Inspiration

San Francisco is full of people worth meeting, but finding the right connections takes time. We wanted to help builders, founders, and job seekers discover where they can help each other—and let their agents handle the coordination.

What it does

SF Sidekick is a personal networking agent. You describe your goals, experience, and what you can offer, then confirm your profile.

Within an opt-in network, Sidekick proposes mutually valuable connections. Once a connection is accepted, the agents exchange permitted context, explore opportunities to collaborate, and propose meeting times using authorized availability. Both people approve before a calendar file is generated.

Sidekick also discovers relevant events. You stay in control of what you share, whom you connect with, and which meetings you approve.

How we built it

We built a mobile-first web application using Next.js and TypeScript, with OpenAI for agent reasoning and Exa for event research.

The workflow connects profile creation, reciprocal matching, agent conversations, and meeting coordination. Persistent state tracks connections, sharing permissions, proposals, and approvals so users can return and continue where they left off.

Challenges we ran into

The hardest challenge was making connections useful to both people. Matching needed to consider what each person could offer alongside what they wanted.

We also had to manage permissions across agent conversations, keep meeting approvals consistent, and handle incomplete or conflicting information from event sources.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We built a working flow from a confirmed profile to a connection, an agent conversation, and a meeting proposal. Users can see their agents’ activity and decide when to move forward.

Networking is the core experience, with event discovery helping people find additional opportunities to meet.

What we learned

Personal context becomes more useful when it includes what someone can contribute. Shared interests alone do not explain why two people should meet.

We also learned that consent needs to be part of every step: sharing context, accepting a connection, and approving a meeting.

What's next for Sidekick

Expand the opt-in network, improve matching through user feedback, and support approved calendar event creation. We also want to strengthen reliability and authentication before expanding beyond San Francisco.