27 Pearls - Life Skills and College Wisdom App
An app that turns the book 27 Pearls of College Wisdom into goals students finish each week, with a reward they choose for every ten. Each part of college life, from enrolment to professors, classes and leaving college, becomes a short list of concrete goals a student swipes off when done. Built in React Native and Expo on a NestJS, GraphQL and MongoDB backend, across four contracts with one founder between 2022 and 2025.
Md Moniruzzaman
The Full Story
From a book students read once to goals they finish every week, and a founder who kept coming back.
Advice that does not survive the first week
Starting college means managing a timetable, professors, classes and a future career alone for the first time. The book behind 27 Pearls, written by a college professor and former careers counsellor, holds hard-won advice for exactly that, but advice read once in the summer rarely survives the first busy week of term.
The author wanted the book to live where students already are, on their phones, and to turn its lessons into things they do rather than things they remember reading.
Every part of college life becomes a goal
The app breaks college into the areas the book covers, enrolment and schedule, professors, classes, resume builders and leaving college, and fills each one with small, concrete goals: meet your advisor, register for next semester's classes, create your online accounts for jobs. A student swipes a goal right when it is done, and a filter shows what is finished in each area.
For the student a vague worry about college becomes a short list for this week. For the author it is the book's advice arriving at the moment it is useful, on a phone or a tablet.
A reward the student chooses, every ten goals
Habits need a reason to keep going, so every ten completed goals unlock a reward the student picked for themselves: going out to dinner, a film, a walk. Students write their own list, pin the one they want most to the top, and swipe it off once they have taken it.
The loop is small on purpose. It brings students back to the app week after week, which is what the author needed for the book to keep teaching long after the last page.
Released for iPhone and Android from one codebase
The app was built once in React Native with Expo and released for iPhone and Android, on a NestJS, GraphQL and MongoDB backend with Twilio verification and SendGrid email. One codebase kept the author's costs down across every later contract, because each improvement reached both platforms together.
It is on Google Play today, with the iPhone version returning, and the release itself is told in the store submission story.
Four contracts, one founder
The first contract won the work by adding value beyond the brief, and the founder came back three more times between 2022 and 2025 to extend the app. A repeat client is the review that cannot be faked: in the founder's words, the work gave them "much more than we ever dreamed of", and the next project was already being planned.
A book that keeps teaching
For students, 27 Pearls is a coach in their pocket for the hardest transition of their early lives, with a list for this week and a reward at the end of it. For the author, it turned a book into a product that reaches students every week and can grow with new areas and goals. For the founder, it proved a partner who delivers more than was asked, contract after contract.
What they said
Monir it's a pleasure to work with! He has extremely punctual, completes projects, fully, and at a high-level, and he is very professional. We will certainly be hiring him again!
Jun 11, 2024
(5.0)Monir is a real professional. We will be hiring him again in the future. It was a pleasure working with him!
Oct 19, 2023
(5.0)Unbelievably amazing app developer! Being a researcher by trade, I had sifted through hundreds of potential developers when my previous ones went into other fields. He wowed us from the beginning--not only did he demonstrate he could do what he wanted, the value added aspect of his proposal was something we couldn't possibly turn down. And we were not disappointed. To the contrary. Monir gave us much more than we ever dreamed of. Incredible integrity, excellent English, and a work ethic that would be hard to match. We will be hiring him again for a premium version of our app, as well as for other apps we envision for the future. Thank you, Monir, for a truly professional and pleasurable experience!
Apr 27, 2023
(5.0)Above and beyond! Monir wowed our team even from the beginning in the interview process. He did an outstanding job for us and was very patient. He made recommendations that really enhanced the app--all custom and from scratch. Great communicator and constant availability. We will not hesitate to hire him again, and we are already planning our next project with him. Thank you, Monir!
Feb 24, 2023
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The blog is field notes from production: architecture decisions, AI systems that survived contact with real users, and infrastructure that pays for itself. Written from the work, not about it.