SentinelStory

Real-time alerts when disinformation targets your beat

Score: 7.9/10BJHard BuildReady to Spawn
Brand Colors

The Opportunity

Problem

West African journalists are overwhelmed by AI-powered disinformation that erodes public trust and threatens social cohesion.

Solution

SentinelStory monitors social platforms, WhatsApp trends, and local news for emerging disinformation campaigns. Journalists receive personalized mobile alerts with context about narratives affecting their coverage areas. Community contributions from verified journalists improve detection accuracy across the network.

Target Audience

West African journalists and media professionals covering sensitive political and social topics

Differentiator

Real-time collective intelligence network of West African journalists combined with AI pattern recognition trained specifically on regional disinformation tactics.

Brand Voice

professional

Features

Personalized Alerts

must-have40h

Push notifications when campaigns match your selected beats

Campaign Visualizer

must-have55h

Interactive map and timeline showing disinformation spread

Community Verification

must-have45h

Journalists can mark items as true/false with evidence

Beat Monitoring

must-have35h

Track specific topics, politicians, or regions

Daily Brief

must-have30h

Morning summary of active campaigns relevant to you

Network Graph

must-have50h

Visualize how narratives spread across platforms

Exportable Intelligence Reports

nice-to-have25h

Professional PDF summaries for editors

Anonymous Contribution Mode

nice-to-have20h

Contribute tips without revealing identity

Historical Campaign Archive

nice-to-have35h

Searchable database of past operations

Total Build Time: 335 hours

Database Schema

users

ColumnTypeNullable
iduuidNo
emailtextNo
beatstextNo
regionstextNo
reputation_scoreintNo
created_attimestampNo

Relationships:

  • alerts references users(id)
  • subscriptions references users(id)

campaigns

ColumnTypeNullable
iduuidNo
titletextNo
narrativetextNo
severityintNo
first_detectedtimestampNo
statustextNo

Relationships:

  • verifications references campaigns(id)

alerts

ColumnTypeNullable
iduuidNo
user_iduuidNo
campaign_iduuidNo
messagetextNo
readboolNo
created_attimestampNo

Relationships:

  • user_id references users(id)
  • campaign_id references campaigns(id)

verifications

ColumnTypeNullable
iduuidNo
campaign_iduuidNo
user_iduuidNo
verdicttextNo
evidencetextYes
created_attimestampNo

Relationships:

  • campaign_id references campaigns(id)

API Endpoints

GET
/api/alerts

Fetch unread alerts for user

🔒 Auth Required
GET
/api/campaigns

Retrieve active campaigns with filtering

🔒 Auth Required
POST
/api/contribute

Submit new sighting or verification

🔒 Auth Required
POST
/api/webhooks/social

Ingest data from social listening pipelines

🔒 Auth Required

Tech Stack

Frontend
React Native with Expo
Backend
Node.js with Express
Database
PostgreSQL
Auth
Supabase Auth
Payments
Paystack
Hosting
Railway + Supabase + App Stores
Additional Tools
Pusher for realtimeBullMQ for background jobsLangChain for narrative detection

Build Timeline

Week 1: Core setup and auth

40h
  • React Native + backend skeleton
  • Database schema
  • Authentication

Week 2: Campaign detection engine

55h
  • Basic ML classification
  • Campaign CRUD API
  • Admin dashboard

Week 3: Alerting system

45h
  • Push notification service
  • Personalization logic
  • Realtime updates

Week 4: Community features

50h
  • Verification workflow
  • Reputation system
  • Contribution UI

Week 5: Visualization and briefs

50h
  • Network graph component
  • Daily brief generator
  • Map view

Week 6: Payments and polish

40h
  • Paystack integration
  • Testing with real data
  • UI refinements

Week 7: Beta and iteration

35h
  • Beta program with 60 journalists
  • Feedback incorporation

Week 8: Launch and monitoring

30h
  • App store launch
  • Analytics setup
  • Documentation
Total Timeline: 8 weeks • 345 hours

Pricing Tiers

Observer

$0/mo

5 alerts/week

  • Limited alerts
  • Public campaigns only

Sentinel

$25/mo

None

  • Unlimited personalized alerts
  • Full campaign visualizer
  • Community contribution
  • Daily brief

Bureau

$120/mo

Up to 8 seats

  • Everything in Sentinel
  • Team access
  • API access
  • Custom beat monitoring
  • Priority support

Revenue Projections

MonthUsersConversionMRRARR
Month 122011%$605$7,260
Month 61,85019%$8,812$105,744

Unit Economics

$18
CAC
$235
LTV
4%
Churn
78%
Margin
LTV:CAC Ratio: 13.1xExcellent!

Landing Page Copy

Never get surprised by a disinformation campaign again

Real-time alerts and collective intelligence from West Africa's sharpest journalists. Stay ahead of the narrative.

Feature Highlights

Beat-specific intelligence
Community-powered verification
Visual campaign maps
Daily disinformation brief

Social Proof (Placeholders)

"'I received an alert 14 hours before the fake audio went viral. We were ready.' — Mariam Traoré, Mali Independent"
"'The network effect is real. This is how we fight back together.' — Editorial Director, The Lagos Times"

First Three Customers

Seed with respected investigative reporters from Joy FM, Premium Times, and RFI Afrique by offering lifetime Sentinel tier for early contributions. Leverage existing relationships in West African fact-checking networks like Dubawa and Africa Check. Host a virtual launch event with key media leaders to drive initial adoption.

Launch Channels

Product HuntTwitter #AfricaJournalismDubawa networkWhatsApp media groupsAfrica Check community

SEO Keywords

disinformation alerts africareal time fake news monitoringjournalist alert system west africatrack disinformation campaigns nigeriamedia monitoring tool ghana

Competitive Analysis

Graphika

graphika.com
Enterprise
Strength

Excellent network analysis

Weakness

Too expensive and not built for individual journalists

Our Advantage

Affordable, mobile-first, and built by and for West African reporters

Bloomberg Terminal

bloomberg.com
Very expensive
Strength

Real-time data

Weakness

No focus on disinformation or African markets

Our Advantage

Purpose-built for disinformation defense at a fraction of the cost

🏰 Moat Strategy

Network effects from verified journalist contributors creating a proprietary, constantly updated map of disinformation actors and methods in the region.

⏰ Why Now?

Coordinated disinformation campaigns have become industrialized across West Africa while social platforms have reduced moderation efforts, creating a perfect storm for specialized monitoring tools.

Risks & Mitigation

markethigh severity

Difficulty acquiring critical mass for network effects

Mitigation

Seed with influential journalists and offer strong individual value even at low network size

executionmedium severity

High volume of false positives in alerts

Mitigation

Continuous tuning with journalist feedback loop and adjustable sensitivity

legalmedium severity

Accusations of censorship or bias

Mitigation

Transparent methodology, open sourcing detection rules where possible

Validation Roadmap

pre-build10 days

Survey and interview 30 journalists on alert preferences

Success: Clear demand for real-time alerts and 70% would pay

mvp35 days

Run 4-week beta with seeded campaigns

Success: 40% of users engage with alerts weekly

launch45 days

Launch with partner media organizations

Success: $2,500 MRR within 45 days

Pivot Options

  • Government early warning system
  • Corporate reputation protection tool
  • Full social listening platform

Quick Stats

Build Time
345h
Target MRR (6 mo)
$9,000
Market Size
$18.2M
Features
9
Database Tables
4
API Endpoints
4