2023
Pitch Competition WinnerQuipler
Student collaboration and Q&A platform
Quipler was built to close the gap between coursework and applied problem-solving, giving students a structured way to share knowledge, ask targeted questions, and collaborate across courses and disciplines. The project combined product thinking with technical execution and won a university pitch competition.
The Problem
University students lack a structured channel for applied collaboration. Course forums are siloed, Discord servers are noisy, and office hours don't scale. Quipler was designed around a simple thesis: knowledge compounds when it's organized, searchable, and tied to real coursework.
CS + Business Design Thinking
The product was designed with both technical and business constraints in mind. On the CS side: information architecture, search and tagging, and user interaction flows. On the business side: user acquisition in a network-effects product, retention mechanics, and positioning relative to existing tools (Stack Overflow, Piazza, Discord).
Blending these two frames, what can be built vs. what will be used, was the core design challenge.
Outcome
Quipler won the university pitch competition, judged on product viability, market reasoning, and presentation clarity. The project demonstrated that combining a technical background with business model thinking produces stronger product outcomes than either alone.
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