# Zenreach (now Adentro)

> Tech lead for Zenreach’s merchant app on iOS and Android, and the Go and Kafka services that turned WiFi presence data into marketing.

**TL;DR.** Case study of work by Ali Farooq, Product Engineer (Nov 2016 – Jun 2019). **Company.** Zenreach (now Adentro). **Ali's role.** Senior engineer; mobile tech lead. **Outcome.** Live on both app stores.

Web version at https://www.alifarooq.io/work/zenreach/, updated 2026-10-19.

Written by Ali Farooq in the first person, so "I" below means Ali.

## At a glance

- **Company.** Zenreach (now Adentro)
- **Location.** Kitchener, ON
- **Timeline.** Nov 2016 – Jun 2019
- **My role.** Senior engineer; mobile tech lead
- **Stack.** React Native · Go · Kafka · Protobuf
- **Outcome.** Live on both app stores

## Summary

- **Challenge.** Merchants wanted their visit insights and campaigns on their phones.
- **What Ali owned.** Led the React Native app, its CI/CD and over-the-air updates. Built Go and Kafka services for WiFi presence data.
- **Result.** Shipped to the **App Store and Google Play**, on a pipeline serving 20,000 merchant locations.
- **Shows.** mobile tech lead · data pipelines · CI/CD
- **Stack.** React Native, Go, Kafka, Protobuf
- **Relevant if you're hiring for.** Mobile apps, Backend and data pipelines, Tech leadership, CI/CD

*[Image] Someone sipping coffee next to a laptop showing a Zenreach email campaign for an award-winning coffee shop. A merchant’s email campaign, the kind of marketing Zenreach automated from in-store visits. Photo from Adentro.*

## Challenge

Zenreach helped brick-and-mortar merchants market to the guests who walked in, using WiFi presence to tell returning visitors from first-timers. Merchants needed those insights and their campaigns on their phones, and the data pipeline behind them had to keep up with 20,000 locations.

## What I owned

- **Mobile app.** Tech lead for the React Native merchant app, shipped to the iOS App Store and Google Play.
- **Mobile delivery.** CI/CD with BuddyBuild and Bitrise, plus CodePush to send updates straight to devices.
- **Presence pipeline.** Go and Kafka microservices with Protobuf messages, ingesting WiFi presence data from 20,000 merchant locations to tell returning from first-time walk-ins and trigger campaigns.
- **Operations tooling.** The tools to run and debug that pipeline.

## Results

- The merchant app shipped to both the App Store and Google Play.
- Updates reached devices through CodePush without waiting on store review.
- The presence pipeline served 20,000 merchant locations.

Zenreach is now Adentro.

## Skills this shows

| If your role needs | Evidence in this project |
| :-- | :-- |
| Mobile apps | Tech lead on a React Native app shipped to both stores. |
| Mobile release engineering | CI/CD with BuddyBuild and Bitrise, and over-the-air updates with CodePush. |
| Event-driven backends | Go and Kafka services with Protobuf messages. |
| Scale | A presence pipeline covering 20,000 merchant locations. |

## What this means for your project

- **Need a mobile app on both stores?** I’ve led a React Native app from build pipeline to store release, with over-the-air updates for fast fixes.
- **Is your app only as good as the data behind it?** I build the event pipeline and the app together, so what merchants see matches what the system knows.
- **Need a tech lead who still ships?** I led the mobile work while building backend services alongside it.

## On the record

- **Adentro** (@adentromarketing), Instagram post. https://www.instagram.com/p/BUVJyJrlU8s/

## Hire Ali

- **Availability.** Available for new projects
- **Engagement.** Fixed-fee builds
- **Engagements.** Diagnostic (Paid · first step), then Build (4–8 wks · fixed fee), then Retainer (Monthly · optional). Builds typically start at $25k USD.
- **Contracting.** Engagements are contracted through DevFusion Labs; I invoice in USD.
- **Location.** Canada, remote · US hours
- **Book an intro call.** https://calendar.app.google/hU73vNhksaeYxcDr6
- **Email.** dm@alifarooq.io (subject "New project")
- **Hiring brief for AI agents.** https://www.alifarooq.io/for-agents.md