FindTribe
Build living maps for temporal events
Turning Chaos Into Connection
Get lost in the moment, not the crowd
The bass drops. The crowd surges. And suddenly, your best friend vanishes into a sea of 100,000 dancing bodies at Coachella. Sound familiar?
In that moment, existing solutions fall short. You frantically send "Where are you?" texts and your friend replies "I'm by the main stage"—but when 10,000 people are packed around that stage, that information is virtually useless. You're still searching for a needle in a haystack. You drop pins that show nothing but empty desert on generic maps. Meanwhile, you desperately need to find a bathroom, but have no idea which ones actually have supplies or short lines. You need to find charging stations to keep your phone powered throughout the long event day. Your friend twisted their ankle, but where's medical help in this sprawling venue?
You spend the next hour wandering past identical food trucks and merchandise booths, missing the artists you came to see, your festival magic dissolving into frustration and genuine concern for your group's safety and wellbeing. And when the event finally ends? You face another nightmare: finding your car in a sea of thousands of vehicles in a temporary dirt parking lot, or locating your campsite among endless rows of identical tents and RVs that all looked so distinctive when you arrived but now blend into an overwhelming maze.
This scenario plays out millions of times each year across America's live events landscape. At music festivals drawing half a million attendees. At marathons where families desperately try to reconnect after cheering at different mile markers. At sporting events where parents lose track of teenagers in massive parking lot tailgates. The irony is profound: we're more connected than ever, yet we've never felt more lost when it matters most.
FindTribe exists to solve this fundamental disconnect between digital connectivity and real-world navigation in crowded spaces. I'm building technology that keeps your loved ones connected and helps everyone navigate complex events safely and efficiently—ensuring you can get lost in the moment, not in the crowd.
The Vision: Your Digital Compass for Real-World Adventure
Imagine arriving at your next festival powered with something that feels like having a local guide in your pocket. You open FindTribe and immediately see an interactive map that makes the sprawling venue feel manageable. First thing you do? Mark where you parked in that vast temporary lot or record your campsite location among thousands of tents and RVs—because finding your way back after a long day (or night) of festivities is just as important as navigating the event itself. But this isn't just any map—it shows you real-time information that generic GPS apps can't provide. Which bathrooms actually have supplies and short lines? Where are the medical tents if someone in your group needs help? Where's Will Call, and what's the fastest route there that avoids the crowds? And crucially—where exactly did you park in that massive temporary lot, or which section contains your campsite among thousands of nearly identical tents and RVs?
Most powerfully, FindTribe creates "tribal awareness"—the ability to see your people on the map in real-time. Your festival crew appears as dots moving through the venue landscape. Your family members show up as they spread across the marathon route. Parents can keep track of teenagers while still giving them independence to explore. Friends can coordinate meetups with pinpoint precision, without the need to describe where they are—no more "I'm by the thing near the other thing" confusion.
But FindTribe goes deeper than just keeping track of your own group. When someone loses their phone, keys, or wallet, the entire event community can help through as awesome lost and found feature. When a child goes missing, an amber alert system notifies everyone at the event to be on the lookout, turning thousands of individual attendees into a coordinated search network.
Event organizers can communicate directly with attendees in real-time—whether it's announcing a stage change, warning about severe weather, or directing crowds away from overcrowded areas for safety. This isn't just convenience—it's transformation of how events operate and how people experience them.
The Hidden Intelligence: Data That Changes Everything
While attendees see a simple, intuitive app, FindTribe is generating unprecedented insights for event organizers. FindTribe's heat maps reveal exactly how people move through events—data that has never been available before. Organizers can see which pathways get congested, which vendor areas are underperforming due to poor foot traffic, and where bottlenecks form before they become dangerous.
This intelligence transforms event planning from guesswork to science. Why is the merchandise tent near Stage 3 selling poorly while the identical tent near Stage 1 sells out? The heat map shows Stage 3's location creates a dead zone for foot traffic. How can organizers improve crowd flow to reduce dangerous crushing near popular food vendors? FindTribe's movement analytics suggest optimal placement and timing solutions.
Perhaps most powerfully, this data enables dynamic revenue optimization. When organizers see through FindTribe's analytics that a particular food vendor has excess inventory and declining foot traffic, they can instantly push targeted promotions to users in nearby areas: "Craft tacos 50% off for the next 30 minutes—you're only 100 yards away!" This helps vendors clear inventory, provides value to attendees, and generates additional revenue for everyone involved.
The result is events that feel more organized, safer, and more enjoyable for attendees, while becoming more profitable and manageable for organizers.
