LinkUp

Inspiration

Every hackathon starts with excitement—and then stalls at the same point: forming a team. We’ve all been there—sending intros in Discord channels, hoping not to get lost in a flood of posts. But for shy participants or newcomers, that process is overwhelming.
LinkUp was born from a simple idea:
What if finding teammates felt more like making friends?

What it does

LinkUp is a web app that helps hackathon participants quickly and easily find compatible teammates — like Tinder, but for forming project teams.
Users create a short profile with their skills, interests, and goals. Then, they swipe through other participants' profiles. When two people match, the app connects them via Discord so they can chat, form a team, and start building.
It’s fast, fun, and way better than getting lost in a Discord intro channel.

How we built it

• Frontend: React
  
• Backend: Next.js
  
• Authentication: OAuth2 with Discord
  
• Deployment: Google Cloud
  
• Version Control: Git & GitHub

Challenges we ran into

• Implementing OAuth2 with Discord and making it work smoothly
  
• Figuring out how to design a swipe-style UI that works well on desktop browsers
  
• Syncing frontend and backend data seamlessly

Accomplishments that we're proud of

• A working swipe interface for desktop users
  
• Successful Discord OAuth integration for real user authentication
  
• A clean, intuitive user experience
  
• Building a solution to a real problem faced by hackathon participants

What we learned

• How to implement OAuth2 authentication flows
  
• Managing user sessions and app state in a full-stack environment
  
• Prioritizing user experience in UI and backend logic
  
• Building and deploying a full project end-to-end

What's next for LinkUp

• Add smart team-forming suggestions based on user profiles
  
• Build in-app chat features
  
• Support multiple events with easy onboarding for organizers
  
• Launch at hackathons to gather user feedback and improve

Built With

• framer-motion
• git
• github
• google-cloud
• lucide
• next-js
• oauth
• tailwindcss
• typescript