Marketplace Discovery
University-specific listings, PostgreSQL full-text search, category and price filtering, condition filters, image carousel, profile flows, and listing creation with up to nine compressed images.
Co-founder and full-stack product build
Los Angeles, CA | Sep. 2024 - Sep. 2025
Rally University Marketplace
A university-focused marketplace for buying, selling, bidding, ticket transfer, secure pickup, payments, chat, and admin operations.
Co-founder and Full Stack Developer
Rally was built as a campus marketplace with a React Native mobile app, Dockerized Node.js services, PostgreSQL on AWS RDS, S3-backed media handling, Stripe payments, real-time messaging, and a Vue-based admin panel. The product combined marketplace discovery with trust workflows designed for student-to-student transactions.
Product demo
Mobile marketplace flow
Ownership
What I built
- Architected Dockerized Node.js microservices behind Nginx with JWT auth, HTTPS, health checks, and service separation.
- Built mobile search, listing, media, and transaction flows in React Native and Expo.
- Implemented PostgreSQL full-text search, filters, bidding, notifications, and transaction-state workflows.
- Integrated S3 signed uploads, image compression, thumbnails, and Rekognition-based content moderation.
- Launched Stripe payments, real-time chat, QR/6-digit pickup verification, ticket proof galleries, and admin analytics.
System design
Architecture
Auth service for login, token refresh, session handling, and role-based access control.
Main service for product listings, bidding, delivery/pickup workflow, search, and transaction state.
Chat service with Socket.io for real-time messaging, message persistence, and transaction-aware conversations.
Admin service and Vue admin panel for user, product, transaction, chat, and analytics operations.
Nginx reverse proxy and Docker Compose deployment with PostgreSQL, AWS S3, Rekognition, and Stripe integrations.
Product systems
Marketplace, trust, and operations
Bidding and Payments
Seller-controlled bidding, minimum bid settings, bid acceptance, payment windows, automatic bid expiration, Stripe payment intents, payment status tracking, and refund-aware transaction management.
Pickup, Delivery, and Tickets
Secure pickup with encrypted 6-digit codes and QR verification, photo evidence, local delivery/shipping status, and a ticket-transfer workflow with proof uploads, receipt confirmation, zoomable galleries, and timestamped records.
Operations and Trust
Vue admin dashboard with RBAC, user management, transaction monitoring, chat review/export, product moderation, analytics, platform health indicators, and support tooling for dispute resolution.
Stack
Mobile
React NativeExpoReact NavigationAsync StorageAxiosSocket.io client
Backend
Node.jsExpressPostgreSQLAWS RDSAWS S3AWS RekognitionSocket.ioStripe
Infrastructure
DockerDocker ComposeNginxHTTPSJWThealth checkssigned URLs
Admin
Vue.jsElement UIChart.jsRBACanalytics dashboards
Outcomes
- Built an end-to-end marketplace system across mobile, backend, storage, payments, chat, moderation, and admin operations.
- Designed transaction workflows around campus trust constraints: proof records, pickup verification, ticket transfer evidence, and buyer/seller status visibility.
- Created an operations surface for analytics, user management, transaction monitoring, product moderation, and chat-context review.
- Kept the system deployable and maintainable through service separation, Dockerization, Nginx routing, health checks, and environment-specific configuration.