The plan — version 1

Students life in Italy

One app connecting international students with real jobs in Italy — and keeping them inside the legal work-hour rules while they earn.

110,000+ International students in Italy in 2025, growing roughly 10% a year since 2022 — and almost none of them have a real tool for finding work and staying compliant while they do it.
+10%/yr

growth in international enrollment at Italian universities every year since 2022 — a market that keeps refilling itself.

Top 5

most-searched study-abroad destination worldwide in 2025, with the biggest search surges from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Egypt.

60 / 90

Italian universities now teach in English — a steadily growing pipeline of new arrivals, not a one-time wave.

Every one of these students needs income while they study, and almost none of them have an easy way to find work, know what they're legally allowed to work, or make sense of the paperwork. That gap is the business.

European students make up 44% of that population, with Romania as the single largest source country. African enrollment is growing fastest — up 53% since 2015 — a group that tends to need part-time income more, not less.

Students life in Italy Students Find work, stay compliant Employers Post jobs, hire safely Admin panel Run the business Website Get discovered

One app, four connected parts

What each piece does

The details behind every branch of the map above.

Students

The people using the app to find work

Browse open jobs

Hospitality, retail, and food service jobs in the launch city. Free to look — no membership needed to browse.

Apply in the app

Send an application straight to the employer. No separate paperwork to find a job.

Track work hours

Non-EU student visas cap work at 20 hours a week and 1,040 hours a year, combined across every job a student has — not per employer. The app logs hours, including jobs found outside the app, against that cap.

Get warned before hitting the limit

An alert appears as a student nears their weekly or yearly cap, so nobody goes over by accident. Going over risks their residence permit, not just the job.

Understand the paperwork

Plain-language explanations of official work permit and financial aid requirements, organized in one place — the app explains what's required, it doesn't file anything on a student's behalf.

Get extra help if needed

An optional paid support tier for students who want more hand-holding through their paperwork.

needs a legal check before launch
A few euros a month. Browsing jobs and basic hour tracking are free — the paid tier unlocks alerts, saved searches, and paperwork support.

Employers

Businesses hiring students

Post jobs for free

No cost to list a job right now. The goal is enough listings that students have a real reason to join.

Reach a ready pool of students

Direct access to students actively looking for part-time work in hospitality, retail, and food service.

Hire someone whose hours are already tracked

Because the app tracks each student's legal work-hour cap, an employer hiring through it is hiring someone whose compliance is already handled — lower risk than hiring blind.

See hours left, not just a résumé

An employer can see how many hours a student has left this week before scheduling them — useful for planning shifts around a legal limit instead of guessing.

Free for now, paid later

Once there's real volume on both sides, a paid employer tier is the plan — not before.

Admin panel

Only the founder sees this

Total users

How many students and how many employers are on the app, and how fast that number is growing.

Revenue and expenses

Membership income coming in, costs going out, and the profit in between.

Activity reports

Jobs posted, applications sent, active users — a real picture of how much is happening on the app.

Spot the trend early

See whether growth is coming from students or from employers, and catch a slowdown on either side before it becomes a problem.

One dashboard, no spreadsheets

Everything above lives in one place instead of scattered files.

Website

How people find out the app exists

A landing page, not a second app

The website's only job is to get found in search and get people to install the app. Every real feature — jobs, tracking, payments — lives inside the app itself.

Built for how people actually search now

Classic SEO, so it shows up on Google when someone searches for student jobs in the launch city, or in Italy generally. And GEO, so it shows up when someone asks ChatGPT or another AI assistant the same question — increasingly how students search first.

Can grow later

If web-based signup or browsing is ever worth adding, that's a future step — not part of version 1.

Why people keep using it

Most job apps lose you the moment you're hired. This one doesn't.

A typical job app

Student finds a job. Student stops opening the app.

Students life in Italy

Student finds a job — then keeps coming back every week to log hours, stay under their legal cap, and get warned before they risk their permit.

How a student actually moves through it

One path, five steps, and a built-in reason to come back every week.

1. Sees the app

Finds it through the website or a friend. Install takes seconds, browsing is free.

2. Applies for a job

Scans local listings in hospitality, retail, or food service, and applies in a couple of taps.

3. Gets hired, starts logging hours

Every shift gets logged against the 20-hour weekly, 1,040-hour yearly legal cap — including hours from any other job.

4. Gets warned before the limit

An alert appears as the weekly or yearly cap gets close, so nothing goes over by accident.

5. Comes back every week

Hours reset weekly — the whole reason this isn't a one-time-use app. There's always a reason to open it again.

What it's built on

Under the hood, this runs on the same technology serious platforms use.

Backend
ASP.NET · NestJS · PostgreSQL

Enterprise-grade infrastructure built to handle real growth, not a weekend project.

Website
Next.js

The same framework powering some of the fastest, most search-friendly sites on the web.

Mobile app
React Native · iOS & Android

One premium app, one codebase, both app stores.

Internal tools
Electron desktop app

The admin panel runs as its own dedicated app, not just a browser tab.

Behind the scenes
Redis + BullMQ

Handles background work instantly, so nothing ever feels slow.

Hosting
Private VPS

Full control over performance, security, and cost — no vendor lock-in.

Hosted on one VPS Website Next.js Mobile app React Native · iOS & Android Desktop admin app Electron Backend ASP.NET + NestJS PostgreSQL Database Redis + BullMQ Background jobs

One backend, every app talks to it

How it works in steps

Every app, one shared brain behind them.

1. Someone opens the app

Whether it's the website, the mobile app, or the internal admin app, it's talking to the same system behind the scenes.

2. The app asks the backend

One shared backend handles every request, so every app always sees the same, up-to-date information.

3. The backend checks the database

Real data — users, jobs, hours, payments — lives in one place, always accurate.

4. Anything slow happens in the background

Redis and BullMQ handle heavier tasks quietly, so the app in front of the user never feels stuck.

5. The answer comes back instantly

All of this happens on our own private server, fully under our control.

How it makes money

Free where it needs to be free to grow, priced where people will already pay.

Now — launch

Get both sides on the app

  • Employers post jobs for free
  • Students pay a few euros a month for tracking, alerts, and support
Later — once volume is real

Charge for what's proven

  • A paid employer tier built around hiring students whose hours are already tracked and compliant
  • Real risk reduction for a business, not just cheap labor