Founders Rise Miami
One owned platform in place of four disconnected tools. Events, newsletters, resources, and member data run in a single system for Miami’s tactical immersion series for emerging minority and female founders, on a portable React and PHP 8 architecture.
Founders Rise Miami helps new women and minority founders learn and grow. Before, their events, newsletter, and blog lived in four different tools. That split up their data and made every update a chore. We built one website that does it all, with an easy area to run workshops and sign-ups. Now every signup lands in one place they own.
A Platform Spread Across Four Vendors
Community organizations end up scattered across Eventbrite for events, Substack for newsletters, Notion for resources, and WordPress for blogs. Member data lives in four different dashboards, the brand looks different on every surface, and a single content update means logging into four tools.
One Codebase, Two Runtimes
A modern React 19 + tRPC SPA backed by Express, alongside a parallel zero-build PHP 8 codebase that mirrors every page, model, and admin CRUD operation server-side. Same database schema. Same admin experience. The platform is deployable to a Node runtime or a vanilla PHP host without changing a line of feature code.
What We Delivered
One Platform for the Community
Workshop registration, newsletter signups, member onboarding, and volunteer applications all flow into one in-house database with full data ownership.
11-Model Admin CMS
Password-guarded dashboard with full CRUD on workshops, speaking logs, blog posts, press releases, team profiles, and volunteer applications.
Portable by Design
Dialect-agnostic Drizzle ORM swaps SQLite (dev) for MySQL (prod). The PHP twin runs on any vanilla PHP 8 host with no build step or Node runtime required.
Iridescent HUD & Bespoke Engineering
Iridescent HUD Interface
Cool-gray canvas (#ecebe9), Clash Display geometric headlines, holographic-chrome gradients, corner-bracket HUD frames, and asymmetric squircle photo masks.
Dual-Stack Codebase
React 19 SPA served by Express via tRPC procedures, plus a standalone PHP 8 mirror under /php that requires no build step or Node runtime.
Self-Healing Data Layer
Drizzle ORM auto-switches between SQLite and MySQL with automated DDL migrations. The PHP PDO wrapper handles table creation and seeding on boot. No migration scripts to run.
Hardened Admin
Bespoke /admin CMS with database-backed session tokens, scrypt password hashing, and local JWT sessions across 11 content models.
Services Used
Tech Stack
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Founders Rise Miami case study about?
Founders Rise Miami is a self-contained community platform Aday Interactive, Inc. designed and engineered for a tactical immersion series that supports emerging minority and female founders in Miami. It replaced four separate vendors for events, newsletters, resources, and blogging with one platform the organization owns. Workshop registration, newsletter signups, member onboarding, and volunteer applications all flow into a single in-house database.
Why did Founders Rise Miami need a custom platform instead of off-the-shelf tools?
Their events, newsletter, resources, and blog were spread across four different vendors, which split their member data across four dashboards and made every content update a chore. A custom platform pulled all of that into one codebase with a consistent brand and full data ownership. The organization now manages everything from one admin dashboard instead of logging into four separate tools.
What technology stack powers the Founders Rise Miami platform?
The platform runs on a dual-stack architecture: a React 19 and tRPC single-page app backed by Express, plus a parallel PHP 8 mirror that reproduces every page, model, and admin operation server-side. Both share the same database schema and the same admin experience. The tech stack includes React 19, Vite 7, TypeScript, tRPC 11, Drizzle ORM, SQLite, MySQL, Tailwind CSS v4, and Radix UI.
Why build both a React app and a PHP 8 mirror?
The dual-stack approach makes the platform portable, so it can deploy to a Node runtime or a vanilla PHP 8 host without changing a line of feature code. The Drizzle ORM is dialect-agnostic and swaps SQLite for development and MySQL for production, while the PHP twin runs on any standard PHP 8 host with no build step. That gives the community a platform they can host almost anywhere they choose.
How is the Founders Rise Miami admin secured?
The bespoke admin CMS uses database-backed session tokens, scrypt password hashing, and local JWT sessions across 11 content models. It offers full create, read, update, and delete control over workshops, speaking logs, blog posts, press releases, team profiles, and volunteer applications. The dashboard is password-guarded so only the organization can manage its content.
Can Aday Interactive, Inc. build a platform like this for my community?
Yes. Aday Interactive, Inc. builds custom community and membership platforms that consolidate events, newsletters, resources, and member data into one system the client owns. Each build is designed around how your community actually operates, with an admin dashboard, a secure data layer, and a portable architecture. You can request a consultation to talk through your needs.