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Faruq + Amina · Aug 29, 2026
Faruq thesis
Heat is a privacy-first social heatmap that bets on location-based discovery by leveraging user-generated venue scores without invasive tracking.
Next moves
- Implement a robust scoring system for venues that encourages user participation and ensures data integrity. - A reliable scoring system is crucial for Heat's core value proposition of providing accurate and real-time venue scores.
- Ensure strict privacy controls and transparency in data handling to build user trust. - Privacy is a key differentiator for Heat.
Watch
- User-generated scores may be biased or manipulated, undermining the credibility of the heatmap. - If users perceive the scores as unreliable, they may lose trust in Heat and seek alternatives that offer more certainty, such as apps with more traditional tracking methods.
Amina visual track · running
Use real product captures first; create hero stills, proof crops, and social/OG variants from Faruq's latest thesis and current-state evidence.
— Why it exists
Jaz had the idea. Simple version: you want to go out, you want to know who's there and what the energy is like, and nothing on your phone tells you that in real time.
Maps show you where places are. Reviews tell you what they were like last year. Social tells you where your friends were. None of that answers the question everyone actually asks before leaving the house: is this worth getting dressed for?
I joined because I understood the problem the second she described it. I'd moved cities, and I wanted to find the places that were actually alive on a given night - not the ones the algorithm told me were popular six months ago.
We've been building it ever since.
— How it's built
The real-time architecture
Everything on Heat moves in the moment. Hotspots, threads, conversations, crowd signal - all live, all now. Getting this to feel instant without draining a phone battery was the hardest engineering call.
The privacy layer
Heat shows you the vibe of a place, not where you are. That's an architectural decision about what we collect, what we share, and what we never know - not a privacy policy written after the fact.
The ephemerality
Everything on Heat is gone by 6am. Threads, hotspots, conversations. That's not a deletion job run on a schedule - it's how the product is structured. Nothing is built to persist.
The all-day positioning
Heat isn't a nightlife app. It's with you for the slow Tuesday coffee and the Friday that turns into Saturday. That shaped the app architecture - low-frequency and high-frequency usage in the same product.
— The lesson
“Building the audience before the app. Heat has 38 early signups tracked and nothing to install yet. The brand is the product until the stores approve us - and that turns out to be a better position than launching to silence.”