Ignite

Business Dashboard
Creator Profile
Creator Search
Initial flow for the Creator
Initial flow for the Business/Startup
User info page, Startup/Business Page, Initial Dashboard for both

Inspiration

We noticed how exciting it is for young people like us to have a creative side hustle. Teens are increasingly making a bigger presence on social media platforms, and brands are allowing some to earn money on the side. Traditionally, you had to be adored by millions of followers to be considered a brand partner; however, with the rise of User-Generated Content, it is reshaping the market space. We envisioned an oasis for creators and businesses to flourish.

What it does

Ignite strives to break from the traditional cold emailing and awkward calls by creating a streamlined process to connect brands or creators with users to create UGC. Just a few video posts from creators, a website from businesses, and a match-ready portfolio is built to match with similar interest partners!

How we built it

We used the MERN tech stack, which includes: MongoDB, Express, React, and Node. We were split into groups of two for the backend and the frontend. Initially, we used VS Code Live Share, but later we found it more efficient to use GitHub while working on different parts of the code. We initially had a meeting to discuss the website's design, including its features and key elements. Because we all had a good idea of the final product, we could work on separate parts even without needing each other’s parts. To elaborate, we were able to create API endpoints in advance when the frontend was not ready for the API endpoints, and the same for the frontend; the frontend could create features that the backend was not yet ready for. In other words, we worked semi-asynchronously.

Challenges we ran into

We are facing several challenges with our backend code, including servers not starting due to missing modules, a learning curve for some of our members, and constant merge conflicts. We were also exhausted from the hours of work we put in. The biggest challenge for us was version control, as we have never worked in a team using GitHub. There were many times when someone's pull request didn't go through because of some outstanding commits.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We built a pretty amazing front end. I think our UI/UX design is appealing and modern. We aimed for a simple yet effective layout, and I believe we achieved that. Our backend was very complex, integrating user authentication and using secure standards for user data. Creating API endpoints ahead of the front end, so we had to think ahead about what we would need on the front end. We built an auto-tagging system using the Gemini API and web scraping to automatically categorize businesses into their respective niches, streamlining the overall process for businesses.

What we learned

For many of us, it was our first time coding in React and JS, so we had to learn on the fly. We also learned some basic graphic design skills by creating the logo and UI/UX. We also had to learn how to use version control, as we were new to working as a team in real time using GitHub. The Gemini API was another aspect we needed to learn to implement, and we encountered some issues selecting the correct model.

What's next for Ignite

Next up for Ignite, we aim to develop an auto-tagging system for both creators and businesses. Using the power of Google Gemini, we aim to develop a system that identifies keywords in a creator’s videos and automatically generates tags for the user. This would make it seamless for the user to start seeing brands and businesses to create UGC for. We are also aiming to do the same thing with the brands, by having them input their website, we can find keywords and descriptions to accurately find their creators in the same niche to do UGC.