Hunvagy

About the Client

Hunvagy is a social platform connecting Hungarians living abroad with Hungarian businesses—featuring a location-based newsfeed, map discovery, and a positive, politics-free community experience. The founder, Máté Károlyi, has been living abroad for 7 years himself (Australia, Egypt, Montenegro, currently Spain) and built the idea from personal experience: Hungarians abroad help each other almost everywhere, but there was no single platform where they could easily find one another.

The Challenge

We had to solve two interconnected challenges. The first appeared before entering the market: the app was still under development when we needed to start building the future user base. Rather than a traditional "coming soon" page, we needed a platform that generated real urgency despite the product not being available yet, geographically segmented subscribers (since Hunvagy's entire operation relies on location), and delivered a sense of exclusivity so early adopters would commit before any usable features were live. The second challenge was the app itself and designing its entire experience: Hunvagy did not want to be traditional social media, but rather a platform where location forms the backbone of the entire experience—powering the newsfeed, recommendations, and map discovery. This raised several complex questions: How can proximity and popularity appear simultaneously in the newsfeed without hiding popular yet distant posts, or pushing weak local posts to too many people? How can personal and business profiles be handled on the same platform with distinct categories, verification, and ad logic? How can nearby Hungarians and businesses be discoverable on a map without revealing anyone's exact home address? And how can moderation scale so that not every report lands directly on an admin's desk?

The Solution

UI/UX Design and Visual Planning in Figma

We designed the entire interface and user experience (UI/UX) in Figma. We placed special emphasis on a clean, modern aesthetic and intuitive usability across both the mobile application and related web pages. Using interactive prototypes in Figma, we fine-tuned the visual presentation of location-based features and user journeys well before development started.

Country-Specific Landing Pages Before Launch

We created dedicated subpages for each target country (Spain, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, the UK, Romania, Serbia, Canada, Ukraine, and several others), complete with live-updating "waiting list" counters. This directly reflected the core feature of the product (location-based community building) while providing local social proof: a visitor in Spain didn't see an abstract global figure, but rather how many people were waiting for Hunvagy specifically in their country.

Urgency, Exclusivity, and "Founding Member" Positioning

A live countdown timer ran in the hero section, instantly establishing momentum and a fear of missing out—even though the app was not yet live. We framed the signup process as a clear, 4-step journey (Apply via questionnaire → Become a Founding Member → Connect with other Hungarians → Discover), making it clear that early subscribers weren't just joining a waiting list, but gaining a say in the product's future. We reinforced this with a short showcase video featuring screens designed in Figma—demonstrating the newsfeed, map, and social features in action—and three authentic testimonials (Barcelona, Berlin, London) showcasing real-world use cases (finding a Hungarian dentist, kids' activities, local events) that proved why the target audience needed this app.

Personal, Founder-Led Onboarding and Trust Building

Upon signing up, users received a deeply personal, storytelling email directly from Mate, detailing his own emigration story (Australia, language and financial hardships, and the ultimate support of the local Hungarian community). This wasn't just an introduction - it established the product's core "why" and invited subscribers to share their own stories. This step built the community-focused, trustworthy tone long before launch. A prominent FAQ section (what Hunvagy is, pricing, key differentiators, available countries, data privacy) served to alleviate mistrust regarding an unreleased product.

Location-Based Registration and Profiles

During signup, users set their location, which dictates the relevant content they see in their feed and recommendations.

Alongside personal profiles, users can create business profiles by providing a location, category (Food & Drink, Experiences, Shopping, Services), and social verification via Facebook or Google links.

A business profile can only exist alongside a personal profile.

Distance and Popularity-Based Feed Algorithm

The feed determines how far a post reaches based on the creator's location at the moment of posting and the post's popularity. New posts start in a tight local radius; if engagement is low, reach contracts, but if a post receives high engagement, it expands in gradually widening circles - potentially reaching users much further away and going "viral."

Map Discovery with Privacy Protection

Designed in Figma, the map interface displays the user's immediate surroundings and automatically expands the search radius until it locates relevant pins - offering distinct layers for individuals and businesses. Businesses can be filtered and searched by category, with direct route planning from their profiles. To protect privacy, individual profile pins are randomly offset from exact home addresses.

Networking, Chat, and Notifications

Both personal and business profiles can publish text, images, video, and links, tag other profiles, and chat with one another. The feed recommends potential connections based on proximity and shared interests. A notification system keeps users informed of key activity: new comments, likes, followers, and direct messages.

Official Hunvagy Account as a Built-In Blog

The platform features an official Hunvagy account managed by authorized admins. Posts from this account receive featured placement for all users and generate unique, shareable URLs—effectively serving as the platform's built-in blog.

AI-Powered Moderation and Ad Management

When content is reported, an AI model conducts an initial review and only escalates to human admins when necessary—ensuring final decisions are always made by a human. Admins also manage business advertising requests, placing sponsored listings prominently on the feed and map alongside star ratings and user reviews.

Results

The strategy proved its value immediately upon market entry: the initial quota of 1,000 Founding Members filled up within days, prompting us to expand capacity to 5,000. Within four days of launch, over 1,300 members joined, and the community continues to grow rapidly. Today, Hungarians connect on Hunvagy across 16 countries—led by Romania, Slovakia, and the Netherlands, alongside members in the UK, Spain, Austria, Germany, Portugal, Australia, Switzerland, the US, Mexico, Belgium, and Italy. The country-segmented waitlist built during the pre-launch phase successfully converted into an engaged Founding Member community the moment the app went live—delivering the location-driven, "less algorithm, more proximity" experience Hunvagy was built to create.