Catalyst

Inspiration

Most project management platforms fail to connect daily team actions with broader business outcomes. We noticed that teams often take detailed meeting notes, but those insights rarely become actionable tasks. Communication gets scattered across Slack, Notion, and Email, while data analytics remains siloed. This inspired us to build a unified, intelligent system that bridges the gap between collaboration, execution, and measurable results.

What it does

Catalyst is an AI-driven productivity hub that automates and connects every part of team workflow. It allows teams to create and manage sprint tickets automatically or manually, transcribe meetings in real time, analyze data through a RAG-powered analytics engine, and automate updates across tools. With seamless integrations to Slack, Notion, Email, and Calendar, Catalyst turns discussions into deliverables and insights into decisions.

How we built it

We used ReactJS for the front end and FastAPI for the backend, creating a responsive and scalable architecture. Firebase powers authentication and real-time updates, while Python handles AI logic and data processing. The Gemini API provides contextual understanding and language generation for summarizing meetings and generating stakeholder updates. We integrated the Notion API for documentation, Excalidraw API for the Drawing Board, and used RAG pipelines for data analytics and intelligent ticket recommendations. Together, these components form a connected ecosystem that learns and improves with every interaction.

Challenges we ran into

One major challenge was syncing multiple APIs without creating latency or data conflicts. Integrating Gemini’s natural-language reasoning with FastAPI endpoints required fine-tuning the context length and response formatting. Ensuring accurate real-time transcription and secure data handling across Firebase and Notion was also technically demanding. We also spent time optimizing how RAG retrieval interacts with different knowledge sources to produce relevant, reliable insights.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We successfully built a live prototype that can create sprint tickets automatically from meeting notes or transcripts, generate intelligent data insights, and automate stakeholder communication. Our system integrates all major productivity tools in a single interface and demonstrates true workflow intelligence through context-aware updates. We’re especially proud of achieving smooth synchronization between Gemini, Notion, and FastAPI with minimal lag.

What we learned

We learned how powerful AI becomes when paired with structured workflow design. Integrating RAG models into project management taught us the importance of contextual retrieval and adaptive learning. We deepened our understanding of system scalability, cross-API communication, and real-time event handling with Firebase and FastAPI. More importantly, we learned how to translate scattered information into cohesive business intelligence.

What's next for Catalyst

Next, we plan to expand Catalyst with advanced analytics dashboards, predictive sprint forecasting, and a conversational voice assistant. We’ll integrate with more enterprise tools such as Jira and Asana, refine our real-time transcription accuracy, and continue optimizing the RAG data engine. Long term, Catalyst will evolve into a complete AI-operating system for teams, connecting strategic planning to measurable business impact.