Propellus
AI-powered travel platform that personalizes your journey
#problem
Propellus is an AI travel platform that curates personalized journeys for each user, moving beyond standard search-and-book flows toward tailored recommendations. It addresses the problem of generic, one-size-fits-all travel planning by structuring user preferences and trip data so that itineraries can be adapted to the individual. The product spans a user-facing web application and a backend service that manages personalization, persistence, and the AI-driven recommendation logic.
#what-i-built
I architected the full Propellus platform end to end, owning the Next.js frontend, the Nest.js backend, the PostgreSQL data layer, and the AWS infrastructure.
I built the Next.js frontend that delivers the personalized travel experience and trip-planning interface to users.
I designed and implemented the Nest.js backend services and REST APIs that drive the AI personalization and recommendation logic.
I modeled the PostgreSQL schema for user preferences, trips, and itinerary data that underpins personalized journeys.
I deployed and operated the platform on AWS, setting up the cloud infrastructure and CI/CD pipeline for releases.
#stack
#outcome
Production AI travel platform live at propellus.co: end-to-end ownership across Next.js frontend, Nest.js backend, PostgreSQL data layer, and AWS infrastructure.
#key-decisions
Chose Nest.js for its modular, TypeScript-first architecture, keeping the AI personalization service cleanly separable from the API routing layer and independently testable.
Used PostgreSQL over a NoSQL store to model user preferences and itinerary data relationally, giving the personalization engine flexible querying without data consistency trade-offs.
Deployed on AWS with containerized services to support horizontal scaling as user volume grows rather than a fragile single-instance setup.
Isolated AI personalization logic in a dedicated backend service (not in the frontend) so future LLM provider swaps require no UI changes.
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