Built university-industry deal platform in 14 days and reached top 5 at IDEASHACK

Project Description

CollabPilot is an AI co-pilot that guides researchers, research institutions, and business partners through university-industry commercialization deals — from first contact to signed agreement. Vibe-coded in 14 days with Claude (chat) and Claude Design — from first user interviews to a working MVP prototype — for IDEASHACK 2026. https://www.ideas.edu.pl/en/wydarzenia/ideashack-2026/

Achievements

- 14 days, zero-to-MVP — vibe-coded end-to-end with Claude (chat) and Claude Design, starting from real user interviews and mentor validation, not a pre-set spec

- Top 5 finalist, IDEASHACK 2026 (of ~14–15 submitting teams) — live pitch + jury Q&A, Warsaw, June

- 8 design iterations (v1→v8) with versioned changelogs and audit trails, each tied to real user/mentor feedback

Tools

- Claude (chat) — user interview synthesis, ideation, journey mapping, personas, copywriting, presentation structuring

- Claude Design — vibe-coded the design system and high-fidelity MVP prototype

- Google Gemini - presentation & illustration

- Vercel — deployment

Methodology

1. Claude Project as system of record — all context (interviews, mentor notes, briefs, personas) centralized so every generation pulled from the same source.

2. Evidence-driven decisions — pivot to "post-match navigation" and rejection of a chatbot interface both came from mentor/interview input, not preference.

3. Full design chain run through AI — user research → product strategy → design strategy → UX → UI → usability testing, each stage feeding the next.

4. AI as co-pilot, not agent — every output shown with reasoning, human-reviewed before use.

Learnings

1. User research is crucial to get the right ideas for design — ungrounded prompts produce ungrounded output; AI is only as good as the spec it's fed.

2. Human taste and judgment play a vital role at every milestone — the work didn't disappear, it moved earlier: into the brief, the persona, the rejection criteria.

3. Humans own the quality of work, while AI is quick to implement — "vibe coding" without a spec is prompt roulette; with a spec, it's genuine leverage.

Relevant URLs

- Live demo: https://collab-copilot-7fxd.vercel.app/

- Video walkthrough: https://youtu.be/zDBKblb1KW4