Founders Events

Live tools for Founders · Illinois Entrepreneurs events, at events.foundersillinois.org. Members join from their phones; organizers run the event from /admin.

Events

Each event has a folder with its full guide: how it works, the event-night checklist, and how it was set up.

Event	Date	Guide
R&D Midpoint Pitch Evaluation, Fall 2026	Oct 25, 2026	rd-midpoint-fa26

To run a new event, copy the most recent similar folder and rename it to the new event's slug.

Running it locally

Never develop against the production database: it holds every past event's results. Get your own copy first: in the club's Vercel account, events → Storage → Open in Neon → Branches → create a branch named after you, and copy its pooled connection string. Or create a free Neon project.

npm install
cp .env.example .env.local   # paste your DATABASE_URL, choose any ADMIN_PASSWORD
npm run db:migrate           # creates the tables
npm run db:seed              # optional: adds a demo event
npm run dev                  # http://localhost:3000, organizers sign in at /admin

Before opening a pull request: npm run test:db && npm run lint && npm run typecheck && npm run build.

How it's deployed

• Hosting: the Vercel project events in the club's account. Merging to main deploys.
• Database: Neon Postgres, added through Vercel's Storage tab.
• Settings: two environment variables in Vercel, DATABASE_URL and ADMIN_PASSWORD. Changing the password and redeploying signs every organizer out.
• Database changes:
  1. Add a new numbered file in db/migrations/. Never edit one that has already run.
  2. Test it on your own database.
  3. Before merging, someone with Vercel access applies it to production: vercel env pull .env.production.local --environment production, then node --env-file=.env.production.local scripts/migrate.mjs, then delete that file.

How to contribute, and who approves changes: see the org page.

Credits

Thank you to everyone who built this. If you contributed, add yourself here in your pull request, with a link to your GitHub profile.

• Will Garrett (GitHub): original investment-game that this app grew from.
• Amey Gupta (GitHub): R&D pitch evaluation game.
• Zuyu Liu (GitHub): contributor.