Inspiration
I played football for over 12 years, captained my team, competed at national levels, and later joined Delhi Football Club as an academy player.
Come to, a complete ACL rupture. Recovery was tough, and for a while, playing again wasn’t certain.
That experience changed how I see the game. The passion didn’t go away, it just took a different form. Even off the pitch, the instinct stays: watching the game closely, anticipating movement, thinking a step ahead.
That mindset is something players carry with them. And often, it’s the same instinct that makes a good coach, someone who has been there and understands the game from within.
So with the same sharp instinct that remained, I decided to get myself an official coaching license.
I had plans to start my coaching stint by August 2025 as a side hustle to help underprivileged kids pick up the sport and, in general, help them realize their own potential.
I believe this is a project I could scale, for every coach who shares that same passion for contributing to the community and loves the most rewarding aspect of being a coach — when you see your work make a real difference in young lives.
When Bolt came along with their hackathon and offered so much in tools for a creator, I believed it was time push came to shove.
Thank you to everyone over at the Bolt Team for making my project a reality.
What it does
The GoodCoaches Initiative is a digital platform that connects new and experienced football coaches with underprivileged children from orphanages, shelters, and foster care. Partnering with academies willing to offer facilities, the platform enables these children — who would possibly otherwise never get the chance — to be trained, mentored, and possibly scouted by professionals.
It’s a bridge between untapped potential and structured opportunity, powered by community and compassion.
The real win is that the children learn more about teamwork, passion, and dedication — values they'll carry with them throughout life.
How I built it
The platform was built using Bolt, with a full Supabase backend to handle authentication, user data, and role-based registrations. A conversational AI onboarding assistant — powered by ElevenLabs — guides users through the experience and answers FAQs via voice and text.
The entire platform is hosted with a custom domain via Entri and IONOS, making it a fully deployable and production-ready project.
Challenges I ran into
Payment integration for donations proved complex, since in India, accepting public donations as a platform requires the organization to be formally registered as a non-profit and compliant with regulations like 80G/12A.
While the tech infrastructure is already in place, completing legal registration is the next operational milestone.
Accomplishments that I'm proud of
- Developed and launched a fully functional platform thanks to Bolt
- Integrated a Supabase backend with multiple user roles: Coach, Academy, and Organization
- Embedded a real-time AI assistant using ElevenLabs for enhanced onboarding and accessibility
- Brought an idea to life that had been in my mind for a while
- Got the website live with a real domain: thegoodcoaches.org
What I learned
This project taught me how to:
- Manually build and style front-end pages using React and Tailwind CSS
- Deployed project on Netlify and worked with Supabase for database management, authentication, and user flows
- Configure and deploy an AI assistant that can respond contextually to user questions
- Set up domain routing and environment configurations for production deployment
- Translate a personal mission into a real-world tool that can make a difference
What's next for The GoodCoaches Initiative
- Registering as a nonprofit to enable full donation capabilities
- Adding a location-based academy filter, so organizations can see nearby available training partners
- Automating matchmaking between coaches, academies, and children based on availability, interest, and proximity
- Launching a mobile-first version for lower-bandwidth access in rural areas
Built With
- bolt
- elevenlabs
- entri
- ionos
- netlify
- supabase
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