Willow

A web application that demystifies investing for students by anchoring it to their real-life aspirations.

Overview

Willow transforms abstract financial portfolios into tangible, visual goals. Built for post-secondary students who have some disposable income but feel intimidated by investing, our platform makes the process intuitive, motivating, and directly tied to their life milestones.

Team Registration

✅ Team Successfully Registered

• Team Name: Willow
• Team ID: b93dff86-af54-4f74-9150-904e4cb7f134
• JWT Token: Configured and ready to use
• Token Expires: September 23, 2025

Quick Start

1. Install Dependencies

npm install

2. Start the Server

npm run dev

The API server will start on http://localhost:3001

3. Test the API

# Health check
curl http://localhost:3001/api/health

# Register a user
curl -X POST http://localhost:3001/api/users/register \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"name": "Alex Student", "email": "alex@example.com"}'

API Endpoints

Health Check

• GET /api/health - Check if the API is running

User Management

• POST /api/users/register - Register a new user
  • Body: {"name": "string", "email": "string"}

Goal Management

• POST /api/goals - Create a new goal (portfolio)
  • Body: {"clientId": "string", "goalName": "string", "targetAmount": "number", "targetDate": "string", "portfolioType": "string"}
• GET /api/goals/:portfolioId - Get goal progress
• POST /api/goals/:portfolioId/fund - Add funds to a goal
  • Body: {"amount": "number"}
• POST /api/goals/:portfolioId/simulate - Simulate goal growth
  • Body: {"clientId": "string", "months": "number"}

Development Roadmap

Phase 1: MVP (Current Focus)

• Team registration and JWT setup
• Backend API server with RBC integration
• User registration flow
• Basic goal creation
• Simple progress display
• Basic funding functionality

Phase 2: Core Features

• Smart portfolio recommendation based on timeline
• Visual progress tracker
• Projection power-up feature

Phase 3: Enhancements

• Multiple goals support
• Goal templates
• Push notifications
• Recurring contributions

Technical Stack

• Backend: Node.js + Express
• API Integration: RBC InvestEase Hackathon API
• Authentication: JWT tokens
• Database: PostgreSQL (to be configured)

Next Steps

1. Test the current API endpoints
2. Set up a database for storing user/goal mappings
3. Build the frontend React application
4. Implement the core user flows from the PRD

Team Credentials

The JWT token is configured in config.js and will be used for all RBC API calls. The token expires on September 23, 2025, so you have plenty of time for development and testing.