Sync

Inspiration

I come from a country "no one knows" as per Donald Trump hahaha. The country that I am from is called Lesotho, a small-land-locked country in Southern Africa, where opportunities do not knock much for youth. I got my first breakthrough at 19 when I won the SADC Innovation and Investment Challenge in 2019. That one opportunity changed everything. Since then, access to global opportunities has propelled me, a young entrepreneur from Lesotho, a country many people don’t even know exists, onto the global stage.

I’ve since raised funding from the World Bank, the Tony Elumelu Foundation, and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) for my startup. I’ve pitched in front of investors in Switzerland, been invited to China, and participated in top-tier global programs like Microsoft for Startups, NVIDIA Inception, and more.

That is the power of access.

But most young people , especially students, professionals, and entrepreneurs from underserved communities, don’t have the time or systems to sort through hundreds of opportunity websites. They miss out, not because they aren’t capable, but because the current system isn’t built for them.

So I built Sync (Opportunity Tracker) to solve that. To make sure access doesn’t depend on privilege, timing, or algorithms. I built it so that anyone, anywhere, can track and act on life-changing opportunities, and turn their own ideas into global impact.

What it does

Sync is an AI-powered web application that automates the discovery, sorting, and tracking of global opportunities—such as scholarships, fellowships, competitions, and funding—for underserved youth, students, entrepreneurs, and young professionals. Users can: Create a profile and upload documents (like CVs). Receive curated opportunities based on filters like region, age, gender, and sector. Get deadline notifications. Track their application status. Get AI assistance when applying. Share wins and experiences via an in-app social feed. Sync replaces the chaos of searching across dozens of platforms and social media feeds with one intelligent dashboard.

How we built it

Sync was built using Bolt.new as a responsive web application. We focused on: Frontend: Built with Bolt’s drag-and-code environment for rapid development. User authentication and document upload features. Custom filters for opportunity types and user segmentation (student, entrepreneur, etc.). Database setup for opportunity tracking and sorting (New, Applied, Pending). AI Assistant prototype integrated using mock prompts and conditional logic (to simulate GPT-based assistant). Push notification logic for deadlines and updates. Social feed built to mimic Twitter-style updates inside the app.

Challenges we ran into

Bolt.new is powerful but still maturing—handling dynamic filtering with user-specific states took custom workarounds. Building a social feed inside a webapp builder environment pushed limits on UI flexibility. Opportunity scraping is still in prototype form; integrating external APIs or RSS feeds will be the next step. Designing AI features without access to external API keys within Bolt meant prototyping logic rather than full GPT integration.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Completed a fully functional MVP in under 48 hours. Built a beautiful, responsive and intuitive app entirely inside Bolt.new. Developed a real solution addressing a real problem faced by millions of youth. Created a compelling user experience with tracking, filtering, and sharing—without requiring code from scratch.

What we learned

Bolt.new enables rapid, professional-grade webapp development with limited overhead. Focused, pain-point-driven ideas scale faster when the user journey is clear. Time is best spent on nailing distribution model and problem-user-solution fit—features can come later. Having a vision tied to real user challenges makes demoing and pitching more natural and impactful.

What's next for Sync

Real-time opportunity scraping across platforms like Opportunity Desk, Devex, and government grant sites. Full integration with GPT-4.5 to provide document drafting (e.g. scholarship essays, motivation letters). In-app onboarding training for LinkedIn optimization, CV enhancement, and storytelling. Premium AI access tiers and verified profiles. Launching pilots in Lesotho and Sub-Saharan Africa to onboard 5,000+ users by Q4 2025. Sync is just getting started, we’re building a global network of opportunity hunters who never miss a deadline again.

Built With

• lucide
• react
• tailwind
• typescript
• vite