CLocal

CLocal: your neighbourhood on video, plus deals you redeem at the till.

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Inspiration

Every UK high street has the same problem: the only "local discovery" apps left are review sites nobody trusts and directories nobody's updated in a year. CLocal is a video-first alternative built by people who actually live in the neighbourhood it launched in.

What it does

Real locals and creators post short videos of what's actually good nearby, right now. Businesses list a LocalGem, a real deal you redeem in person at the till, for free, and only pay a small commission when someone actually turns up. VIP members get in first: a 30-minute head start on every LocalGem before anyone else, plus early access to events, secret tastings, exclusive parties and member drops.

The problem

Local discovery online is broken in a specific way: it's either paid advertising dressed up as recommendations, or crowdsourced reviews that are years out of date and easy to fake. Meanwhile the businesses that actually make a neighbourhood worth living in, the independent cafe, the salon, the bookshop, have no cheap, honest way to say "here's something real, come try it" to the people two streets away.

What we built

  • A local video feed. Short videos from real creators and businesses in your area, not influencers flown in for a campaign.
  • LocalGems. Time-limited deals a business publishes for free and only pays commission on when a shopper actually redeems it at the till. No pay-to-play, no charge for nobody showing up.
  • Shop invites. Complimentary offers on the house from local businesses, open to every consumer, no subscription needed.
  • CLocal VIP (£11.99/month, 7-day free trial), billed through Google Play and powered end to end by RevenueCat: a 30-minute head start on every LocalGem before anyone else, early-bird access to local events, secret menu tastings, exclusive parties, member drops, and coins on every LocalGem redemption.
  • A creator program. Approved local creators post video, get gifted items to review from local businesses, and earn a real affiliate commission for every VIP signup they refer.
  • Business tools. Free and Premium tiers for local businesses to list, post video, and run LocalGem deals with no monthly fee for that feature alone.

How we built it

React Native (Expo) for the app, Supabase (Postgres, Auth, Edge Functions) for the backend, and RevenueCat for the entire subscription layer.

How RevenueCat is used

RevenueCat is the entire subscription layer for CLocal VIP. The client SDK (react-native-purchases) drives the native Google Play purchase flow, including the 7-day free trial. RevenueCat's webhook is the single source of truth server-side: it lands on a Supabase Edge Function which flips the subscriber's entitlement, records referral-attributed affiliate commission netted against what Google actually pays out (not the gross price the buyer sees), and handles refund clawback automatically so a creator is never paid out of money that got refunded. No entitlement state is ever trusted from the client.

Challenges we ran into

Making sure commission is only ever paid on money CLocal actually receives (net of Google's cut), and automatically clawed back on a refund, took real care to get right server-side rather than trusting anything the client reports.

What's next for CLocal

Real supply in the first launch city, then repeating the same playbook city by city. A "spend your coins" mechanic beyond the current earn-only loyalty balance. iOS, once the Android launch is proven out.

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