Why
NIL—short for name, image, and likeness—allows college athletes to earn through sponsorships, endorsements, and other brand partnerships. Yet these deals often begin in direct messages, then fragment across spreadsheets, emails, and informal agreements. Athletes need a clear way to present their value, while local brands need a practical way to discover talent and manage each opportunity.
What
NILINK is a two-sided NIL marketplace where college athletes showcase their audience, interests, and partnership offers, while brands discover relevant athletes and manage collaborations in one place. It replaces fragmented outreach and deal tracking with a shared workflow from discovery through completion.
How
The platform uses Next.js and TypeScript for the athlete and brand experiences, Supabase for authentication and data storage, SWR for current marketplace activity, and Vitest to protect critical access and deal-state transitions.
My role
I worked on the athlete & brand interfaces with authentication and role-based authorization, protected API flows, and developed explore, campaign, application, offer, and deal-management experiences and workflows.
Requirements
We worked backward from the business and legal requirements of NIL partnerships to technology. Eligibility, contracts, deliverables, and so on were translated into product roles and clear actions for each side.
Collaboration
We combined product, technical, and domain expertise. I contributed to the product design and technical architecture, while other team members focused on the database, project management and legal compliance.