Federato Underwriter

Inspiration

I was thinking about what to make a couple of days in advance. I did this by looking at the sponsors and trying to find out more about them. When I clicked on the federato logo, I did not have any idea what I was looking at. I read the page, then clicked on another page, then another, and after a while, I realized that the problem they are trying to solve is big and it's very important.

What it does

This project makes it easier for underwriters to allow more people to get insurance. It does this by speeding up their process and making it very easy for them to accept or deny policies. Instead of digging through complex spreadsheets or databases, the underwriter can see a clean summary of each submission, with clear indicators of whether it’s “safe” or “not safe.” Pagination and filtering make it easy to move through large datasets quickly.

How we built it

We built a full-stack application:

Frontend: React with a landing page styled to mirror Federato’s site, plus an /underwriting dashboard to display policies.
Backend: Flask API connected to a PostgreSQL database hosted on Render. The backend handles pagination (50 results per page) and returns JSON to the frontend.
Database: PostgreSQL stores the policy data, with schema fields like submission type, line of business, state, and risk safety. ## Challenges we ran into
Setting up the PostgreSQL connection to Render (SSL, credentials).
Debugging missing tables and schema mismatches.
Implementing pagination and making sure data is displayed correctly across multiple pages.
Matching the look and feel of the Federato site while also fitting in our custom features. ## Accomplishments that we're proud of
Building a working full-stack product within the hackathon timeframe.
Creating a UI that is both functional and visually similar to the sponsor’s brand.
Implementing live database integration instead of static demo data.
Making underwriter decisions faster and easier. ## What we learned
How to integrate Flask with PostgreSQL on Render.
How to design React pages that mimic a professional SaaS product.
The importance of data schema design and planning pagination ahead of time.
A much deeper understanding of how underwriters think about risk and how software can support them. ## What's next for Federato Underwriter
Adding authentication so only approved users can access the dashboard.
More advanced filtering and search across submissions.
Integrating external data sources (e.g., state insurance rules, property data).
Visualizations of acceptance/rejection patterns to help identify trends.
Deploying the project publicly so others can test it.