Circles

Inspiration

When I moved to a new area, weekends and after-work hours often felt isolating. I wanted to meet people to talk to or spend time with, but finding someone nearby who was genuinely open to connecting—and shared my interests—was surprisingly difficult.

What it does

Circles helps people discover nearby individuals and communities through shared interests. By combining proximity, age preferences, and interests, it makes it easier to find people you could genuinely connect with in the moment.

Users can explore profiles, join or create interest-based circles, chat with individuals or groups, and use Travel Pass to explore and plan circles in a location they intend to visit.

How we built it

I began by shaping the idea and user experience with ChatGPT, then used Codex to help turn the concept into a complete application. Together, we built the React Native frontend, FastAPI backend, PostgreSQL/PostGIS location features, Docker-based setup, demo data, and the user flows needed for discovery, circles, messaging, and travel planning.

Challenges we ran into

The biggest initial challenge was translating the product vision, design, and interaction flow from my mind into clear implementation requirements. Iterating on the experience helped refine the product into something closer to what I imagined. We also worked through location-based discovery, realistic demo data, Docker reproducibility, and a mobile-first interface.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

• Built a complete, demo-ready mobile social discovery product from idea to deployment-ready code.
• Created nearby profile discovery with interest and age filters.
• Added interest-based circles, group conversations, individual messaging, and message requests.
• Implemented Travel Pass, allowing users to explore and plan connections in places they plan to visit.
• Made the project reproducible with a Docker-based setup and seeded demo data.

What we learned

Turning an idea into a product takes time, care, and iteration. Great experiences are rarely built in one attempt; every round of feedback and refinement makes the product clearer, more useful, and more human.

What’s next for Circles

This is only the beginning. I want to launch Circles as a product people can use every day to form real local connections.

Smartphones have made it easier to communicate, but they can also leave people feeling alone. Circles is built to make meeting like-minded people feel natural again—helping people move from scrolling alone to sharing real experiences, conversations, and communities.

Built With

• chatgpt
• codex
• fastapi
• openai
• openstreetmap
• postgresql
• react-native
• redis