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Inspiration
We came across the venture coaches at UB Launchpad who helped people with their business ideas and guided them to get started. This inspired us to build a solution that would serve the people of the Buffalo community in starting up with their ideas.
What it does
Our project Igniter is a platform that helps people get their startup ideas off the ground helping people to build in Buffalo and leverage the fast growing Tech & Startup community. It connects aspiring founders with mentors, potential co-founders, and other resources like funding opportunities to help them launch their companies successfully. It also connects potential employees to employers, thus enabling employment opportunities for talented individuals and firms in Buffalo.
How we built it
We built Igniter using Django for the backend framework along with React for the frontend. This allows us to create a fast, responsive web application that provides all the tools and information our users need in one place. We are also using Large Language Models (LLMs) to get AI-assisted steps to build plans and opportunities.
Challenges we ran into
There were two types of challenges we faced: Technical and Business Technically speaking, we were trying to get a well-tuned custom AI model (LLM) tailored to our requirements (building plans and opportunities). Our approach needed the use of High-Performance GPUs which we couldn't our hands on during this hackathon time. The way we solved this problem is by limiting our scope for this hackathon using a less fine-tuned AI model. Given more time and resources, we could've came up with a fine-tuned LLM that worked for our solution.
One challenge was figuring out the best way to connect our users to the right mentors and resources based on their specific startup ideas and needs. We had to carefully design our matching algorithms and recommendation systems to facilitate productive partnerships.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We're really proud to have built an easy-to-use platform that makes starting a company in Buffalo far less daunting. By bringing together all the pieces founders need to get up and running, we've created a one-stop-shop for startup success in our city.
What we learned
Through this project, we learned a tremendous amount about startup ecosystems and what it takes to build products that effectively enable entrepreneurship. It was extremely valuable to talk to founders about their needs and learn how we could create the most helpful solution.
What's next for Igniter - The Startup Accelerator
Looking ahead, we want to official launch Igniter's WNY region and help even more founders launch successful startups. We'll continue refining our platform and recommendation tools based on user feedback. We're excited to empower entrepreneurship at a broader scale. This would be a great tool for UB Blackstone Launchpad, Tech Buffalo and 43 North and will aid them promote Startup and encourage founders to startup in Buffalo providing them with all the regional resources needed.
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