team-07-null-pointers

Inspiration

WIAL needed one connected platform that could support a global organization and many local chapters without losing consistency, visibility, or local ownership.

What it does

Our platform gives WIAL a shared web presence with chapter-specific sites, role-based dashboards, coach directories, event visibility across the network, AI-powered semantic coach search, and early Stripe-based dues support.

How we built it

We built the platform with Next.js, React, Postgres, AWS Cognito for authentication, and Stripe for payment foundations. We designed it around shared templates, chapter-scoped content management, and modular backend flows so new features could be added safely.

Challenges we ran into

We worked through deployment issues, authentication mismatches in Cognito, database connectivity on Vercel, semantic search relevance tuning, and making sure new features did not break the existing workflow.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We created a working multi-chapter platform, added semantic search that improves coach discovery across meaning, and extended the system with payments while keeping the architecture stable and scalable.

What we learned

We learned how important it is to separate global structure from local ownership, to build features incrementally, and to debug real production issues quickly under time pressure.

What's next for team-07-null-pointers

Next, we would strengthen payment workflows, improve search ranking, expand admin reporting, and continue making the platform more production-ready for WIAL’s long-term needs.

Built With

• aws-cognito
• built-with-next.js
• openai-embeddings-api
• postgresql
• react
• stripe
• tailwind-css
• typescript
• vercel