It started with a group chat. My friends and I were trying to decide where to eat — something we did every week — and as usual nobody could agree. An hour of suggestions, vetoes, and "I don't care you pick" later we ordered pizza alone at home. Again. I couldn't believe there wasn't already an app for this. The problem is universal. Everyone has that group chat. Everyone has been the person who finally just picks something and hopes nobody complains. It felt like exactly the kind of friction that software should eliminate. So I built Forkasm. The core concept was simple from the start — swipe on restaurants like you swipe on anything else, but do it simultaneously with your group so the decision is collective and nobody has to be the one who chose wrong. The match moment was always the centerpiece. That's the payoff. That's where the argument ends. What I didn't anticipate was how much the problem expanded the deeper I got into it. Groups have dietary restrictions. People care about whether a place is actually open right now. Some want to walk, some want to drive. The filter system grew from a basic radius selector into something that genuinely accounts for the complexity of real groups of real people with real constraints. The social layer surprised me too. Once people started using it in sessions together, the natural next step was friends lists, lobby chat, session history. The app evolved from a decision tool into something closer to a dining social network — still centered on that one core moment of everyone agreeing, but richer around the edges. Launching on both iOS and Android simultaneously as a solo developer was the hardest part. Two codebases, two store submissions, two sets of platform requirements. There were moments where I seriously considered iOS only just to ship faster. I'm glad I didn't — the Android user base is too large and too underserved by food apps to leave on the table. The thing I'm most proud of is the match moment itself. The confetti, the haptics, the shared reaction when everyone's phone goes off at the same time — it's a small thing but it's genuinely joyful. That's what I wanted Forkasm to feel like. Not just useful. Actually fun. Yeah, everybody would eat that. 🍴

Spare Atoms LLC — Forkasm

End the "where do you want to eat" debate forever.

End the "where do you want to eat" debate forever.