LEEDSLINK

Framing the Problem

The challenge is that students, small businesses, and community members in Leeds often struggle to find trusted, affordable local services quickly. Current platforms are either too broad, too costly for small sellers, or lack the community trust needed for local exchanges. This leads to wasted time, missed opportunities, and money leaving the local economy.Idea Explanation

What is your idea? How does it fix the problem?

Our idea is LeedsLink — a mobile-first community marketplace designed specifically for Leeds. It connects students, micro-businesses, and residents with the services and opportunities they need in real time. By focusing on local verification, fair pricing, and quick matchmaking, LeedsLink keeps value circulating within the community.

Implementation

The system has three main layers:

• Frontend (Mobile App): Provides a simple interface for users to search, post, and book services.

• Backend: Handles service listings, secure bookings, user verification, and payments.

• Database: Stores user profiles, ratings, service categories, and transaction history.
  The frontend makes secure requests to the backend, which manages logic and communicates with the database. Together, this ensures speed, security, and a smooth user experience.

Challenges

We faced two key challenges:

1. Balancing trust with simplicity: Verification can slow onboarding, but we solved this by introducing community-backed badges that are quick to issue yet maintain credibility.

2. Designing for inclusivity: We needed the app to serve both tech-savvy students and less digital micro-business owners. We overcame this with a clean, icon-led design and guided onboarding.ages logic and communicates with the database. Together, this ensures speed, security, and a smooth user experience

Accomplishments

We proved that a localized marketplace can be both simple and trustworthy. Along the way, we refined our understanding of user pain points, validated the demand through early feedback, and built the foundations of a working MVP architecture. Most importantly, we created a solution that could strengthen the Leeds community economy.

Next Steps

• Complete the MVP build and run a pilot with universities and local business groups.

• Expand features like micro-promotions and community endorsements.

• Scale from campus neighborhoods to city-wide adoption.

• Explore partnerships with councils and financial institutions to support growth.