sub-zero-ai

Inspiration

Apps like Rocket Money are great at showing wasted expenses, but they don't show you what that money could be doing instead. I wanted to build something for college students that roasts their bad subscription habits and visually proves how much wealth they're giving up by not investing.

What it does

Sub-Zero AI flags your unused monthly subscriptions, calculates your total wasted spend, and hits you with a sarcastic roast. It then instantly recalculates how much that wasted cash would grow over 5, 10, and 20 years if redirected into the T. Rowe Price Blue Chip Growth Fund (TRBCX).

How we built it

React & Tailwind CSS: Built the dark-mode Gen-Z dashboard. Recharts: Powers the interactive, real-time compound interest graph. ElevenLabs: Generates realistic audio for the AI roasts. Gemini: Used as a coding assistant to scaffold logic and structure state management fast.

Challenges we ran into

Getting the Recharts line graph to update in real time whenever someone toggled a subscription or moved the spend slider. Troubleshooting Gemini API key configuration under hackathon deadline pressure.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Squashing the graph rendering bug so financial updates happen instantly. Integrating ElevenLabs for the first time to give our AI roast a real voice.

What we learned

How to prompt and guide LLMs effectively to structure neat, production-ready frontend code under tight time constraints.

What's next for sub-zero-ai

Live Bank/Email Tracking: Reading actual statements and emails to detect exact subscription usage dates. Interactive AI Arguments: Letting users try to justify their purchases ("I only bought Chegg for finals!") so the AI can argue back dynamically.

Built With

• css
• elevenlabs
• html
• javascript
• json
• loveable
• react
• tailwind
• vercel