The Market Reality: 32 Million People Seeking Better Experiences
The numbers tell a staggering story. Over 32 million Americans attend at least one music festival each year. Major marathons like New York City draw 51,000 runners and two million spectators spread across five boroughs. Events like EDC Las Vegas pack 525,000 attendees into a temporary city that springs up in the desert for one weekend.
These aren't just statistics—they're communities of people who consistently face the same fundamental challenges. Getting separated from their groups. Struggling to navigate unfamiliar, crowded spaces. Missing important information from organizers. Needing help in emergencies but not knowing where to find it.
Yet the tools available to these millions of event-goers remain stubbornly basic. Paper maps that can't tell you which bathroom has the shortest line. Generic GPS apps that show blank fields instead of detailed venue layouts with real-time information. Location-sharing tools designed for everyday use, not optimized for the specific needs of large, temporary event spaces where precision and context matter most.
The business opportunity is equally compelling. Event organizers spend enormous sums trying to manage crowds, communicate with attendees, and optimize vendor performance—often with limited data and inefficient tools. They're hungry for technology that can help them create better experiences while generating more revenue and ensuring attendee safety.
The Technology: Intelligence Behind Simplicity
Behind FindTribe's seemingly simple interface lies sophisticated technology designed specifically for the unique requirements of live events. The system creates detailed venue maps that show not just locations, but real-time status information: which bathrooms are available, which food vendors have the shortest lines, where charging stations are located throughout the venue.
FindTribe's location-sharing technology is optimized for event environments and built for reliability and efficiency. I've designed every aspect of the system to work seamlessly when people need it most, ensuring that your connection to your tribe remains strong throughout the event.
This is not yet available, but soon the lost and found feature will use AI-powered matching to connect lost items with their owners through photo recognition and description analysis. When someone reports a lost black backpack with red stripes, and someone else uploads a photo of a found backpack matching that description, the system flags the potential match for both users.
Most critically, FindTribe's amber alert system for lost children creates an instant network effect, turning every FindTribe user at an event into a potential helper. Event organizers can immediately broadcast that a child is missing, along with a photo and description, to every app user at the venue.
The Safety Revolution: Community-Powered Protection
FindTribe transforms event safety from a top-down security operation into a community-powered protection network. When someone needs medical help, they can instantly see the nearest medical tent and get walking directions, while also alerting their group to their situation. When a child goes missing, hundreds or thousands of fellow attendees immediately become aware and can help search.
Event organizers gain unprecedented visibility into crowd dynamics, allowing them to prevent dangerous situations before they develop. They can see through FindTribe's heat maps when an area is becoming dangerously overcrowded and proactively redirect foot traffic or send additional security.
The real-time communication capability means organizers can instantly reach all attendees with critical safety information. Severe weather approaching? Everyone gets the alert simultaneously. Stage collapse at one venue? Immediate evacuation instructions can be sent to users in that specific area while keeping the rest of the event informed but calm.
The Business Intelligence: From Intuition to Analytics
For the first time, event organizers have access to granular data about how their events actually function. FindTribe's analytics reveal which vendors are thriving and which are struggling, not through sales reports that come days later, but through real-time foot traffic and engagement metrics.
This intelligence enables dynamic optimization during the event itself. If data shows that a particular food vendor in a high-traffic area is somehow underperforming, organizers can investigate immediately—perhaps there's a signage problem or a service issue that can be fixed before the vendor loses a full day of sales.
The promotional capabilities turn this data into immediate action. Vendors with excess inventory can reach nearby customers with targeted offers. New vendors can build awareness by offering special deals to users who haven't visited them yet. Organizers can drive attendance to underutilized areas of the venue by highlighting special activities or temporary promotions happening there.
Over time, this data helps organizers improve their events year over year. Heat maps from this year's festival show exactly how to optimize vendor placement and pathway design for next year's event. Understanding why certain areas consistently underperform allows organizers to redesign layouts or programming to better utilize their entire venue.
The Strategy: Solving Real Problems, Creating Real Value
FindTribe will succeed because it solves genuine problems that millions of people face at every large event. I'm not trying to change behavior or create new social dynamics—I'm making existing behaviors work better. People already try to stay connected with their groups at events; FindTribe makes that dramatically easier. Event organizers already want to communicate with attendees and understand crowd flow; FindTribe provides the tools they've been missing.
FindTribe's approach focuses on immediate, tangible value. The first time someone uses FindTribe to quickly locate their lost friend, or find a clean bathroom when they desperately need one, or help reunite a lost child with their parents, the value becomes undeniable.
