TabSquad

TabSquad website built with Bolt.new
TabSquad app built with Bolt.new

Inspiration

Here's the thing - we've all been in that awkward spot where you're trying to figure out who owes what from last weekend's dinner. Or that road trip where everyone chipped in for gas but nobody remembers the exact amounts. As a family, we deal with this constantly, whether it's family stuff or hanging out with friends.

This hackathon became our first project together as a family team. We're Mark (dad/product manager), Kade (son/student/engineer), and Grant (son/student/marketer) - a father-sons collaboration that brought together years of product experience with the fresh perspectives that only students can bring. We kept running into these same problems - borrowed games that never come back, group dinners where the math gets messy, favors that get forgotten.

We realized something: money and favors shouldn't mess up friendships. So we decided to fix it.

What it does

TabSquad makes tracking shared stuff simple. No more mental math, no more awkward "hey, remember when..." conversations.

Here's what we built:

Track anything - money, favors, borrowed items, whatever
Organize everything into tabs (like "Pizza Night" or "Camping Trip")
One-tap to mark things settled
Add friends easily and get real-time updates
Works on any device through the web

We kept it simple but made it powerful. Free version gives you 3 tabs (honestly, that covers most people). Pro is $2.99/month for unlimited tabs, sharing with friends, and some really nice premium themes.

The target? Anyone who shares expenses. College students definitely get it, but so do families, roommates, friend groups - pretty much everyone.

Unlike existing solutions that focus just on money or get complicated with group splitting, TabSquad handles everything - money, favors, borrowed items - in one simple place. No more juggling multiple apps or trying to track non-monetary favors in expense apps that weren't built for them.

How we built it

This is where it gets interesting. We built everything with Bolt.new - and we mean everything:

Marketing site at tabsquad.com
Full app at app.tabsquad.com
Payment integration for subscription, authentication, the works

Both sites display the "Built with Bolt.new" badge.

Bolt.new was perfect for our family dynamic. We could divide responsibilities - product strategy, technical implementation, and user experience - while the AI development capabilities let us iterate incredibly fast on both the marketing site and core application.

Our tech stack:

Supabase for the database and real-time features such as authentication
Netlify for deployment
Entri to connect our domain
Stripe for Pro subscriptions
React & TypeScript
Tailwind CSS (rapid development was key)
ElevenLabs for AI voiceovers on some of our demo and marketing videos

We hit multiple challenge categories too - Supabase for the startup challenge, Netlify for deployment, and Entri for the custom domain setup.

Challenges we ran into

Working across generations was harder than expected. We had to balance enterprise scalability thinking with what actually feels good to use. Translating between "enterprise software" and "apps that don't suck" required constant collaboration.

The real-time sync was tricky. When multiple people are editing the same tab, keeping everything consistent without lag took some serious problem-solving.

Stripe integration always sounds easier than it is. Getting billing cycles, prorations, and cancellations right while keeping the user experience smooth required way more testing than we anticipated.

And honestly? Connecting the domain through three different systems (Bolt.new → Entri → Netlify) made us appreciate how complex web infrastructure really is.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We built a real business, not just a demo. Like, we have Stripe integration and everything. Our family is using this app - we're our own first customers.

The father-sons collaboration actually worked. Turns out combining years of product experience with fresh thinking creates something no single generation could build alone.

We went from idea to fully deployed product in about two weeks. We started on June 14 and wrapped up around June 29. That's the power of Bolt - it let us move at startup speed without a whole development team.

Most importantly, we solved a real problem. This isn't some abstract idea - it's something we needed and couldn't find anywhere else.

What we learned

Bolt is genuinely revolutionary for rapid development. The fact that three people with different skill levels could build something this complete, this fast, proves that AI-powered development is the future.

Family teams are powerful but challenging. We had to learn how to work together professionally while still being, you know, family.

User experience beats features every time. We learned to cut complexity in favor of making things intuitive. If users can't figure it out in 30 seconds, we failed.

Building something you actually use teaches you things you'd never learn otherwise. We're not guessing what users want - we ARE the users.

What's next for TabSquad

Short term, we're thinking mobile apps and payment integrations.

Long term? AI-powered expense categorization, group budgeting tools, maybe enterprise solutions.

But here's the thing - this isn't a hackathon throwaway for us. This is our family's first real product together. We're using it, improving it, and committed to building it into something that actually matters.

Because honestly? When everyone knows who owes what, friendships stay stronger. And that's worth building.

Challenge Categories: