Zelospace

The Problem

University campuses are full of people with overlapping interests who never find each other. Existing social platforms organize around who you already know, not what you care about. Student clubs help, but discovery is fragmented — bulletin boards, Instagram pages, word of mouth. We saw an opportunity to build something purpose-built for campus communities.

What We Built

Zelospace is a platform that connects university students through shared interests. I co-founded the startup and built the product from initial concept through launch. The core features:

• Interest-based matching — Tag-driven discovery that surfaces people, groups, and events based on what you care about, not who you follow
• Community spaces — Group threads organized around interests, courses, and campus activities
• Event feed — A central stream of campus happenings, from club meetings to informal hangouts
• User profiles — Lightweight profiles built around interests and availability rather than follower counts

The product was designed mobile-first — university students live on their phones, and the experience needed to feel native to how they already communicate.

My Role

As co-founder, I owned the product end-to-end: user research with students across campus, information architecture, UI/UX design, and full-stack development. I also handled early growth — onboarding student organizations, running campus launch events, and iterating based on user feedback.

Technologies

React, Node.js, PostgreSQL, authentication system, responsive PWA, cloud deployment.

Outcome

Zelospace grew to 500+ active users on campus within the first semester. The platform validated that interest-based discovery fills a real gap in campus social infrastructure. Students consistently reported finding communities they didn't know existed — niche hobby groups, study partners in adjacent programs, and cross-faculty collaborations that wouldn't have happened through existing channels.