FooBer

🚀 Inspiration

I noticed how hard it is for people to find authentic, affordable home-cooked meals—especially in a world filled with expensive takeout and generic fast food. At the same time, I knew there were amazing home cooks who wanted to share their food and earn extra income. That gap inspired FooBer: a platform to connect hungry consumers with local home chefs.

🍽️ What it does

FooBer is a three-sided food marketplace with:

• Consumers: They can browse local home-chef menus based on cuisine, diet (veg/non-veg), and dining type (pickup or dine-in). They can set allergies and taste preferences, choose time windows, and pay directly through the app.
• Sellers (home cooks): They can list meals, set their availability, choose whether to allow dine-in or pickup, and chat with buyers. They set their own prices, and the platform handles the rest.
• Admins: A lightweight admin interface helps moderate the platform, respond to user issues, and ensure safety.

All interfaces are integrated into one modern, mobile-first web app.

🛠️ How we built it

• Frontend: React + Tailwind CSS (mobile-first design)
• Backend: Supabase (PostgreSQL, auth, real-time DB)
• Payments: RevenueCat SDK (Stripe) for handling transactions and taking a 30% platform fee
• Deployment: Netlify (serverless support + continuous deployment)

Users log in via Google or email, select their role (consumer or seller), and immediately begin exploring or offering food.

⚠️ Challenges we ran into

• Balancing three user journeys (buyer, seller, admin) in one app without overwhelming the UX
• Enforcing fair pricing rules (min $5 after platform fees) automatically
• Managing real-time chat and coordinating dine-in vs. pickup logistics
• Designing flexible filters for cuisine, preferences, and dietary restrictions

🏆 Accomplishments that we're proud of

• Built a full-stack, real-time food platform in under a day
• Clean, intuitive UX that mirrors the feel of Uber or DoorDash
• Fully integrated pricing engine that respects platform margins while empowering local sellers
• Made it easier for anyone—especially home chefs—to earn and share their food safely

📚 What we learned

• How to rapidly build scalable backends using Supabase
  
• Managing marketplace logic with flexible user roles
  
• Creating fast, responsive UI with minimal overhead
  
• Real-time messaging and order coordination between users

🔮 What's next for FooBer

• Launching in select U.S. cities with verified home chefs
  
• Adding location-aware pickup spot suggestions for public meetups
  
• Introducing loyalty rewards and dynamic pricing
  
• Partnering with local food safety programs to certify sellers
  
• Building native mobile apps using Capacitor

Built With

• capacitor-(planned)
• google
• google-oauth
• maps
• netlify
• postgresql
• react
• revenuecat-sdk
• supabase
• tailwind-css
• vite