tracking data from client tools like Jira and Confluence to generate evidence for SRED claims. Connections that had reliably pulled that data for years started breaking as those platforms changed their APIs and data formats over time. Ollon maintained the ETL layer built on Airbyte behind those connections, tracing a Jira exporter bug where credentials were passed in as hardcoded values instead of pulled securely, then repairing a Confluence loader that had stopped pulling data correctly. A single broken connector could stall evidence gathering for clients, so these fixes kept the integrations working well past the platform's original build.

Managed Services and Application Monitoring

Flow Ventures' platform needed continuous support after its original development team was let go, with no internal team left to maintain it long term. Ollon has supported Flow Ventures' application well past the original engagement's development work. That support continued through Flow's acquisition by Deloitte, where the same team handled the migration and ongoing maintenance needed to integrate the application into Deloitte's environment. Because Ollon already knew the codebase from years of prior work, there was no ramp up period for a new support team to get oriented. The application remains live and maintained today as part of Deloitte's ecosystem.