Why We Built Hotspot

It started with a Google Doc. A friend of mine — a food photographer with 200k followers — had spent three years living in Paris. She knew every hidden wine bar, every bakery that didn't have a sign, every courtyard restaurant that didn't take reservations.

People would DM her constantly. "Where did you eat in the 11th?" "What's that cafe you posted?" "Can you send me your Paris list?" She'd spend hours every week copying and pasting the same addresses into DMs. For free.

One day she told me: "I've basically written a guidebook. But I can't charge for it because there's nowhere to sell it." That's when it clicked.

The creator economy has tools for selling courses, ebooks, presets, and templates. But there was nothing for selling curated local knowledge — the kind of knowledge that takes years to build and gets ruined the moment it hits a "Top 10" listicle.

Hotspot exists because we believe curation is a skill. Your taste is an asset. And the people who trust you should be able to pay you for it — not with likes, but with money.

We kept it deliberately simple. No bookings. No affiliate links. No algorithm. Just a map, your pins, your price. Someone pays once, they get lifetime access to your spots with all the insider notes you've written.

We're not trying to be the next Tripadvisor. We're building the Gumroad of travel. A tool so simple that any creator can go from "I know great spots" to "I sell great spots" in under ten minutes.

If that resonates with you, we'd love to have you. Start creating your first map — it's free to set up, and you only pay when you earn.