Why I built it
YFN is a network of more than 2,000 young founders, run by about 130 volunteers. I joined in June 2024 to be around people who think like me and are just as ambitious. I started in the tech team, and building the platform became my way of giving something back.
What I built
Since December 2024 I’ve built almost everything the member platform has today, from mentoring and benefits to scheduling and the marketplace. 1,549 of its 2,170 commits are mine. In June 2026 I took over YBudget, a small budget tool, renamed it YBase and turned it into the internal management tool our association runs on.
The hard part
The hardest part was taking over YBase. Joel had written most of it, so I first had to understand code I hadn’t written, cut it down and move it to a new database before I could build on it. Today it’s where we find new volunteers, bring them on board and handle their reimbursements.
What I learned
In a volunteer team, rules only work if the tools enforce them, because nobody has time to remember every convention.
Results
In September 2026 the platform had 4,091 accounts and 1,972 accepted members, and 109 of our roughly 130 volunteers were active in YBase. Across the member platform, the website and YBase I’ve written more than 3,000 commits.