High School Hustle
Gamified Entrepreneurship Platform
A gamified platform that transforms after-school hours into a launchpad for future leaders—connecting students with real-world entrepreneurial challenges, mentorship, and meaningful rewards.
Platform Overview
Student Dashboard
Competitive Leaderboards
Grant Application System
Educational Marketplace
Mobile-Responsive Design
The Challenge
In our second year, the challenge was helping students and campuses truly get off the ground. What started with just 1 school last year grew to 44 campuses—but many students needed more than just access. They needed a platform to take their skills to the next level, connect with like-minded peers, and find mentorship to turn ambition into real-world outcomes.
Key Problems to Solve:
- Scalability: How to support 44 campuses and 2,000+ students with limited staff
- Engagement: Students needed ongoing motivation beyond initial signup
- Connection: Students were isolated—no way to see what peers were building
- Tracking: No central system to log revenue, wins, or progress
- Mentorship: Difficulty connecting students with experienced entrepreneurs
Our Solution
We created a platform for High School Hustle—a centralized, gamified place where students can log real revenue, compete in business-building challenges across schools, and connect with mentors to turn ambition into action. It's not a community—it's a launchpad for high school entrepreneurs.
Key Features Built:
Advanced Revenue Tracking
Dual-mode revenue system separating regular operations from competition periods, with multi-member business support, transaction history, and image upload verification.
Intelligent Leaderboards
Four leaderboard types (Summer, School, Social Media, Bonus) with privacy-first shuffled views and real-time updates via WebSocket connections.
Campus Analytics
Real-time insights for program coordinators with performance tracking, engagement metrics, and student progress monitoring across all campuses.
Comprehensive Communication
Direct messaging, school-wide announcements, scheduled SMS campaigns (batch processing 10 concurrent messages), and discussion forums.
Grant Application System
Full workflow from student submission to campus president approval with Amazon wishlist integration and status tracking.
Interactive Onboarding
Multi-page handbook with quizzes, auto-grading, reflection inputs, and progress tracking to educate new student entrepreneurs.
Educational Marketplace
App Store model with video courses, community groupchats, marketing tools, and monetization framework for partners.
Role-Based Dashboards
Four distinct experiences for students, mentors, campus presidents, and admins with custom workflows and permissions.
Technology Stack:
- Frontend: Next.js 15.2.4 with React 19 and TypeScript 5.4, Tailwind CSS 3.4.17 with Headless UI for accessible design
- Backend: Firebase Firestore (NoSQL) with 13,143 lines of optimized indexes, Real-time Database for live leaderboards
- Authentication: Firebase Auth + NextAuth.js 4.24 with Google OAuth, HTTP-only secure cookies
- Security: 673 lines of field-level Firestore rules with RBAC, 6,571 lines of Cloud Storage rules, CSP headers
- Cloud Functions: Node.js 20 serverless functions with 4 automated cron jobs (meeting reminders, scheduled SMS, CMS sync)
- Integrations: Resend (email), Twilio (SMS with batch processing), Google Maps API, Stripe framework
- Infrastructure: Firebase Hosting + Cloud Run backend, Vercel edge caching, automated backups
- Analytics: Vercel Analytics for real-time performance monitoring
Technical Innovations:
- Serverless Architecture: Zero-ops maintenance with auto-scaling for traffic spikes
- Real-Time Sync: Live leaderboard updates via Firestore listeners without page refresh
- Privacy-First Design: Shuffled leaderboard views (50-user pools) maintaining competitive integrity
- Batch SMS Infrastructure: Concurrent processing with 10 simultaneous messages, E.164 validation, delivery tracking
- Multi-Tenant System: Single codebase serves 44+ campuses with role-based isolation
- Automated Workflows: Cron jobs running every 5-12 hours for reminders and scheduled messages
- Scalable by Design: Architecture supports 500+ Indiana schools, scales to millions of documents
Results & Impact
From 1 to 44 campuses and over 2,000 students, the momentum is real. Students have logged just under a million dollars in business revenue. Our approach increased engagement by 75% and boosted program retention by 40%, showing that when you give young innovators the right tools and support, they don't just show up—they build.
Impact Metrics:
Technical Metrics:
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