Crowdy

Our story

We started with a simple idea: help Singaporeans avoid crowds by crowdsourcing real-time data about how busy places are. But we quickly discovered the fatal flaw in traditional crowdsourcing - you need lots of people consistently reporting everywhere for it to work. While this might succeed at popular spots like Orchard Road, your neighbourhood clinic or hawker stall would likely have no data when you need it most. So we pivoted: instead of focusing solely on crowd data, we built a "Reddit on a map" where users can ask for any real-time location intelligence when they actually need it - from crowd levels to store closures to unexpected sales - ensuring every question has someone who cares about the answer.

Opportunity

Every day, Singaporeans make decisions about where to go without knowing what to expect when they arrive. Is that popular hawker centre packed with a 20-minute queue, or can I grab a quick lunch? Is the clinic busy or can I walk in? Did that shop close early today, or is there a surprise sale happening? This information gap leads to wasted time, frustration, and poor planning for both individuals and businesses. What we learned this month is that existing crowdsourcing solutions fail because they require massive participation everywhere to be useful - but most locations simply don't have enough regular visitors to sustain consistent reporting. This creates a vicious cycle where apps become unreliable, users stop contributing, and the problem persists. Solving this matters because better location intelligence - whether about crowds, closures, or unexpected events - can improve daily life for millions while helping businesses and agencies plan resources more effectively.

Velocity

In just one month, we built a working platform from the ground up. Users can now search for any location in Singapore, create discussion threads about current conditions, post comments, and receive in-app notifications when there's activity. We implemented essential safety features including automatic thread expiration to keep information fresh and content moderation for titles and comments to maintain quality discussions. The core user flows are fully functional and testable, using traditional upvoting and downvoting mechanics that users are familiar with. Key gaps remain around integrating system data (like official opening hours or transport updates) with our crowdsourced information - this hybrid approach is part of our long-term plan to provide reliable baseline information even when community activity is low.

Traction

While we haven't launched publicly yet, early signs are promising. During internal testing and demos, people immediately understood the concept and started imagining how they'd use it - checking if their favourite bubble tea shop has a queue, confirming if a store is actually open, or discovering impromptu promotions. The real test comes next: will people actually help each other by sharing real-time location updates? Our upcoming user trials will show whether Singaporeans are ready to build a community around sharing local intelligence together. The goal remains the same: Provide more geo-based and relevant intelligence for Singaporeans to make smarter decisions about when and where to go.