GAGL - FLOCK TOGETHER

Visiting a new city or out with friends on a Friday night – what if you could instantly find the hot restaurants and bars near you??You know, the places people flock to because they are exceptional -- the ones with a great vibe, lively people, and superior service and products.?

It was a cold November night (circa 2016) and we had just checked into the Mayflower Hotel in Washington DC to attend a celebration event for my wife later that evening. We were hungry and wanted to grab something to eat before the event; something unique to DC, tasty/ethnic, and not a chain restaurant.

Not being too familiar with the area, I opened Google Maps and typed in “restaurants” and received a less-than-adequate selection of results including Subway Sandwiches, a juice place that was closed, a bunch of coffee shops, a Morton’s Steakhouse, and many other places that I had to individually click-on to see what they offered, how they were rated, and if they were still open. I have used both the Yelp and Open apps. Of the two, Open provides the ability to find a restaurant, but it may not be “the” restaurant and neither satisfy the desire to know where people flock to for a fun time.?Overall, it took about 30 mins of surfing nearby restaurants and I “gave-up” in despair and we settled on a generic/safe selection that was mediocre at best.

Disappointed, I thought, there has to be a better way. It’s a Friday night in Washington DC – the Nation’s Capital. Where is everyone hanging out? What are the hot spots? Where is a nearby trendy place? What dead-places I should avoid? I couldn’t tell from any of these apps. It was a guessing game and being cold-outside, we just couldn’t stroll around and check out different places, plus we were hungry. There had to be a better way.

I started to think about this problem since I knew it was not just me that faced this situation. I needed to create something I could use, others could use, that everyone could use. We’ve all been faced with arriving in a new city to find a bite to eat, discover a fun bar, or attend an event that we may not know about. Often, it requires using several apps where each has different types of coverage, but when you arrive, it may be overcrowded with a long wait time to enter or even under-crowed leading to a boring time. Google does a reasonable job tracking busy times for businesses, once you’ve selected them, but this information does not truly deliver what I’m seeking.

Most apps offer options to search, read, and review different venues often with static or outdated content. Many apps get diluted with “fake” reviews (good and bad) that don’t really reflect the nature of the establishment. ?And others require check-ins or likes to register their interest. I wanted something that showed me the ground-truth in real-time, was not biased, and could not be duped. I want to know where people flock to right now.

Essentially, I wanted a version of the app Waze that instead of showing you traffic jams or construction delays, could show the real-time activity of bars, restaurants, and public venues. Thus, the concept of GAGL [Generated Aggregates for Geospatial Locations] was born. Similar to the display below, I want to see the hot spots near me where people are flocking to and what places might be good options to visit.

GAGL would be a platform to find new/cool places and events based on where people actually visit. An app that presents trending gathering places in real-time using mobile device data and did not require any: check-ins, friends/mayors, likes/upvotes, or reviews. It would also support predictive models to forecast future activity to show what options might unfold later in time (hours, days, etc.) based on past (learned) behaviors.

Some initial thought went into naming this new venture and the result was a play on the English word GAGGLE: noun gag·gle \?ga-g?l\

• A gaggle is greater than or equal to five [geese]
• A group, aggregation, or cluster lacking organization
• An indefinite number
• A flock [of geese] when not in flight

GAGL was a perfect name. Simple. Short. Easy to remember. More importantly, the www.gagl.com URL was (and still is) available, but would require some up-front capital (~$30k) to purchase the domain. Additionally, some time was spent on creating a logo for GAGL, shown at the top of this article, consisting of a location-pin in the shape of a directed question mark.

The fundamentals for GAGL would be basic, intuitive, and useful:

• Real Time – show what is happening “right” now in a defined area on a map. This is similar to the Popular Times graph available on any business inside of Google Maps. It shows you the relative visitation each day of the week and whether the location is above or below normal activity. In GAGL this would be aggregated across all businesses in the selected graph.
• Anonymous - no need to check-in, like anything, or interact in any way to get value from the platform. Similar to Waze, you simply look at the map, perhaps filter on specific categories, and let the heat-maps guide you to the next venue.
• Filters - to customize the nature of the maps to include bars, restaurants, shops, salons, hardware stores, ice-cream stands, supermarkets, or any defined venue category. Simply turn on/off the desired categories and watch the map update as conditions change. Also, a “favorite” setting to keep watch on frequented venues.
• Predictive – based on past behaviors, weather, and other factors, the system would provide an estimate of the best time to visit (or not visit) a venue. It could provide options about where to go next Friday night to help you plan and coordinate the outing.
• Trending – often it takes time for a new venue to get some traction. As places become more mainstream, trending analytics can help emphasize their popularity by showing the increase (or decrease) over time.
• Alerts – allow users to monitor specific venues and provide feedback when certain density thresholds are met. Get to a venue before it gets too crowded, wait for it to get crowed, or wait for it to die down a bit.
• Crowd Sourced – all data is acquired from multiple sustainable sources representing all facets of society providing the most diverse and distributed content. GAGL app generated geospatial references would become a primary input once enough users were in place.
• Global – the use of the app works anywhere in the world. The framework applies to everyplace there are vendors selling goods/services to their customers. There are no specific conditions that would limit its use to only US geography.
• Incentives – under consideration was incorporating a similar incentive scheme like the GetUpside app where payment are made for visiting certain locations and purchasing their current offering.

I needed to consider revenue models to monetize the offering. It was during the early days of the Pokémon GO craze (released in the Summer of 2016) where the app would allow you to find, catch, train, and battle Pokémon. The app makes money ($6B) through the sale of PokéCoins, in-game advertising, and selling merchandise. Could this model also drive business to a certain location by offering access to rare or special Pokémon? How could I create something similar but with a different framework and user/clientele to make the system profitable?

