Cosmos

Inspiration

I, Bareera, moved to nine different homes by the time I was nine years old, and my most recent move was to the United States for college. Starting over so many times taught me how hard it can be to build meaningful connections in a new place.

Molly: Coming to college as an out-of-state student, and the only student from my high school, I immediately felt out of place. I didn't know the area, and it felt like everyone had already established connections at school from their hometowns.

We often talked about how difficult it is to meet new people, make plans, and explore a city when you do not already have a network

We also noticed that people save endless ideas for things they want to do, but rarely follow through. Restaurants get bookmarked, hikes get sent in group chats, and plans often never happen.

That led us to one question:

What if people did not need more recommendations, but a better way to actually do things with the right people?

That became Cosmos.

What it does

Cosmos helps people turn saved ideas into real plans through trusted connections.

Users can add friends they already know, build wishlists of places and experiences, and discover who they can go with based on mutual connections and shared interests.

Instead of relying on random strangers or dead group chats, Cosmos helps users make real plans faster.

How we built it

As college students we shared the same frustations:

group chats with no follow-through difficulty meeting people naturally in a new city discomfort with stranger-based social apps saved lists of places never visited

We then researched existing solutions and found that most apps solve only one part of the problem: discovery, communication, or meeting people.

Google Gemini played a major role in our ideation process. We used it to brainstorm features, challenge assumptions, and think through trust-based matching and planning flows.

We used Notability to sketch user journeys and organize our product framework:

Lost — save experiences you want to try Found — discover people through mutuals and common interests Expand — connect and make plans

Finally, we built a fully interactive prototype in Figma, designing onboarding flows, wishlists, friend discovery, matching screens, and our custom curved planet navigation.

Challenges we ran into

Our biggest challenge was scope. We had many ideas for scheduling tools, recommendations, and advanced features, but we learned that clarity matters more than complexity.

We stayed focused on the core value: helping users find the right people for experiences they already want.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud that we turned a real, relatable problem into a polished product concept with a clear purpose.

We built a fully interactive prototype that shows how users can move from saving ideas to actually making plans with people they trust.

We are also proud that Cosmos feels more than just functional. We created a brand identity and user experience that feels warm, memorable, and engaging.

Most importantly, we are proud that Cosmos was built from lived experience and designed to solve a challenge many students and young adults genuinely face.