GuideConnect

GuideConnect — Building an Interest-First Travel Marketplace

GuideConnect is a startup platform designed to connect business travelers with locals who offer authentic, interest-based experiences across African cities. Instead of traditional tourist tours, the platform helps travelers discover cities through people who genuinely understand them, from finance professionals and photographers to creatives and food enthusiasts.

I worked on the project as a Co-Founder and Lead Frontend Engineer, collaborating with a designer and two backend engineers to build the product from the ground up.

The platform launched initially in Lagos and Nairobi, focusing on business travelers looking for flexible, local experiences beyond typical tourism.

My Contributions

I led the entire frontend development of the platform, including:

onboarding and profile flows,
availability and scheduling systems,
interest-based discovery experiences,
responsive marketplace interfaces,
and CMS-driven content integration using Sanity.

Beyond implementation, I also contributed to:

product planning,
frontend architecture,
UX decisions,
SEO strategy,
and reusable component systems.

Tech Stack

React
TypeScript
Tailwind CSS
Stripe
Sanity CMS

We built the platform primarily with client-side rendering while implementing prerendering and performance optimization techniques such as:

lazy loading,
responsive image delivery,
route-based code splitting,
and SEO-focused metadata handling.

Challenges

One of the biggest technical challenges was improving SEO and discoverability in a largely CSR-based application. I worked on optimization strategies that balanced performance, dynamic content, and search visibility while helping shape future plans for migrating parts of the platform to Next.js.

Outcome

GuideConnect was an opportunity to build more than just a marketplace. It combined product thinking, scalable frontend engineering, and real-world user behavior to create a platform centered around authentic local experiences and flexible earning opportunities.