Startup Ecosystem Navigator

01 / The problem

What needs to change

Founders and ecosystem partners need a practical way to discover organizations, programs, jobs, customers, resources, and next steps across a fragmented regional landscape.

02 / The approach

A focused path through the complexity

The product combines a filterable ecosystem map with grounded guidance, deterministic recommendations, self-service profiles, verification, saved comparisons, and a review-oriented admin workflow.

03 / Key capabilities

What the system is designed to do

• Clustered map, heatmap, search, filters, saved lists, and comparison
• Grounded AI guide with deterministic recommendation fallback
• Self-service profiles with domain verification
• Server-side geocoding and organization-icon discovery caches
• Admin imports, review queues, settings, and multi-client API contracts

04 / Architecture

Technology and system shape

• Next.js application with a clean backend API boundary
• Server-side geocoding, icon discovery, and writable runtime caches
• Optional hosted model and Codex integration paths
• Web, iPhone, and iPad clients designed around shared platform contracts
• Single-container deployment with health and storage readiness checks

05 / Results

What the repository demonstrates

• The prototype implements resource discovery, the ecosystem map, profiles, submissions, verification, administration, and AI-assisted guidance.
• The application remains useful without model credentials through deterministic recommendations and local data.

06 / Lessons

What the work teaches

• An AI guide is stronger when every recommendation resolves to a concrete resource or next action.
• Caching and data stewardship are central product concerns in a map built from many public sources.

07 / Screenshots

Approved visuals