HERcapital

Own your wallet. Own your future.

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💡 Inspiration

College is often the first time young women are expected to manage their finances independently. Between tuition, housing, daily expenses, and social spending, it can be difficult to balance immediate wants with long-term financial goals. Many students either struggle to stretch limited resources or unknowingly overspend money that could be invested or saved. These challenges were ones our own team experienced throughout the past year. We realized that while financial advice is readily available, much of it isn't designed for college students or presented in a way that feels approachable. That inspired us to create HERcapital, a platform that makes financial education personalized, accessible, and actionable for young women navigating financial independence.

💸 What it does

HERcapital is a personalized financial wellness platform built specifically for college women. When users create an account, they provide information such as their college, tuition costs, income, campus cash balance, and long-term financial goals. Using this information, HERcapital generates customized budgets, savings strategies, beginner-friendly investment recommendations, and credit-building guidance tailored to each user's financial situation.

To encourage mindful spending, the app prompts users to reflect before making purchases. It also categorizes spending across areas such as dining, entertainment, transportation, and shopping, allowing users to identify trends and adjust their habits over time. Beyond budgeting, HERcapital empowers users to build healthy financial habits early by turning complex financial concepts into practical, personalized guidance that grows alongside their college journey.

🎨 Our Design Philosophy

We interpreted the challenge statement with the context of our own experiences as young women starting college. Starting with our own financial struggles, we brainstormed the financial tools thought to be most beneficial to us, then we asked mentors and judges for their thoughts on the prompt to ensure we understood the problem the best we could. Additionally, with a dominant focus on only 3 features, we took great care to avoid feature/scope creep. We aimed for convenience that supports reality. We also prioritized convenience by developing a mobile application, recognizing that college students, especially freshmen, always have their phones nearby, making financial guidance accessible whenever important spending decisions arise.

🛠️ How we built it

We built HERcapital using React Native with Expo for the frontend, allowing us to create a cross-platform mobile experience from a single codebase. For the backend, we used Supabase to handle user authentication, securely store financial data, and manage our database. By combining these technologies, we were able to rapidly prototype a personalized financial platform that adapts recommendations based on each user's financial profile and goals.

😵‍💫 Challenges we ran into

One of our biggest challenges was ensuring a smooth iOS demonstration while developing with Expo, as configuring the development environment and trying to test across devices introduced several compatibility difficulties with Node.js dependencies. We also spent considerable time designing a financial experience that was both personalized and easy to understand. A lot of consideration went into what type of literacy was included, what we believe is most beneficial for young women in college, and what we personally would have liked to know in our first year, while still maintaining understandability.

🏆 Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're proud of building HERcapital as more than just a budgeting app. Our goal was to create a financial platform that combines practical tools with a supportive community. A feature we're especially proud of is our scholarship matching tool, which helps users discover opportunities aligned with their background while prioritizing scholarships with smaller applicant pools to maximize their chances of receiving financial aid. We also incorporated a community forum where users can share experiences, celebrate milestones, ask questions, and support one another. Creating a space where women can learn from and empower each other has been a core part of our vision, allowing HERcapital to extend beyond financial tracking into a community focused on shared growth.

🧠 What we learned

Throughout this project, we learned that the best solutions come from first understanding the people you're designing for. By reflecting on our own experiences and those of the women around us, we were able to better define the problem and break it down into manageable pieces. This process helped us build a focused, meaningful solution that empowers young women to make more confident financial decisions while addressing challenges we have faced ourselves.

💭 What's next for HERcapital

While HERcapital currently focuses on helping students manage their finances through a mobile experience, our next step is expanding its impact beyond the app. We plan to develop a HERcapital browser extension that integrates into the online shopping experience, providing a mindful checkpoint before users complete purchases. The extension will allow users to see how a potential expense affects their personalized college budget, savings goals, and long-term financial plans. Beyond mindful spending, we hope to continue expanding HERcapital with additional resources such as enhanced scholarship matching, personalized financial education, investment guidance, and a larger community platform where women can share experiences and support one another. Our long-term vision is to create a comprehensive financial empowerment ecosystem that grows alongside women through every stage of their financial journey. We would also like to adjust long-term goals to ask different, more advanced questions as the amount a user has saved increases, expanding the demographic of app users.

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