AggieLink

Inspiration

California grows a third of the nation's vegetables, yet the hospitals and universities mandated to buy local still can't find the farms down the road. We wanted to build something that doesn't just list produce but actually closes the gap between a small farm that needs a committed buyer and an institution that needs to hit a sourcing mandate. AggieLink was born from the idea that the problem was never about supply or demand — it was about connection, and nobody had built it yet.

What it does

AggieLink is a procurement coordination platform that helps institutions source locally by aggregating multiple small farms into one institution-ready supplier network.

Farmers can list crops, certifications, seasonality, and available volume, while institutions post procurement demand and future sourcing needs. The platform matches and aggregates farms into coordinated supplier pools and generates a single institutional purchase order.

The platform also includes a Gemini-powered procurement assistant for sourcing insights and supplier analysis.

How we built it

We built AggieLink using:

• Next.js
• Tailwind CSS
• Framer Motion
• Supabase
• Gemini API

The platform includes separate Farmer and Institution portals connected through an aggregation workflow: farmers list supply, institutions post demand, and the platform creates coordinated supplier pools and institutional POs.

We also built an animated aggregation visualization to explain the workflow visually.

Challenges we ran into

One of our biggest challenges was balancing cinematic storytelling with a clean operational product experience.

We also spent time refining how aggregation should work visually and structurally so the platform felt like real procurement infrastructure rather than a simple marketplace.

Another challenge was integrating Gemini in a way that felt useful and context-aware instead of just adding a generic chatbot.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of building:

• a dual-portal platform for farmers and institutions
• an aggregation workflow with institutional PO generation
• a Gemini-powered procurement assistant
• a polished climate-tech SaaS experience

We are especially proud that the platform addresses a real operational gap in institutional local sourcing.

What we learned

We learned that the hardest part of local sourcing is not demand — it is coordination.

Institutions already want local food, but fragmented supply, compliance requirements, and procurement complexity make sourcing difficult.

We also learned how important storytelling, UX, and workflow clarity are when presenting technical products.

What's next for AggieLink

Next steps include:

• improving logistics and aggregation coordination
• expanding forward demand forecasting
• adding supplier verification workflows
• improving procurement analytics
• exploring partnerships with healthcare systems and universities

Long-term, we see AggieLink becoming procurement infrastructure for institutional local sourcing.

Built With

• framer
• geminiapi
• next.js
• supabase
• tailwind