Startup Profile
CitySeek

Introduce yourselves

Tell us in three sentences who you are

CitySeek is a social city exploration platform that connects people with local places, culture, and one another through interactive walking games, stories, events, and rewards from neighbourhood businesses. It gives residents, newcomers, and visitors welcoming ways to explore, share experiences, and develop a sense of belonging. We began developing the idea roughly a year and a half ago, and CitySeek has been active in Darmstadt since around April 2026.

How did the idea come about, and what challenges did you have to overcome?

The idea grew from an observation that stayed with us: living in a city does not automatically mean feeling part of it. Someone can be surrounded by people, events, and interesting places while still struggling to find their way into local life. 

In other words, being surrounded by people does not automatically create a sense of belonging. A newcomer can arrive in a city full of culture and activity yet struggle to find somewhere to go, someone to meet, or a comfortable way to join in. Meanwhile, the people creating local life often struggle to reach an audience beyond their existing circles.

We wanted to bring those two sides closer together through discovery and shared experiences. As we developed CitySeek, conversations with residents, artists, and organisers helped broaden the concept from city exploration into a platform for participating in local life.

The challenge has been building both the technology and the relationships behind it. Through our CityLab pop-up, cultural activities, and community gatherings, we have hosted more than 30 events and welcomed around 700 people. Those encounters have helped us understand what makes an experience inviting, and what gives people a reason to return.

How does CitySeek work, and how does AI support this project?

People open CitySeek in their mobile browser and choose how they want to engage with the city. They can explore through walking games, unlock stories and audio guides at real locations, solve challenges, and collect coins redeemable for offers at participating businesses. Our city calendar brings local activities into one place, and anyone can contribute their own events—from a small community gathering to a concert or workshop. We also offer custom exploration experiences for groups and institutions.

AI supports this through an LLM-supported, human-verified hybrid system. It assists with organising researched information, developing narrative structures, and preparing multilingual content, while people remain responsible for factual checks, local context, and editorial quality.

We are also developing AI support grounded in verified local records, with the aim of helping people find relevant places and experiences through information that reflects the city around them.

Who writes the stories? Where do the historical facts and local anecdotes for the stops come from?

Our team develops and edits the stories through the hybrid editorial process. Historical information comes from sources such as municipal history resources, museum publications, official landmark information, and relevant cultural institutions. Darmstadt Marketing also supported the review of our initial beta content.

We look for details that make a place memorable: an unexpected former use of a building, a cultural connection, or a historical event whose traces are still visible today. The challenge is to give those details context and make them engaging when someone is standing at the location.

We distinguish documented history from local lore and interpretation, and examine conflicting references carefully. Our aim is to leave people with both a trustworthy account and a reason to look more closely.

What’s next? Which cities do you plan to bring CitySeek to next?

Our next step is to strengthen the Darmstadt experience while preparing to bring the concept to Frankfurt. Beyond that, our planned direction is the wider Rhine-Main region and Hesse, followed by further expansion in Germany.

In Darmstadt, we are focusing on connecting our exploration games, city calendar, local partners, and community activities more closely. We also want more residents, artists, venues, and organisers to contribute their own events and become active participants in the platform.

Entering a new city means building local relationships alongside the digital experience. Each destination should reflect its own neighbourhoods, stories, and cultural life, giving people something distinctive to discover and join.

Let’s take a look into the future: Where might the project be in five years?

In five years, we would like CitySeek to be an established way to discover and participate in everyday life across multiple cities. A student arriving for their first semester, someone relocating for work, and a long-term resident looking for a new experience could each find a useful starting point.

We envision a platform where local knowledge, community contributions, and thoughtful AI support make it easier to find experiences suited to someone’s interests. Universities, cultural institutions, businesses, and community groups could use CitySeek to welcome people and bring them together.

Our ambition is to help people build lasting connections with a place. Success would mean that someone who arrived knowing nobody has found activities they enjoy, places they return to, and familiar faces along the way.

What’s the biggest point of discussion within your team?

The question that best captures our priorities is how to grow sustainably while preserving what makes CitySeek valuable locally.

Exploration games, events, storytelling, and rewards reinforce one another, but they also create many possible directions for the product. We regularly have to decide where to focus: which improvement will make the first experience easier, help an organiser reach people, or encourage someone to participate again?

That also shapes how we think about expansion and our business model. We want to build a company that can support itself while keeping participation accessible and offering tangible value to local partners. The discussion is about turning that principle into clear, practical choices.

How do you respond to your biggest critics?

A fair challenge to our idea is whether a digital platform can help people form meaningful connections. We take that seriously because it goes to the heart of CitySeek’s purpose.

Our response is to create opportunities people can experience for themselves: a walk that encourages discovery, a calendar that makes a local event easier to find, or a gathering where a shared interest offers a natural starting point for conversation. Hosting more than 30 community events has given us opportunities to put that approach into practice and learn directly from participants.

We respond to concerns about AI and historical accuracy through human editorial responsibility, careful sourcing, and a willingness to correct mistakes. Trust grows through consistent experiences and how we handle feedback. We want to earn it each time someone explores, contributes, or joins us.