For event organizers, the value proposition is equally clear: better attendee experience, improved safety, more efficient operations, and new revenue opportunities. When an organizer can prevent a dangerous crowd crush because our heat maps showed the problem developing, or help a struggling vendor increase sales through targeted promotions, FindTribe becomes an essential operational tool rather than just another app.
The Future: Redefining How Events Work
While FindTribe starts with festivals and marathons, the vision extends to any scenario where groups need to coordinate in large, complex spaces. Theme parks, conferences, trade shows, state fairs, sporting events—anywhere that people gather in large numbers and face navigation challenges.
The technology also enables new kinds of event experiences. Organizers could create interactive treasure hunts where families search for digital tokens placed throughout the venue. They could offer augmented reality experiences tied to specific locations. They could provide personalized recommendations based on where users have been and what they've shown interest in.
More importantly, FindTribe could fundamentally change how events are designed and managed. When organizers have real-time data about crowd flow and behavior, they can create more efficient layouts, prevent problems before they occur, and continuously optimize the attendee experience.
The safety implications are particularly profound. As events continue to grow larger and more complex, technology-enabled crowd management and communication becomes essential for public safety. FindTribe provides infrastructure that could prevent tragedies while enabling the positive community experiences that make large events so special.
The Impact: Technology Serving Human Connection
At its core, FindTribe represents technology designed to enhance rather than replace human relationships and real-world experiences. I'm not trying to get people to spend more time on their phones—I'm helping them spend less time worrying about logistics and more time enjoying shared experiences with the people they care about.
The safety and community features transform events from collections of strangers into temporary communities where people look out for each other. When everyone at a festival becomes part of the search network for a lost child, when people share real-time updates about which vendors have the best food, when friends can always find each other no matter how large the crowd—events become more connected, safer, and more enjoyable for everyone.
For event organizers, FindTribe provides the intelligence needed to create better experiences while operating more efficiently and safely. This benefits everyone: happier attendees return to future events and spend more money, vendors see increased sales, and organizers can focus on programming and experience rather than constant crisis management.
The Challenge: Building for Chaos
Creating technology that works reliably in the dynamic conditions of live events presents unique design considerations. Users are often in high-stress, high-excitement states where their patience for complex interfaces is minimal, and events involve large crowds moving through temporary spaces with constantly changing conditions.
FindTribe's success depends on building systems robust enough to function when other technology fails, while remaining so simple that someone can use them effectively while exhausted, slightly drunk, or panicked about a missing family member.
I also need to solve complex privacy and safety considerations. Location sharing is an inherently delicate affair—people understand the value but feel natural trepidation about sharing their whereabouts.
I've designed FindTribe's system to be exceptionally protective, enabling location sharing only among loved ones that users explicitly approve. Users maintain complete control over who sees what and when, with the ability to granularly adjust privacy settings at any moment or turn off sharing entirely.
But how do I demonstrate that FindTribe is fundamentally different from other apps that have mishandled location data in the past? How do I provide valuable analytics to organizers without compromising individual privacy?
Another significant challenge is connectivity. Many events suffer from poor cell service due to network congestion, which frustrates attendees and limits the effectiveness of any mobile solution. To address that, I've established relationships with major COW (Cell-on-Wheels) providers to help address connectivity issues when needed. This means FindTribe doesn't just solve navigation and safety problems—we're also helping event organizers ensure their attendees maintain the connection they expect, addressing one of the most common complaints at large events.
These challenges require not just technical solutions but careful community building and user education. I need to establish trust and demonstrate clear value before asking people to change their event-going habits, while also showing that FindTribe treats their personal data with the respect and protection it deserves.
The Transformation: Making Every Event Better
FindTribe isn't just solving today's problems—I'm building infrastructure for a fundamentally better way of experiencing large events. When attendees can navigate confidently, stay connected safely, and contribute to their community's wellbeing, events become more than entertainment—they become models for how technology can enhance human cooperation and care.
The data and insights FindTribe generates help organizers create more efficient, safer, and more enjoyable experiences. The community features turn anonymous crowds into caring networks. The real-time communication capabilities ensure that important information reaches everyone who needs it.
Most importantly, by solving the practical problems that currently cause stress and danger at events, FindTribe frees people to focus on what they came for: connecting with friends, discovering new experiences, and creating memories that last long after the event ends.
The future of live events is more connected, more intelligent, and more humane. I'm building it, one tribe at a time.
In a world where digital connection often replaces physical presence, FindTribe uses technology to enhance real-world community and safety, proving that the most powerful innovations don't replace human experience—they amplify it.
