Vyne: Bringing Neighborhood Creators to Neighborhood Businesses
Validated a hyperlocal creator marketplace through 50 owner interviews, shipped a working swipe-to-match prototype, and built the pitch now being taken to an incubator.
A hyperlocal marketplace connecting neighborhood businesses with local micro-creators within a 15-mile radius, built end to end and pitched alongside a co-founder (Aditya Soni).
Problem
Local businesses had no way to find the neighborhood creators their own customers already trusted, and creators with real local reach had no path to local paid work, both stuck on Instagram DMs, paper lists, and ad tools priced for national brands.
Approach
Ran 50 customer discovery interviews to confirm the problem before building anything, then designed a geofenced swipe-to-match product with a real two-sided data model, positioning it against enterprise creator platforms that ignore small, local business entirely.
Solution
Shipped a working prototype end to end (swipe, match, chat), confirmed the pain point across every business category interviewed, and packaged the validated model into a pitch for incubator backing.
Success Metrics
50
business owners interviewed across Boston
Accepted
into Innovate@BU incubator
Live
preliminary app launched
User onboarding
Case Study Details