The phased plan
From a curated weekend shoot to a multi-city trust marketplace.
Four phases, each with one job and one metric gate that unlocks the next. Gates are liquidity & safety conditions — never calendar dates. We don’t advance on time, and we don’t spend ahead of density. The North Star throughout: Verified Completed Shoots per Active User per Month.
Beta
Host-curated IRL · late July 2026◀ You are hereBarbara runs ~2 curated SF shoots a week, 5+ people each, and the app is literally the ticket in — event registration, a stupid-fast location-only profile, and exactly two confirmation pings. Prove people come back before spending a dollar on the native app or the heavy safety floor.
Metric gate to unlock next
The retention test
After 40–50 people have participated in Barbara’s IRL beta, measure retention — do they come back / use it on their own? YES → build the native app + open the marketplace (start the V1 floor). NO → diagnose & fix in the cheap web prototype first.
The hinge of the whole plan. No native app and no open-marketplace safety spend until this gate passes. The beta’s metric is repeat real-world participation — not app-opens.
Headline features
P0 · 10- P0F-B01Stupid-fast signup (location-only)S
- P0F-B02Instagram-connect -> embed 4 recent postsM
- P0F-B03No-handle / no-link-out IG embed (comms stay in-app)S
- P0F-B0648-hour pre-shoot confirm pingS
- P0F-B07Day-of 'I'm on my way' promptS
- P0F-B04Event registration / 'ticket-in' to curated IRL shootsM
- P0F-B11Host-curated event creation (Barbara posts the shoot)M
- P0F-O-RETGATE40-50-participant retention measurement gateS
- P0F-B12Web prototype shell (ticket + fast profile + 2 pings)M
- P0F-B10Beta waiver / ToS-lite + in-person safety briefS
V1
Open-marketplace MVP · Bay AreaThe moment Snupix opens beyond Barbara’s curated events to strangers matching strangers: ship the full trust-loop MVP and manufacture the first 20–30 Verified completed shoots by hand. The full P0 trust & safety floor returns and is launch-blocking.
Metric gate to unlock next
The loop closes safely
≥20 Verified completed shoots AND no-show rate trending below 1-in-5 (<20%) AND zero serious safety incidents AND ≥5 organic (un-concierged) Briefs posted.
Proves the loop closes without a human hand on every shoot (organic Briefs) and that the core wedge metric — no-show rate — actually moved. V1 creates the North Star numerator for the first time.
Headline features
P0 · 40- P0F-028Real 18+ age gate (facial age estimation, not a checkbox)L
- P0F-029CSAM detection + NCMEC reporting pipelineL
- P0F-030NSFW classification + no-nudity policy (enforced at upload)M
- P0F-031UGC moderation suite (filter-before-post, report, block, published contact)L
- P0F-032Durable bans (device/identity-based, survive re-registration)M
+ 8 more P0 in Safety
- P0F-009Event / shoot posting (the Shoot board)L
- P0F-013Applicant approval (organizer approves before reveal)M
- P0F-014Location hidden until approvalM
- P0F-01572-hour Reconfirmation (mutual re-confirm)L
- P0F-018Shoot-day 'I'm on the way' check-inM
+ 4 more P0 in Shoot
- P0F-036Mobile-first native app (iOS first; Android per store status)L
- P0F-I-HOSTPhoto-hosting boundary (host moderated display images, external delivered galleries)S
- P0F-I-IDVID/age-verification vendor integration (Incode or Yoti+Persona)L
- P0F-I-IMGPIPEFail-closed image-moderation pipeline (NSFW + PhotoDNA + Thorn/Hive)L
- P0F-I-RENDERReel/share-card render service (reuse REEL/social-spread)M
+ 1 more P0 in Infra
- P0F-001Role-typed profiles (photographer / model)M
- P0F-002Portfolio upload -- 6 optimal / 10 max curated photosM
- P0F-004<=30-min onboarding ('simpler than Instagram')M
- P0F-O-ANALYTICSMinimum analytics / event instrumentation + North StarM
- P0F-O-MODOPSModeration triage workflow + auto-restrictM
- P0F-O-NCMECNCMEC ESP registration + CSAM auto-report opsM
- P0F-006Swipe-style matching ('match to collaborate')L
- P0F-008Radius / Bay-Area-local discoveryM
- P0F-037Push notifications & async re-engagement (full system)M
- P0F-F-MSGFull in-app messaging layer (beyond Beta's contained comms)L
- P0F-010Structured Brief (the shoot spec, hybrid-prescriptive)L
- P0F-026Exportable branded share card (short video / Reel)L
V2
Snupix+ moat deepenersTurn the hand-manufactured loop into a self-reinforcing one. Give Reconfirmation visible teeth (the reliability ledger), upgrade thumbs-up into delivery reputation, add consent/release depth — then reach atomic density in one cluster via the weekend-event engine.
Metric gate to unlock next
Is the metro liquid?
8–15 open Briefs visible at all times AND ≥30 active photographers AND ≥30% of new signups via share-card / referral AND North Star positive and rising on its own.
Delivery reputation, the decaying ledger, and consent depth are the moat no competitor owns — availability filters are only parity with Inpose. This is the proof one cluster is genuinely dense before adding any role or any monetization.
Headline features
P1 · 10- P1F-106Consent / boundary checklistM
- P1F-108Posting consent checkboxS
- P1F-109S3344 / right-of-publicity takedown flow (2-business-day SLA)M
- P1F-S-LIVELive-location share to trusted contact (opt-in)M
- P1F-103Reliability ledger (no-show/late-cancel tags, 90-day decay, replacement flow)L
- P1F-104On-time-delivery + collaboration-specific reputation (structured tags)M
- P1F-105Completed-shoot verification status objectM
- P1F-101Availability-first discoveryM
- P1F-102'Available this weekend' filterS
- P1F-107TFP release / usage-rights template (user-to-user)M
Later
Crew → payments → multi-cityWiden the shoot with typed Crew slots (MUA / stylist), monetize the dense metro cheapest-first (freemium → paid collabs → brand access), then re-run the cold-start in LA as a fresh atomic network and codify the launch kit. Money is downstream of density, never ahead of it.
Metric gate to unlock next
Proven, paying, repeatable
SF self-sustaining ≥4–8 weeks without manual event-hosting AND positive event unit economics AND ≥1 paying cohort → then LA reaches its own liquidity gate on the codified kit with materially less manual effort, while SF stays healthy.
You don’t replicate a metro you can’t run without manual labor, and you don’t export an unmonetized model. The second metro’s job is to prove the kit is repeatable — the precondition for the template thesis.
Headline features
P2 · 8- P2F-404Optional background check (Garbo-style)M
- P2F-405AB 1043 device age-signal ingestionM
- P2F-406OpenAge / reusable age-credential integrationM
- P2F-407In-app video chat before meetingM
- P2F-408Safety Center content pageS
+ 2 more P2 in Safety
- P2F-411Photographer-host / event tooling (campus-rep analog)L
The iron rule:premature geo expansion is the #1 marketplace killer; premature monetization is #2. Barbara’s late-July beta is the live validation sprint — the 40–50-person retention test is the real go/no-go for the expensive open-marketplace & native build. The trust/safety floor only ever moves earlier, never later.