Building Feely: My First Hackathon Journey

Inspiration

Two billion people face stress and sometimes anxiety every day. Many live with sleepless nights and, in extreme cases, panic attacks. What often helps most is understanding how the brain works, how stress and anxiety actually form, and learning daily habits that build resilience: sport, breathing, movement, knowledge, sleep, and self-awareness. But the hardest part is finding reliable, science-backed information and applying it. That’s why Feely was created: something simple, trustworthy, and always there when needed.

What it does

Feely is a mobile-first app that helps anyone reduce stress, manage anxiety, and feel better every day. It creates personalized routines mixing breathing exercises, sport and movement, guided meditations, science-based knowledge, and unique teleportations, immersive audio experiences blending storytelling and relaxation. With an AI voice assistant available 24/7, feely guides, supports, and motivates whenever needed. There’s also an “Explore” section where you can dive into courses, articles, new exercises, and audio content to learn and grow at your own pace.

How I built it

This was my first hackathon, though I’ve designed many products as a product designer. I started by integrating the voice assistant with Eleven Labs, wrangling APIs, tweaking prompts, and fixing bugs. Then I built out the app, mobile-first, prototyping flows in Figma and designing an entire visual world of companion characters, each created with AI. I wrote and generated meditations and teleportations with OpenAI and Eleven Labs, set up user accounts, mood tracking, subscriptions with Stripe, and learned to debug backend issues one step at a time. I created a big knowledge base that the assistant can pull from instantly, so users get the right help in the right moment, day or night.

Challenges I ran into

I faced regressions that broke features overnight and wasted hours of work. Connecting Stripe, managing credit systems, and securing API keys were completely new to me and took trial and error. Building dynamic routines that adapt daily based on user input pushed me to think differently about data models and real-time updates. There were moments where the app would inexplicably break, or where the voice assistant stopped responding for no apparent reason. Each time, I had to dig into logs, experiment, and stay patient, even when part of me wanted to abandon the whole thing.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

I’m proud that Feely isn’t just a sketch or mockup, but a real, functioning app with backend integrations, dynamic routines, secure subscription handling, and a voice assistant that actually works. There is also an online back office to easily manage the app’s content. I’m proud of the visual world I created, the characters, the warm and welcoming atmosphere. I’m also proud of how quickly I learned to work with technologies I’d never touched before, and how I stayed persistent even when things fell apart. The fact that Feely can guide someone in the middle of the night, help them breathe, calm down, or simply understand what they’re going through, that’s what makes me most proud.

What I learned

I learned to break big problems into small ones, and not to trust that something that works today will still work tomorrow. I learned how important it is to secure backend data, manage user subscriptions carefully, and watch for edge cases that can break user flows. I learned that working with AI and real-time data is both thrilling and unpredictable. I also learned a lot about myself, especially how patient and stubborn I can be when I believe in the mission.

What's next for Feely

Feely is only beginning. I plan to expand the content library, adding new exercises, stories, meditations, and knowledge pieces. Also, I will add real-time generated content, like stories, teleportations, and exercises tailored to user preferences. I want to wrap the app into native mobile apps, improve mood tracking so routines adapt in real time, and eventually make the companion characters truly interactive, maybe even animated in 3D. Ultimately, I hope Feely becomes a trusted companion for anyone who needs a little extra help managing stress, sleeping better, and feeling good about themselves, day or night.

Built With

• ai
• apis
• css
• dom
• elevenlabs
• form
• hook
• html
• i18next
• javascript
• lottie
• lucide
• markdown
• pwa
• restful
• router
• serviceworker
• stripe
• supabase
• tailwind
• typescript
• vite
• voiceagent
• websockets