Grounds

How might we use social media to create physical community?

RoleFounder, Product Designer
TimelineOct 2025 – Present
Built withReact Native, Supabase
Landing pagegroundsusa.com →
Grounds marketing website showing the platform interface
Grounds marketing website — groundsusa.com

Now more than ever, local community networks serve crucial roles in helping people find belonging and a voice in shaping the world they want to see. Grounds is a mobile platform designed to better engage people in their local community spaces. I started this project in a design class for my masters, but it has since grown into a startup I am working on piloting.

I started this project with the intention of addressing the problem of eroding physical community in the US. Americans spend nearly 150 more hours alone per year than they did two decades ago, and only sixteen percent report feeling very attached to their local community.

Inspired by growing digital community platforms like Reddit and Discord, I started exploring how we could borrow ideas from these successful platforms to build supportive, in-person social networks.

Theories around digital public infrastructure from thought leaders like Ethan Zuckerman describe three features of effective digital communities that I wanted to prioritize:

Small-scale — the most vibrant communities form around shared places and interests, not city-wide networks.
Decentralized— communities thrive when they own their own space and aren't subject to a central algorithm.
Self-governing — the people in a community should set its norms, moderation, and direction.

I started by interviewing those working to build local community resources and support systems — municipal staff, librarians, nonprofit leaders, and local business owners.

After getting feedback on a few proof-of-concept product ideas, I settled on Grounds, a platform that gives third space businesses a "digital home" designed to build stronger member bases. These spaces could be your local coffeeshop, library, or art space that holds gatherings. I built the first version of this product over the course of the first months of 2026.

Check out the marketing website for Grounds! If you would like to hear more about this work please reach out — it has become quite a passion of mine.

The first version of the app is built around three core flows.

01

Getting started

Grounds introduces the ethos upfront — communities, not a feed.

02

Participating in a community

Each community space gets a digital home page — an interactive bulletin board.

03

Discovering what's nearby

Browse public events happening across all the spaces nearby.