Desi.Co

Inspiration

Indian street food in the US gets flattened into one category. Chaat in Delhi tastes nothing like vada pav in Mumbai or kathi rolls in Kolkata, but you'd never know that from the menus here. Reddit and Twitter are full of people missing the real thing. Menya Hanabi and Auntea Jenny pushed me toward something hyperlocal instead of another generic food app.

What it does

Desi.Co is a rotating Indian street food truck. The menu changes by region, so one day it's Mumbai, the next it's Hyderabad. Every dish you order earns you a collectible card tied to that city, designed like a Pokémon card with the story, spice level, and regional context. Over time, your cards fill out a map of India you've eaten your way through.

How we built it

Solo build. Figma for the core prototype, Figma Make for early exploration, Smart Animate for the carousel and card interactions. Used Claude, Gemini, and ChatGPT to sharpen the concept, pressure test the brand, and draft card copy.

Challenges we ran into

The rotating carousel didn't work in Figma Make. Cards wouldn't track with the swipe properly, so I rebuilt it natively with Smart Animate. Scoping was the other one. Originally tried to fit the map view, collection canvas, locked states, filtering, and ordering into one demo. Cutting it down to just the ordering and collecting flow was harder than building it.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The brand and card system. The cards feel like objects you'd actually want to collect, not just menu items. The concept also held its shape from first sketch to final prototype, which doesn't always happen on a tight timeline.

What we learned

The strongest brand ideas aren't the broadest, they're the most specific. "Indian food app" is forgettable. "Rotating regional street food truck where you collect cards from each city" is something you remember and tell a friend about. The concept got sharper the more specific it got. Working solo also forces every tradeoff to happen out loud. Every "should I build this" had to be answered against the rubric, not against perfectionism.

What's next for Desi.Co

Printable physical cards, since the real ritual is walking away with something in your hand. Building out the map and collection canvas with locked and unlocked states. A real world pilot with Indian chefs or pop up vendors testing the rotating region format. Deeper card stories covering the people and neighborhoods behind each dish. AR stamp scanning to unlock the story or chef behind a card.

Built With

• figma