Pipeline keeps the chaos of recruiting in one place - firms, contacts, deadlines, and coffee chats. Here is what it is, the problem it solves, and how it came together.
Pipeline is a web app that keeps the chaos of recruiting in one place: the firms you're applying to, the people you're networking with, the deadlines you can't miss, and the coffee chats you've lined up. It's built for college business students recruiting for consulting, finance, and adjacent roles.
It is private to each user, and designed to replace the scattered mix of spreadsheets, sticky notes, and school portals that students juggle during recruiting season.
Recruiting is a logistics problem disguised as a networking problem. At the same time, a student is usually:
Most students hold all of this in a spreadsheet that goes stale, a doc they stop updating, a portal that only covers postings, or their memory. The cost of a dropped thread - a missed deadline, a contact who went cold, a chat they forgot to log - is measured in lost interviews and offers.
Recruiting is a logistics problem disguised as a networking problem.
A modern, typed web app over a managed database - built to be fast, private, and low-maintenance.
A typed front end. Pipeline is a single-page web app with two hand-built themes - a dark "Midnight slate" and a light "Paper & ink" - and a typographic identity of its own. The pipeline board is fully drag-and-drop, and the interface is tuned to load quickly and stay responsive.
A managed, private back end. Data lives in a managed database with per-user isolation enforced at the database itself, so each person can only ever see their own pipeline. There is no custom server to run or secure. A couple of lightweight background jobs power the outbound calendar feed and email reminders.
Built around a clear model. Firms, contacts, interactions, and planned chats each have a well-defined role, and the app keeps a deliberate line between what is planned and what has actually happened - the detail that keeps the follow-up logic honest.
Every feature earns its place by serving the core loop - track firms, nurture contacts, never miss a date.
Every firm is a chip you drag through your recruiting stages. Each stage records its date and unlocks its own section on the firm - interview rounds, offer details, or a post-mortem takeaway - as a side effect of the move you were already making.
Each firm carries its open and close dates, which then show up wherever they're useful - on the firm, on the calendar, and in your synced personal calendar. One entry, many views.
Recruiters, alumni, and interviewers grouped by firm. Logging a touch keeps "last contacted" current and nudges the next follow-up - and naming an interviewer on a firm adds them to your contacts automatically.
A coffee chat arranged over text becomes a card holding the plan, the join link, and your running notes. Once it's passed, it quietly nudges you to log what happened - sentiment, referrals, and the next step.
A month view of deadlines, follow-ups, and chats, plus a season-long timeline of every firm's window - so you can see the whole stretch, and where you stand in it, at a glance.
A one-click feed pushes your deadlines, follow-ups, and chats into Google, Apple, or Outlook, so the calendar you already live in does the "don't miss it" work.
At-a-glance tiles that surface what needs you now - deadlines closing in, follow-ups that have slipped, chats waiting to be logged, and offer responses coming due - alongside a snapshot of your whole pipeline.
Ask in plain language - "what needs my attention this week?", "who am I overdue with?" - and get an instant, deep-linked answer. It runs entirely on your device, so nothing ever leaves it.
Spun off from a larger personal project into a standalone, focused app. The rough arc it followed:
Each meaningful feature started as a short written plan before any code, and was built in small, reviewable steps.
See the product and engineering calls that shaped Pipeline - what was chosen, why, and what was traded away.