2021
Markit Social
AI-driven social event marketplace connecting people with local events.
Overview
Markit is a social event marketplace that helps people discover local events and coordinate plans with friends. I joined as a software engineer to work on the recommendation engine and mobile app, my first experience building a consumer product from scratch at a startup.
Challenge
Event discovery is a cold-start problem. New users have no history, and new events have no engagement data. The recommendation system needed to surface relevant events immediately while learning user preferences over time. On the product side, event creation was the biggest funnel bottleneck, as hosts were abandoning the flow before publishing.
Approach
Built event recommendation algorithms using collaborative filtering and content-based signals (location, category, social graph). Worked in React Native with Redux state management and Google Firebase on the backend. Redesigned the event creation flow based on UX research, reducing required fields, added smart defaults, and introduced a preview step that increased completion rates.
Impact
Platform grew to 1,700+ users. The recommendation engine improved event discovery engagement, and the redesigned creation flow increased host publishing rates. Features shipped included the recommendation backend, profile customization, and the streamlined event creation UX.
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