Prereq

AI-powered meeting prep assistant. Get personalized briefs on anyone before your meetings, right from LinkedIn. Know anyone in 30 seconds.

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Prereq - Project Story

Inspiration

I've sat through countless meetings where I knew nothing about the person across from me. You Google them, skim their LinkedIn, maybe find an old tweet - and you're still walking in cold.

As someone who juggles physics, code, and building companies, I don't have 30 minutes to research every person I meet. But I also hate small talk that goes nowhere.

So I built Prereq - a tool that turns any LinkedIn profile into a meeting brief in about 30 seconds.

What it does

Paste a LinkedIn URL, pick your meeting goal (networking, sales, hiring, or investor), and get back:

  • A quick summary of who they are
  • Talking points that actually matter
  • Common ground between you and them
  • Icebreakers that don't feel forced
  • Smart questions to ask

There's also a Chrome extension that works directly on LinkedIn - one click and you're prepped.

How I built it

The stack is pretty straightforward:

  • Frontend: Next.js 15 with React 19 and TypeScript
  • Styling: Tailwind CSS with a custom design system
  • Auth: Clerk (handles all the login complexity)
  • Database: Supabase (PostgreSQL under the hood)
  • AI: Claude API for generating the briefs
  • LinkedIn Data: RapidAPI's LinkedIn scraper
  • Hosting: Vercel
  • Extension: Chrome Manifest V3

The architecture is simple: user signs in, pastes a LinkedIn URL, we fetch the profile data, send it to Claude with context about the meeting goal, and return a structured brief. The extension just makes this flow seamless when you're already browsing LinkedIn.

Challenges

LinkedIn is a walled garden. Getting reliable profile data without violating terms of service meant finding the right API provider and handling rate limits gracefully.

AI output consistency. Getting Claude to return structured, useful briefs every time - not too long, not too generic - took a lot of prompt iteration. The brief needed to feel like a smart friend giving you the rundown, not a Wikipedia summary.

Chrome Extension auth. Syncing authentication between the web app and extension was trickier than expected. Bearer tokens, CORS headers, and Chrome's security model don't always play nice together.

Making it actually useful. The hardest part wasn't the code - it was figuring out what information actually helps before a meeting. I talked to salespeople, recruiters, and founders to understand what they really need.

What I learned

Building something people actually use is different from building something that works. The features I thought were important weren't. The tiny UX details I almost skipped ended up mattering most.

Also: physics taught me to break down complex problems. That skill transfers directly to debugging Chrome extension authentication at 2am.

What's next

  • More meeting goal types
  • Team features for sales teams
  • Calendar integration to auto-prep before meetings
  • Mobile app

The goal is simple: never walk into a meeting unprepared again.

Built With

  • Next.js
  • React
  • TypeScript
  • Tailwind CSS
  • Clerk
  • Supabase
  • PostgreSQL
  • Claude API (Anthropic)
  • RapidAPI
  • Vercel
  • Chrome Extension (Manifest V3)

Links

Author

Brian Mwai Physics Major | Self-taught Software Engineer | Founder

Know anyone in 30 seconds.

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Updates

posted an update —

Built this for a hackathon that turned out to be fake. Classic.

But honestly? I'm glad I built it anyway. Prereq turns any LinkedIn profile into a meeting brief in 30 seconds. No more awkward small talk or last-minute Google stalking.

The hackathon was a hoax. The problem was real. The app works.

Check it out: prereq.brianmwai.com

Code's on GitHub if you're curious.

On to the next one.

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