A hair salon in Crown Heights
Alan walked into a tiny salon on Nostrand Avenue on a Tuesday. The owner — a woman named Marisol who had cut hair on that block for 19 years — slipped a bouquet into his hands as he was leaving. 'For your sister,' she said. 'You mentioned it last time.' He hadn't mentioned it. He had whispered it once, six months earlier, about her wedding. That moment became the brief: build the technology that lets every neighborhood operate at the level Marisol does on instinct.
"For your sister. You mentioned it last time." — Marisol, Nostrand Avenue, 2024.
First 12 merchants, first 200 celebrators
We launched in a four-block radius in Brooklyn. Twelve merchants. Two hundred celebrators. No marketing budget. Within ninety days, three of those merchants told us the same thing: 'I'm seeing the same faces twice. They walk in for a birthday and come back the next Friday for dinner.' The flywheel was the recognition itself, not the offer.
Two cities. 240 merchants. Counting.
Today, New York and Miami are live. 240 merchants. Over 24,000 celebrators. We open one city at a time, with hand-picked merchants, because the moment DASH becomes another marketplace it loses what makes it DASH. Chicago and LA in Q3. London in 2027.
The team
Previously: head of growth at a community-loyalty startup acquired by a national grocer. Brooklyn native. Believes the difference between a transaction and a relationship is whether anyone remembered your name.
LinkedIn →Built recommendation systems at two companies you've heard of. Left to work on something that doesn't optimize for time-on-screen. Runs the AI team and the Bowery Bloom florist on weekends.
LinkedIn →Spent a decade designing for hospitality brands across NY, Tokyo, and Mexico City. Treats every screen like a host stand.
LinkedIn →Restaurant operator turned product partner. Onboards every merchant personally for the first ninety days. Knows your seating chart before you do.
LinkedIn →What we believe
The neighborhood is not a market segment. It is the product. We open cities slowly because trust scales linearly, not exponentially.
The discount industry trained merchants to grovel and customers to wait. We are building the opposite: recognition as the default, generosity as the medium.
The best moments on DASH happen without a phone in anyone's hand. We're building toward a product you forget you signed up for, that quietly makes your block warmer.
Independent merchants made our cities worth living in. We exist to keep them open. Every product decision routes through that filter.
Want in?
Two ways to join the celebration: as a celebrator, or as one of us.