I tried to fix loneliness. I ended up building a Places API 200x cheaper than Google.

A couple of years ago, a friend came up with an idea that I still think is worth pursuing. Moving to a new city is hard. Not because of logistics — but because of the quiet. You have a great coffee shop downstairs, a pool table two blocks away, and zero people to share it with. Dating apps exist. Friend apps don't, not really. So the three of us built one. The pitch: open the app, see people nearby in cafes and bars who are openly up for a chat, a language exchange, a game of pool. No awkward matching, no swiping — just proximity and intent. A modern Foursquare, but for human connection instead of check-ins. We built it. We shipped it. And then we completely failed at marketing. The product worked. The growth didn't. Classic indie story. The technical leftover One thing stuck with me from that project: the data layer. Early on we used OpenStreetMap. It's incredible for what it is — but the POI data is inconsistent, incomplete in non-English speaking regions, an