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June 14, 2025

Case Study: Hussle

Transforming Direct Sales Through Mobile-First Enablement

Client Overview

Hussle (hussle.tech) is a leading direct sales enablement platform designed for direct selling and affiliate organizations. Its all-in-one system equips sales teams with tools for content sharing, live selling, training, analytics, sampling, and AI-powered messaging. Headquartered in Lehi, Utah, with operations in San Antonio, Texas, Hussle is backed by Scaleworks, a B2B SaaS private equity firm.

The company traces its roots to Sound Concepts, Inc, a Utah-based pioneer in digital tools for direct sellers founded in 1979. Sound Concepts’ flagship platforms, Included Repsites, MyBuilder, and later through our engagement, Brightools, enabled large direct selling enterprises to scale digital content and training across massive field organizations.

In 2019, VERB Technology acquired Sound Concepts, rebranding the business as Verb Direct and integrating its interactive video technology. This acquisition accelerated the evolution into verbCRM, verbLIVE, verbLEARN, and verbTEAMS. After additional expansion through the SoloFire acquisition (2020), VERB ultimately sold its direct sales and life sciences SaaS assets to SW Direct Sales, LLC in 2023. Operating today as Hussle Technology, the company continues to scale a unified, AI-driven sales enablement platform trusted by leading enterprises in direct selling and affiliate markets.

The Challenge

When our team first partnered with Sound Concepts (later Hussle), the company faced a pivotal transformation. For years, its success was built on analog marketing tools that served some of the world’s largest direct selling enterprises. But the industry was rapidly digitizing. Field sellers and affiliates increasingly relied on mobile devices as their primary workspace, creating an urgent need for a mobile-first, white-label platform that could scale across enterprise clients.

The immediate challenge was to deliver a flagship “Media” feature—a centralized, branded hub where companies could distribute compliant sales content to their field organizations. This foundational feature would serve as the entry point into a larger vision of digital enablement. But building Media wasn’t just about content hosting—it required a multi-tenant, white-label architecture, with native iOS and Android apps that could be tailored for each client while maintaining a unified backend.

As adoption grew, Sound Concepts quickly realized that Media alone was not enough. To stay ahead of competitors and meet the evolving needs of the direct sales market, the company needed to expand into a full-featured enablement suite. Over a multi-year engagement, our team partnered with them to build and scale:

Media – A shareable content hub enabling distributors to send videos, documents, and presentations with engagement tracking.
Sampling – A digital-first way to manage and fulfill product trials, streamlining prospecting workflows.
Business Reports – In-app analytics dashboards providing field leaders and corporate teams with actionable insights.
Learn – A mobile-first learning management system (LMS) to onboard, train, and retain distributors at scale.
Pulse – A business “heartbeat” feature offering AI-driven recommendations, back-office insights, and task prioritization.

Each of these product milestones represented its own challenge—requiring new backend services, scalable data structures, and seamless user experiences. Together, they marked the company’s evolution from a single-feature startup into a comprehensive sales enablement platform.

Without this transformation, Hussle ( VerbDIRECT, Sound Concepts) risked being left behind as competitors brought mobile-first solutions to market. Instead, by tackling these challenges head-on, the company positioned itself as a market leader in direct sales technology, ultimately setting the stage for its acquisition and rebrand as Hussle.

Our Approach

To help Hussle ( VerbDIRECT, Sound Concepts) transform into a market leader in direct sales enablement, our team designed and implemented a mobile-first, multi-tenant architecture capable of supporting both rapid innovation and large-scale enterprise adoption.

We began by addressing the immediate need for Media, ensuring distributors could upload, access, share, and track product content across branded, white-labeled apps. From there, we built a flexible technical foundation that allowed new features—Sampling, Business Reports, Learn, and Pulse—to be added without disrupting existing client deployments.

How We Tackled the Challenge

Mobile-first Innovation

Delivered native iOS and Android apps with offline sync, push notifications, and seamless media handling.
Designed modular app components, making it possible to launch and update dozens of white-label apps without duplicating effort.

Scalable Cloud Services

Developed a microservices-based backend with REST APIs to connect mobile apps, web services, and enterprise systems.
Leveraged AWS infrastructure—including Lambda, RDS, S3, and CloudFront—for performance, reliability, and global scalability.
Deployed containerized services for consistent environments and rapid feature rollout.

Multi-tenant Platform Architecture

Built a white-label SaaS model where each client had a customized brand experience on top of a shared platform.
Integrated robust data isolation and compliance controls to support enterprise security requirements.

Continuous Evolution

Established the foundation with Media, then incrementally scaled the platform to support Sampling, Business Reports, Learn, and Pulse.
Designed each feature to plug into the same core architecture, ensuring consistency, maintainability, and speed to market.

Through this approach, we didn’t just deliver an app—we enabled a long-term platform strategy. The result was a system flexible enough to serve startups and industry giants alike, while evolving fast enough to keep Hussle ahead of competitors.

