About This Project
Worked as a founding engineer on a community-focused startup helping clubs manage memberships, collect dues, and grow sustainably. After onboarding, I became the primary engineer across several core areas of the platform, contributing across frontend architecture, Next.js APIs, subscriptions/payments, email systems, technical support, UX improvements, and product redesign efforts. I also led a large product audit and redesign initiative focused on improving onboarding, membership selection, and overall usability, while helping launch new growth-oriented features like Club Campaigns.
Role
I worked in the messy, useful middle of engineering, product, and UX: shipping full-stack features, auditing the product experience, reworking core flows, and helping the team make pragmatic decisions while the product direction was still evolving.
What I Worked On
Built full-stack features across Next.js APIs, React UI, and Supabase architecture
Led a major UX/product audit across onboarding, club pages, and membership flows
Redesigned membership selection and club-facing pages to better support organizers and make joining feel like participating in a community, not making a donation or buying a subscription
Contributed to subscription, dues, and membership-related product architecture
Prototyped new product directions quickly while keeping core systems maintainable
Investigated production email delivery issues with limited observability
Accomplishments
Helped the product better match the real-world needs of clubs and organizers
Reduced friction in important onboarding and membership flows
Balanced fast startup iteration with longer-term architecture decisions
Left the product in a sustainable state with no recent customer support tickets, then helped hand it off to the Relational Tech Project as an open-source community tool now stewarded by nonprofit engineers
Challenges & Learnings
Working at BuildIRL taught me how much early-stage product development lives in ambiguity. Because the product direction evolved quickly, I often worked across both engineering and product/UX, helping shape not just how features were implemented, but how they should feel and communicate the company’s mission. One of the most rewarding parts of the role was leading a broad UI/UX refresh that made the platform feel more playful, modern, and approachable while still supporting real operational needs for clubs collecting dues and managing members. It also taught me how to balance fast-moving prototyping with investing in more durable systems when features touched areas like payments, subscriptions, and user trust.