Tealpot

Project Overview

The Challenge: Hiring for physical work is still mostly informal. Customers rely on phone calls and word of mouth, have no easy way to tell who is qualified, and pay with no paper trail. Tradespeople lose time to quoting, scheduling and chasing payment. Businesses that use 1099 contractors and field workers end up stitching together hiring, assignments, payments and documentation across separate tools. TealPot needed to: (1) build trust between strangers before the first job; (2) make hiring fast, either by booking a known service or by posting a custom job; (3) keep payments safe for both sides; and (4) grow a two-sided marketplace where buyers and tradespeople both have to show up.

Our Solution: NEXTPAK built TealPot end to end as a live marketplace, from the web app and mobile app to the backend that runs bookings, payments and support. The platform covers the whole job, from posting to payout, in one place.

The Result: 1,000+ skilled workers joined the platform since January 2025. 250+ businesses signed up to hire them over the same period. Verification, payments and dispute handling are built in, so trust does not depend on the first customer taking a risk.

Scope of Work

Comprehensive development approach from design to deployment

Mobile Application Development

Built a full cross-platform Flutter application targeting Android and iOS with separate navigation flows, dashboards, and permission models for buyers and sellers.

Job and Service Management

Buyers can create, edit, copy, pause, and manage job postings with multi-category selection, location picking via Google Maps, budget configuration, file attachments, and custom field definitions. Sellers create and manage service listings with portfolio items, pricing, and availability settings.

Offer and Order Negotiation

Built a full offer lifecycle including initial application, counter-offer submission with task-level breakdowns, offer acceptance and rejection, and milestone-based pricing support across hourly, fixed, and shift budget types.

Real-Time Messaging

Integrated Socket.IO-based chat with file and video attachments, message read receipts, user blocking, reporting, and offer cards embedded within conversations.

Payments and Payouts

Integrated Stripe for buyer-side payments and Stripe Connect for seller payouts, including country-specific payment specs, commission deduction calculations, liability insurance fees, Checkr background check fee handling, and wallet balance tracking.

Technologies Used

Cutting-edge tools and frameworks for optimal performance

Key Features & Highlights

Innovative solutions that set this project apart

Dual-role User System

A single account can operate as both a buyer and a seller, with a role-switch mechanism that updates the active session context in real time without requiring re-authentication.

Flexible Job Posting with Custom Fields

Buyers define jobs with fixed, hourly, or shift budget types, location coordinates, skills, equipment, work type tags, and custom fields that can require text, yes/no, or file responses from the seller. Custom fields gate order completion — the seller must respond to all of them before submitting a completion request.

Counter-offer and Task Negotiation

Sellers submit structured offers with per-task breakdowns including hourly rate, hours required, start/end dates, and other expenses. Both parties can counter-propose terms through a multi-round negotiation flow before an order is accepted.

Order Dispute and Revision Flow

Either party can raise a dispute or request a revision on submitted deliverables. The cancellation flow supports acceptance, rejection with dispute escalation, and a formal dispute submission — each handled through dedicated dialogs rather than generic confirmations.

Stripe Connect Seller Payouts

Sellers connect a payout account through a guided onboarding flow that handles document verification, country-specific requirements, and account status checks before funds can be released.

In-app Messaging with Offers

The chat system goes beyond plain messaging — sellers can send formal offer cards directly within a conversation thread, which the buyer can accept or decline without leaving the message screen.

Location-aware Job Matching

Job postings include precise GPS coordinates set via an interactive Google Maps picker. The seller's app surfaces top-matched and recently posted jobs filtered by proximity, category, skills, and budget range.

Background Check Integration

The platform integrates Checkr for seller identity verification. A pending Checkr fee is tracked per seller account and deducted from offer totals where applicable, with the deduction shown transparently in the offer pricing breakdown.