The Solution

Working closely with Hussle ( VerbDIRECT, Sound Concepts), our team translated business requirements into a scalable, feature-rich enablement platform. We began with a single core feature—Media—and expanded over multiple phases into a suite of integrated tools that positioned the company as a leader in direct sales technology.

Feature Rollout and Implementation

Media

Established the cornerstone feature: a centralized hub for videos, PDFs, and presentations with tracking and analytics.
Delivered through native iOS and Android apps with offline sync, push notifications, and deep linking.
Built on modular codebases to accelerate white-label deployments.

Sampling

Implemented digital workflows for product trial requests, order fulfillment, and prospect follow-up.
Integrated with backend APIs to handle inventory, notifications, and compliance.
Enabled corporate visibility into distributor sampling activity.

Business Reports

Designed real-time dashboards powered by backend microservices and cloud-based analytics.
Used caching and optimized queries for performance at scale.
Provided field leaders and corporate teams with actionable insights on distributor engagement.

Learn

Delivered a mobile-first LMS, with interactive modules, quizzes, and progress tracking.
Built for high concurrency and offline access, ensuring global reach in diverse network markets.
Leveraged modular services so training could be tailored per client brand.

Pulse

Introduced AI-driven recommendations and insights to prioritize distributor activity.
Connected directly to back-office data through secure integrations, ensuring real-time business visibility.
Designed for extensibility, allowing new AI capabilities to be added as the market evolved.

Technical Architecture Highlights

Mobile-first design: Native apps with MVVM and Composable Architecture patterns for reliability and modularity.
Backend microservices: Node.js and AWS Lambda services deployed in containers for flexible scaling.
Multi-tenant platform: Shared infrastructure with strict data isolation, enabling dozens of white-labeled enterprise deployments.
Cloud infrastructure: AWS (S3, RDS, CloudFront, Lambda, VPC) for storage, security, and global reach.
Security & compliance: Enterprise-grade authentication, VPC isolation, and audit-friendly monitoring.
Integration-first: REST APIs for seamless connectivity with mobile, backend, and third-party enterprise systems.

By combining feature innovation with a scalable, cloud-native architecture, we helped Sound Concepts evolve from a single-feature app into a comprehensive, enterprise-ready sales enablement platform—laying the groundwork for its acquisition and rebrand as Hussle.

The Results

Our partnership with Hussle ( VerbDIRECT, Sound Concepts), transformed the company from a provider of analog sales tools into a market leader in digital direct sales enablement. What began with the launch of a single Media feature grew into a comprehensive platform that ultimately became the core of Verb Direct, was acquired and scaled further under VERB Technology, and continues today as Hussle under Scaleworks.

Business Outcomes

Industry leadership: Positioned the company as one of the first movers in mobile-first direct sales enablement.
Acquisition and growth: The success of the platform was instrumental in attracting VERB Technology’s acquisition of Sound Concepts.
Client adoption: Empowered global direct selling companies to roll out branded apps that improved distributor productivity and retention.
Market expansion: Established the foundation for international deployment and long-term scalability under the Hussle brand.

Technical Outcomes

Scalability: Supported growth from a single feature into a multi-feature suite without costly re-architecture.
Reliability: Delivered enterprise-grade uptime and performance for global clients.
Flexibility: White-label architecture allowed dozens of enterprise brands to adopt the platform seamlessly.
Innovation platform: Created a foundation where advanced capabilities like AI Messaging and Keyboard integrations could later be layered in.

The result was more than a successful product launch. The platform became a strategic asset, reshaping the company’s trajectory, fueling its acquisition, and establishing the technology that powers Hussle today.

Key Takeaways

The transformation of Hussle ( VerbDIRECT, Sound Concepts) offers a clear blueprint for how legacy businesses can evolve into digital-first leaders. By starting with a single flagship feature and building on a scalable, multi-tenant architecture, the company was able to expand rapidly, attract acquisition, and sustain innovation across multiple ownership structures.

Lessons for Other Organizations

Start with a cornerstone feature: Solve one core problem first, then expand.
Invest in scalable architecture early: Cloud-native, multi-tenant systems pay dividends as growth accelerates.
Balance flexibility with control: White-label design empowers clients while maintaining corporate compliance.
Integrate data for insights: Analytics and recommendations drive higher adoption and smarter decision-making.
Build for evolution: Modularity ensures platforms remain relevant as markets and technologies shift.

The Bigger Picture

Hussle’s journey underscores how digital transformation in direct sales requires both technical innovation and strategic execution. By pairing a mobile-first product vision with a robust architecture, the company not only met the immediate needs of its clients but also created long-term enterprise value.

For organizations seeking similar transformation, the lesson is clear: invest early in flexibility, scalability, and user experience, and you’ll build a platform that can grow with your market.