About Pinvia

Built by a neighbor,
for the neighborhood.

Pinvia started with a simple frustration: it was too hard to see what was actually happening in the Castro tonight. So we built the thing we wished existed.

Our story

It started behind a bar.

Pinvia was started by Osvaldo Ruiz, a bartender at The Mix in San Francisco's Castro. Standing behind that bar, he saw something up close every night: neighborhoods like the Castro come alive because of the people and the businesses creating reasons to gather. A drag night here, a happy hour there, a room that suddenly fills up because word got around.

The problem was that word getting around was the only system. There was no single place to see what was on tonight, no easy way for a small venue to reach the people already out on the block. The big apps were built for planning next month or reviewing last week. Nothing was built for right now.

So we built Pinvia around a single idea: help you discover your neighborhood like an insider, in the moment you're actually deciding where to go.

Every business sits on a map we drew by hand, street by street, so the Castro on your phone looks and feels like the Castro you walk through. It is a small thing that turns out to matter. This is a neighborhood, not a directory.

We are a small, independent company building this one neighborhood at a time. We would rather earn a real place in a community than grow fast and mean nothing to anyone.

What we believe

A few things we hold to.

Present tense

Tonight beats someday

The best thing about a neighborhood is what is happening in it right now. We build for the moment you decide to go out, not the calendar you check next week.

Local first

One neighborhood at a time

We go deep before we go wide. A hand-drawn map, real relationships with local businesses, and a product that actually fits the place it is in.

On your side

Put money in local pockets

Local businesses are the reason any of this works. Our tools are built to bring them customers and revenue, not to charge them rent to exist online.

The team

A small team that treats everyone like a founder.

Osvaldo Ruiz

Founder & CEO

Started Pinvia from behind the bar at The Mix. Leads product, design, and the vision for how a neighborhood should feel on your phone.

Josh Decolongon

COO

Runs operations and works directly with local businesses to get them on the map and set up for success.

Ryan Sherman

Director of Product Quality

Makes sure what is on the map is accurate, fresh, and works the way a neighbor expects it to, every single night.

Now live: The Castro

Where we are today.

Right now, Pinvia is live in the Castro. That is on purpose. We would rather be genuinely useful in one neighborhood than spread thin across a city. The Mission is next, and over time the rest of San Francisco follows, each neighborhood with its own map and its own character.

Come see your neighborhood.

Pinvia is free on iPhone, with Android on the way. If you run a local business, we would love to have you on the map.

Get the app For business

Built by a neighbor,for the neighborhood.