Niawu

Niawu is an event discovery and ticketing platform focused on Afro-cultural experiences. People can explore events, follow other users, and join free or paid experiences. Organizers can create in-person, online, or hybrid events, issue tickets, and scan them at entry.

Events, places, and local initiatives can be discovered too late. The client wanted to connect people with relevant experiences and give local businesses and organizers a way to bring their events to an audience.

The project began as a wider social network with messaging and profile features. As it grew, maintaining the FlutterFlow version became difficult, and the client's priorities shifted toward events. Rebuilding around event discovery and ticketing also meant handling paid tickets securely across mobile and web.

As the sole full-time developer from 2024 to mid-2026, I rebuilt the iOS and Android apps with Expo and the web app with Next.js in a monorepo. I implemented organizer onboarding, event creation, discovery, ticketing, check-in scanning, and integrations with Supabase, Stripe, and Resend.

Organizers can create free events; after Stripe identity verification and payout setup, they can offer paid tickets. Attendees can find events, join free events, or buy paid tickets through Stripe, including guest checkout by email. Tickets are delivered as PDFs by email and can be scanned by organizers. Events can be in person, online, or hybrid. An installment option splits paid tickets into two to six payments, with the balance due before the event.

Event discovery across categories including education, dance, nightlife, entertainment, and arts and culture; organizer-created events; free and paid tickets; guest checkout; ticket PDFs and email receipts; ticket scanning; online, in-person, and hybrid events; following and event-specific posts; installment payments.

A monorepo houses the Expo mobile apps and Next.js web app. Supabase provides the database and Edge Functions for payment operations. Stripe handles paid ticket payments and organizer verification, while Resend is used for ticket email delivery.

As of October 2026, Niawu had more than 50 events on the platform, approximately 100 tickets sold, and 450 registered users. The active user count was estimated at around 300.

Niawu taught me to keep the technology aligned with the product as it changes. When the original FlutterFlow project grew difficult to manage and the focus shifted from a broad social app to events, I rebuilt it with Expo and Next.js. As the sole developer, I had to make the mobile and web experiences work together while giving particular care to payments, ticket delivery, and check-in. The biggest lesson was to build for the product people need now while leaving room for it to evolve.