Field notes
Blog
Thoughts on curation, the creator economy, and building hotspot.
Read our long-form essays on Medium
What makes a map worth paying for: anatomy of a great pin
The difference between an address and a recommendation is everything around the address. A practical guide to curation that's worth money.
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We don't do affiliate links. Here's why
Affiliate links quietly decide most of the travel advice you read. Hotspot doesn't have any — because you can't serve the reader and the commission at the same time.
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Building Hotspot: why we started with payments, not features
The first thing we built wasn't the map editor. It was the boring machinery that makes sure creators actually get their money. Here's why.
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Why one-time purchase, not subscription
Everything is a subscription now. Your travel recommendations shouldn't be. Here's why Hotspot maps are pay once, keep forever.
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The Google Doc in bio: anatomy of a broken system
The link-in-bio Google Doc is the creator economy's most honest failure: proof that the demand is real, and that the tooling never showed up.
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AI killed the city guide (and that's fine)
Generic travel content is now infinite and worthless. What's left is the one thing a model can't generate: someone who was actually there.
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The hidden cost of free travel advice
Free travel content isn't free. You pay in hours of research, sponsored recommendations, and dinners you regret. The bill just arrives later.
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The "DM me for the address" economy
Scroll any travel TikTok and you'll find the same comment a hundred times: "address please??" An entire economy of valuable knowledge is being traded in DMs, for free.
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Zero users, full transparency: what we're building this summer
We have a product, a payment system, and approximately zero users. Here's exactly where Hotspot stands, and what we're building next.
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Overtourism is a curation problem
Everyone is going to the same ten places because everyone is reading the same free guides. The problem isn't too many travelers — it's too little curation.
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How to Price Your Travel Map
Too cheap and you leave money on the table. Too expensive and nobody buys. Here's the framework we recommend.
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The Creator Economy Needs Better Maps
Courses, ebooks, presets — creators can sell everything except the thing people ask them about most: where to go.
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Why We Built Hotspot
Every creator with taste is giving it away for free. We thought that was insane. So we built something about it.
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