How Zerca Works: The Deck, the Map, and Why Plans Beat Profiles

Zerca is a simple bet: the fastest way to meet people is to do something together, so the app should optimize the doing, not the profiles, not the matching, not the chat. Here's how that plays out on screen.

The deck: plans as posters

Open Zerca and you get a deck of posters, each one a real plan happening near you. A sunrise run in Condado. Coffee in Viejo San Juan. Pickup basketball, a beach afternoon, trivia night. Each poster shows what, where, when, who's hosting and who's going. Flip through, and when one pulls you in, one tap asks to join. No infinite feed, no algorithmic engagement loop. The deck ends because plans near you are finite and that's honest.

The map: beacons, not pins

The same plans live as beacons on a live map of your city: see what's active near you right now or later this week, or drop your own beacon and watch people rally. For plans that require host approval, the map shows an approximate location until you're in; exact spots are for confirmed attendees.

Hosting: anyone, in minutes

Anyone can host. Pick an activity, a public place, a time, a group size; add a 9:16 photo if you want your poster to pop. You choose visibility: open to all, approval-required, or invite-only. Hosts set the tone, and Zerca's reputation system makes good hosting visible.

Check-ins: the show-up layer

Flakiness kills social apps, so Zerca measures showing up. When a plan goes live, the host's screen shows a rotating QR code; attendees scan it at the location (the app verifies you're actually nearby) and build a reliability record. Reliability badges show on profiles, and hosts can set minimum trust levels for their plans. Show up, and the app works better for you. More on the safety design here.

Chat that knows its place

Each plan gets a group chat for coordination. There's also a country-wide room where messages vanish after five minutes, a place to ask "who's out in Santurce?" without building yet another feed to doomscroll. Chat exists to make meetings happen, then get out of the way.

What Zerca deliberately isn't

No swiping on faces. No follower counts. No DM roulette with strangers. Public places only, small groups by default, bilingual (English/Spanish) from day one. We're launching in Puerto Rico first, then San Francisco; the waitlist is open.