NestEgg

Where savings take flight!

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Inspiration

We chose the financial accessibility track because this mission is deeply personal to all of us. As children of immigrants, we've watched our parents work tirelessly—often multiple jobs—only to be shut out of the very financial systems that could help them build wealth and security.

Our families came to this country with dreams of prosperity, but instead found themselves stuck in a cycle of financial exclusion. No credit history meant no loans. No bank accounts meant no savings growth. No financial education meant no path forward. We watched brilliant, hardworking people—our own parents—treated as invisible by an industry that should have been lifting them up.

NestEgg exists because we refuse to let another generation face these same barriers. We're building the tool we wish our parents had—one that speaks their language, understands their reality, and finally opens the door to financial freedom.

What it does

NestEgg bridges the financial accessibility gap by providing:

  • Financial education - AI-powered insights through Sofia, our chatbot advisor, delivering personalized financial guidance
  • Cash management access - Comprehensive tax management, budgeting tools, and spending tracking that supports both banked and unbanked users
  • Budgeting instruction - Step-by-step guidance with gamified tracking that makes money management approachable and sustainable
  • Automatic investing - Micro-investment features that help users build long-term wealth regardless of current income level
  • Real-time data management - Live financial insights and spending analytics providing complete visibility into financial health

How we built it

We used react native to build the frontend of our app to make it highly accessible via mobile app and web. Additionally, we used google cloud hackathon resources for our authentication (Firebase Auth), database (Cloud SQL - PostgreSQL) & the Gemini API. For our backend, we created and dockerized an express.js server to create our API routes that would handle database access and serving requests to our frontend & Gemini via our MCP server. We also used Plaid for integration with digital wallets & banks so that users can make connections to various financial services they may have, this was done by passing the JWT we received in their firebase auth token when they first created an account. We modeled our database to be able to model financial transactions, different accounts users may have, and the different connectors through Plaid.

Challenges we ran into

Understanding how to work together effectively in a hackathon environment (3 first-time hackathon participants)

  • Configuring our development environment to enable simultaneous collaboration across different machines and operating systems
  • Learning new technologies under time pressure - picking up APIs, frameworks, and tools we'd never used before with only hours to implement them
  • Balancing scope with reality - constantly having to scale back our ambitious vision to fit the 36 hour timeline while keeping core functionality intact
  • Debugging integration issues between frontend, backend, and external APIs when every minute counted
  • Staying motivated during the low points when nothing seemed to work and deadlines loomed

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • Not just surviving the hackathon, but creating a product that addresses problems close to our hearts
  • Transforming our personal experiences with financial exclusion into actionable technology solutions
  • Proving to ourselves that we could build something meaningful under pressure
  • Successfully collaborating as first time teammates and emerging stronger as developers and friends
  • Building a foundation for a project we're excited to continue developing beyond the hackathon

What we learned

Hackathons push you far beyond your comfort zone in the best way possible. We learned to collaborate effectively under pressure, tackle unfamiliar APIs and frameworks with confidence, and turn personal struggles into technological solutions. Most importantly, we discovered that we could build something meaningful together—transforming our families' financial challenges into a platform that could help others facing similar barriers. The technical skills we gained were valuable, but the realization that we can create real impact through code was life-changing.

What's next for NestEgg

  • Technical improvements - enhancing our chatbot with more sophisticated financial guidance and expanding real-time data capabilities
  • Community partnerships - collaborating with immigrant advocacy groups and financial literacy nonprofits
  • Regulatory compliance - working with legal experts to ensure we meet financial services regulations
  • Feature expansion - adding tax preparation assistance, credit building tools, and connections to local financial resources
  • Scalable infrastructure - rebuilding our backend to handle thousands of users while maintaining security and speed
  • Long-term vision - becoming the go-to financial platform for underserved communities nationwide
  • Expanding language support - adding Spanish, Mandarin, and other languages spoken by underserved communities
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