Borderline

Inspiration

Small businesses are often hit hardest when trade policies change, but they usually do not have the same resources as large companies to deal with those changes.

A large company might have people dedicated to supply chains, customs, pricing, and trade regulations. A small business owner may have to handle all of that themselves while still running the business.

I wanted to build something that could make this process easier. Instead of spending hours researching tariffs, suppliers, and regulations, a business owner should be able to quickly understand how a trade change affects their business and what options they have.

What it does

Borderline is a trade planning tool designed for Canadian businesses dealing with changing tariffs and supply costs.

Businesses can upload information about their products, suppliers, and costs. Borderline analyzes that information and identifies which products are most exposed to changing trade costs.

It can estimate how those changes could affect product costs and profit margins, while also letting businesses compare different options. For example, a business could compare keeping its current supplier, finding a new supplier, or changing its prices.

Borderline also creates a practical action plan based on the business's situation, helping identify which products, suppliers, and decisions should be looked at first.

How I built it

I built Borderline as a web application with a dashboard where businesses can upload their information and explore different scenarios.

The application takes product, supplier, and cost information and combines it with relevant tariff and trade data. AI is used to understand unstructured information and turn it into useful recommendations.

I also focused on keeping the actual numbers and information visible so users can understand where recommendations are coming from rather than just receiving a response from a chatbot.

The main workflow is:

Upload product, supplier, or invoice information.
Identify products affected by changing trade costs.
Estimate the potential impact on costs and margins.
Compare different options.
Generate an action plan.

Challenges I ran into

One of the biggest challenges was dealing with how complicated trade information can be.

The cost of importing a product is not always as simple as adding a tariff. Product classifications, countries of origin, suppliers, shipping costs, and other factors can all affect the final cost.

I also wanted to make sure Borderline was more than just a chatbot. It needed to work with the actual information provided by a business and produce recommendations that were specific to its situation.

Another challenge was making complicated trade information easy to understand. A small business owner should not need to be an expert in international trade to use the application.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

I am proud that I was able to turn a complicated economic issue into something much more practical.

Borderline can show a business which products are most exposed to changing trade costs, estimate the potential financial impact, and help compare different responses.

I am also proud of the scenario planning feature. Instead of only showing what is happening now, Borderline lets businesses explore how different decisions could affect their costs and margins.

Most importantly, I built the project around a problem that businesses are actually dealing with. I wanted to create something that could be useful outside of a hackathon setting as well.

What I learned

I learned that using AI effectively is not always about making the AI the main part of the product.

The most useful part of Borderline is bringing together business information, trade data, calculations, and recommendations in one place.

I also learned how difficult it can be to take complicated real-world information and turn it into something that is simple and useful. A good tool should handle the complexity in the background instead of making the user deal with it.

What's next for Borderline

I would like to expand Borderline beyond tariff analysis and turn it into a broader supply chain planning tool for small businesses.

Future versions could help businesses find alternative suppliers, monitor changes in trade policy, track changing import costs, and identify products that are becoming more expensive to source.

I also want to make the scenario planning more powerful. Businesses could compare different suppliers, pricing strategies, and sourcing decisions to see how each option could affect their bottom line.

My goal is to make it easier for small businesses to adapt when the trade environment changes, without needing a dedicated team of economists, customs experts, and supply chain analysts.