Helping cities flourish by restoring community.

We build for the people, communities, and businesses that make a city feel alive, starting with koinē, the app that gets you off the group chat and out the door.

free · iPhone · iOS 17+

01/What we build

Three sides of a city, back on speaking terms.

People, communities, and businesses, the same neighbourhood, finally on one signal.

People

The friends you keep meaning to see.

The neighbours and moments around you, made easy to say yes to. That’s koinē, our first app, already live.

coffee this week?
Communities

The groups that gather us.

Run clubs, book clubs, congregations, and crews, everything the people who gather others need to do it well.

tuesday run club
Businesses

The places we love.

The cafés, studios, and shops where a city actually happens, reaching the neighbourhood around them.

the café with the good light
02/How koinē works

Say it like a text.

koinē turns “thai + a walk thursday, my book club?” into a real plan, the when, the where, the who. No group thread. No herding. No one left on read.

download on theApp Storetry koinē free · iPhone · iOS 17+

And here’s the app that does it.

Out now on the App Store, free on iPhone.

  • Creating a hang in koinē: add a cover photo, name it, then set when, where, and who, with stops along the route.

    Plan it in seconds

  • A koinē poll for “Taco tuesday?” with seven going, and the group voting between Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Thursday is leading.

    Find a time that works

  • A locked-in koinē plan for a wine tasting at The Barrel Room, showing the time, the place, a map for getting there, and who is coming.

    Everything in one place

  • The koinē invite a guest opens: who invited you, five friends already in, the time and place, and one tap to add it to your calendar or get directions.

    You’re invited

  • The koinē home screen listing every plan the group has made: a wine tasting tomorrow, then poker night, Friday dinner, a morning trail run, and karaoke.

    Your whole week

  • The koinē activity feed showing who voted, who joined, and who RSVP’d across the group’s plans.

    Never miss a plan

download on theApp Storefree · iPhone · iOS 17+
hyperlocal's four founders — Stephen Joel, Joel Vandervalk, Valiant Chan, and Hadi Ekaputra — in a downtown Vancouver lobby
BC Tech · 2026
Startup of the Year finalist
03/In the press
“We believe society has incredible digital infrastructure, but very little social infrastructure.”
As told to Techcouver, July 2026.
read the story
04/What we believe
No feed. No algorithm. Nothing built to keep you scrolling.

We build for belonging, not for attention.

We start on a few blocks in Vancouver, earn trust, and grow only when it’s real, because a city should feel known, not optimised.

05/The vision

Turn one of the loneliest cities in North America into one that feels like home.

A small-town feeling with big-city perks, where you feel known and everything a great city offers is still close by. We start in Vancouver, then wherever asks.

Help a city feel like home again.

For the investors, press, and partners who believe a city can feel like home again.