About Elete
An interactive platform that bridges NCAA student-athletes with aspiring young athletes. This platform facilitates private training, mentorship sessions, and offers a wealth of insights into recruitment processes, training techniques, performance optimization, academic expectations, and time management.
Summary
At Elete, I played a key role in streamlining the authentication and account setup process, as well as integrating Stripe into their custom React build. My efforts unblocked the team, enabling the beta version to be showcased to investors. This project pushed me deeper into full-stack development and TypeScript, and enhanced my understanding of user interface and payment systems integration.
Engagement and Objective
Hired initially as a contractor, I was tasked to assist the small Elete team dealing with a rapidly growing task backlog. My main responsibility was to build the signup/signin flow for both parents and athletes. The goal was to set up an efficient system that would support the startup in its early stages, while it was still building out its Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and seeking investors.
Creating the Signup Flow
Collaborating closely with the co-founder, I built out the flow for account setup on their platform and customized user preferences. I designed the profiles to enable student athletes to offer coaching services on the platform. I also created profiles for parents to search for coaches. This work included a full Stripe integration, allowing students to set up a form of payment. Setting up Stripe onto their custom React build presented a unique challenge, as did adapting to their TypeScript code base.
Overcoming Challenges and Learning TypeScript
Despite my initial limited experience with TypeScript, I successfully dove into the authentication setup and adapted to Elete’s professionally written code base. The experience gave me a new perspective on how TypeScript can be used efficiently in a large React project. The use of explicitly typed syntax at scale allowed for tight validation and significantly aided the debugging process. This experience has made me consider using TypeScript for future complex web projects.
Outcomes and Reflections
My work on the project unblocked the Elete team, allowing them to open up their beta and showcase the platform to potential investors. In addition to solving immediate challenges, I gained expansive experience working on a professional full-stack code base, gaining exposure to the Stripe API and TypeScript. I contributed to multiple microservices using Node.js/Express/MongoDB and built out user interfaces using React and Tailwind CSS. This project not only highlighted my adaptability and problem-solving skills but also broadened my technical expertise.