A proprietor could initiate enticing the formation of a GAGL by offering certain concessions and issue “lures” to help attract customers. Lures could be discounts, freebees, or some type of incentive (e.g., 50% off orders, free drink, buy-one-get-one-free, no admission, etc.) with a defined lifespan such as 1 hour, until 5:00, or some other rate-adjusted/charged period. The user could lock in a lure (e.g., say 25 are issued) and would have a defined period of time to arrive (e.g., 30 mins) for it to be used. The lures could be purchased and configured to broadcast to a certain radius around an establishment, with different costs for different distances. Other revenue considerations for issuing lures could incorporate “surge” periods fees like Uber does during busy timeframes to help venues distinguish themselves from the competition.

By default, all venues are treated the same, however, one special option would be for venues to opt-out of GAGL and not have any activity broadcast regarding their location; optionally with a message. This could occur at specific times of the day like broadcast until 5:00 pm and then shutdown or stop broadcasting at last call. It would be important when private parties (e.g., corporate dinners, weddings, anniversary parties, etc.) are held at certain venues so they are not confused with normal operations.

Another dimension to revenue generation is for a venue to restrict views to only VIP users. A VIP user could pay for an upgraded account to gain access to exclusive GAGL venues only broadcast to VIP classified users. The VIP consumer would have more options than the standard user by seeing the activity at certain designated locations such as cigar lounges, speakeasies, or private clubs.

A few concerns when initially launching would have to be worked out. The first was to ensure that any private location, such as a personal residence, would be excluded from any calculations or density displays. Imagine a teenager having a party at his/her house while the parents are away, it could lead to disastrous results if it glowed-actively and more people kept showing up. In the same breath, it could also show what homes had no activity thereby becoming the target of a residential burglary. Net-net, personal residences and special types of locations would automatically be excluded from public view [could be subscribed via other secondary GAGL-services].

At the time the GAGL concept was being defined, the type of signals and data available were somewhat limited with respect to “vertical” geospatial references – specifically, what you’d expect in a city with tall buildings. So, if a restaurant was on the 5th floor and another was on the 3rd floor, having enough resolution to distinguish between them so their relative activities would be distinct. Over the past 6-7 years, the quality of mobile devices, Wi-Fi, and 4g/5g signals has greatly improved and elevation data has become much more precise and accurate.

Thinking beyond the primary usage the GAGL concept would apply to a number of secondary marketplaces too.

• Safe City related to LEA operations to assign resources, flows, patrol, and other public safety matters – first responder insights
• Achieve insights for city planners, transportation routes, zoning issues, and other public service allocations.
• Identify and coordinate the delivery of services to indigent populations that may congregate in certain public areas
• Parents or private venues (mentioned above) could also perform a density cluster on their property, when away, to see relative activity. Or use by security firms (warehouses) to monitor properties.
• UBER/LYFT – to know where to position/hangout to maximize offer or others to target/sell alternative items
• Fraud detection – volumes of patients at doctor’s office vs number of claims filed to help detect various fraud patterns.
• Banks Wall Street – looking at historical visitation activity and volumes of customers to predict quarterly earnings for a company.
• Marketing – see how campaigns worked – who, when, where, and what – replay activity and show flows.
• Better event management, TSA (security lines), or tourist spots
• Virus outbreaks (COVID) to identify larger concentrations of activity

To get an idea of what the GAGL interface might look like, the following screen-captures shows some examples from various systems. I wanted to keep clear of generalized amorphous heat maps that did not provide clear boundaries for which specific venue they were affiliated with. Different polygons, colors, labels, and visual formats would be researched to create the best combination (and most intuitive) types of displays and interactions.

GAGL Value to Users:

• Discover new venues (bars, restaurants, events)
• Be part of the action, when it’s happening
• Don’t waste time [traveling] to see if a place is hopping/dead
• Find venues for people with similar interests
• Avoid congested venues for quieter needs
• Plan outings based on predictive forecasts
• Form GAGLs by influencing others to attend
• Get notifications of new venues and activities

GAGL Value to Merchants:

• No subscription or membership fees
• Spend only as-needed or when-necessary
• Grow business with increased foot traffic
• Get discovered by new clients
• Exposure to a wider customer base
• Adjust offers based on hour, day, events
• Help understand competition, flows, & env.
• Use GAGL lures to influence customers and drive foot traffic

There are many applications for a GAGL-type of offering. The time spent researching data sources, systems, architectures, programs, and other facets prove the system is viable and would have a major impact in the consumer marketplace. My biggest hurdle was to overcome the “investment” needs of this platform, what the cap-tables should look like, and how to raise the money. I researched Y-Combinator and other funding sources, talked to lawyers, consulted with industry-experts, created revenue/expenditure models, and researched firms to help create the MVP application.

It was an all or nothing type of platform. At the time, it was several billions of records a day that would be acquired, collected, managed, and analyzed; it had to be “right” on day one. I was in new territory with respect to fund raising, figuring out how to manage a "really large" cloud deployment, overseeing security, user-accounts, and payment systems – plus, marketing a new platform.?It was manageable, but I would need to bring in other seasoned industry expertise to pull it all together.

Although GAGL never moved forward into implementation, it still remains a viable concept that could be brought into reality – and to-date, I’ve not yet seen a similar app offered in the marketplace. Hopefully, one day, I’ll be able to flock to a new venue and discover new places by seeing where other people hang out.

Although it’s been several years, if anyone wants to learn more or get additional information on GAGL, please feel free to reach out and contact me.