Potential additional spend.
Sessions happen during normal trading hours. Each participant arrives with a clear reason and may order as they normally would. Food and drink run through your till as usual.
For Venues · NYC Beta · 2026
Face-to-Face is back.
A new way for people in the city to sit down face-to-face — coffee, lunch, or a longer one-on-one — in trusted local places.
For NYC places being considered for the beta · hello@seya.world
What SEYA is
A reason to meet. A time. A place.
SEYA is a social booking app. Sources are people with knowledge, craft, perspective, taste, or lived experience worth meeting in real life. SEYA helps people sit down with them over coffee, lunch, or a longer one-on-one.
Every session is clear before anyone walks in:
- 01A subject. A real reason to meet.
- 02A format. Coffee, lunch, or a longer one-on-one.
- 03A place. Pre-approved by SEYA.
- 04A time. With a start and an end.
SEYA is not events, tourist programming, anonymous hangouts, dating, or strangers walking into your room with no context.
Why your place matters
Places are part of trust.
The room shapes the meeting.
A good place is what makes it possible to sit down with someone you have only seen on a profile. It gives the session a beginning, an end, an atmosphere, and the social permission to be there.
That is why SEYA pre-approves every venue. Places are not decoration on a listing. They are part of why the meeting works.
Public Staffed Comfortable to sit and talk The ask
A small first yes.
The SEYA beta is small on purpose.
All beta venues are pre-approved by SEYA. No partner tiers, no commercial agreement at the door. We include your place in a curated set, route a small number of well-briefed sessions when the fit is right, and see how the room and the meetings fit each other.
If the fit is real, some places may later receive a visible SEYA Place marker showing that SEYA has worked with them directly. Events, programming, and deeper structure are post-beta, not the door.
Beta · Now
Pre-approved SEYA place.
A curated set of venues. No tiers. No commercial agreement. A small number of well-briefed sessions, when the fit is right.
Post-beta · If the fit is real
A visible SEYA Place marker on the listing.
A signal that SEYA has worked with the place directly. Deeper structure, events, programming — only if both sides want it.
The first ask is permission and honest feedback. Not commitment.
What you might gain 01 · Spend 02 · Fit 03 · Repeat 04 · Promotion 05 · Guests
A few good guests. Not a crowd.
SEYA does not promise volume. People choose when and where to meet, so we are careful with what we say.
A fit with seated hours.
Not a promise of traffic. Simply a possible fit with the hours where seated conversations already work in your room.
Repeat behavior, not one-offs.
SEYA is built on people coming back: to the same Source, to the same kind of session, sometimes to the same room.
Mutual promotion.
We surface your place in the app and on the website. Where it fits, we would also like to introduce SEYA to your regulars — in your voice, not ours.
A thoughtful kind of guest.
People meeting on SEYA arrive with a question, a craft, a story, or a project. The goal is guests who fit the room, not change it.
What we don't need from you
Things SEYA does not need from you.
A SEYA session is not a venue project. It is two people meeting at a table.
SEYA briefs both sides before anyone walks in: who, why, what, where, when, and what behavior is expected in your room.
- Hold tables or build a reservation system.
- Train your staff on SEYA.
- Run, host, or moderate sessions.
- Offer discounts, perks, or in-room signage.
- Sign exclusivity or a commercial agreement at the door.
- Manage strangers, or smooth over awkward moments at the table.
Safety and staff
Public, staffed, and clear.
SEYA only operates in public, staffed places. That is a product rule, not a preference.
For normal sessions, your staff should not need to do anything operationally. Guests book through SEYA, pay through the app where applicable, and receive the session details before arrival. The meeting begins and ends inside its time window. The ask is only that, as in any public venue, a staff member can be approached the way any guest could ask for help.
Layer 01 · App
Identity-checked Sources.
Stripe Identity for every Source before a first listing publishes. In-app reporting, support paths, and dispute resolution sit at the platform layer.
Layer 02 · Session
Clear subject, confirmed booking, time-boxed.
Each session has a topic, both names, the place, and a start and end. Both sides acknowledge SEYA's behavior expectations before the booking confirms.
Layer 03 · Room
Public setting. Staff present.
First meetings happen in public, staffed venues during normal hours. The room is part of the safety stack, not an afterthought.
Fit criteria
What a good SEYA room looks like.
The fit is practical before it is poetic. Strong SEYA venues tend to share these.
- Public and staffed — comfortable for a stranger sitting down with another stranger.
- Good seating — chairs and tables made for sitting and talking, not bar stools or standing counters.
- Manageable noise — a conversation at the table is realistic without leaning in.
- Working and laptop friendly — a guest can arrive early, settle, and feel welcome with a notebook open.
- Strong, reliable internet — sessions sometimes use a phone, a portfolio, a tool, or a deck.
- The basics done well — accurate hours, a clear price range, working bathrooms.
- Staff and brand the SEYA team would be comfortable introducing guests to.
- Nice to have: a clear neighborhood identity. The room matters more than the romance of the street.
SEYA is not the right fit for places that need fast turnover at every hour.
How a session reaches your place
From URL to your table.
SEYA handles the path from curiosity to the table. Clear booking. Clear arrival. No staff coordination for normal sessions.
- 01
Browse.
A guest browses Sources and finds someone worth meeting.
- 02
Choose a place.
The session uses one of the SEYA-approved places available for that booking.
- 03
Pay in-app.
Any SEYA session payment runs through the app. Food and drink still run through your till.
- 04
Brief both sides.
Who, why, what, where, when. SEYA's safety acknowledgment confirms each booking.
- 05
Arrive & order.
Both people arrive within their time window, order from you, and have the conversation.
- 06
Wrap.
The session ends inside its time-box. Both sides can leave feedback in the app.
The internet made people easier to find. SEYA makes them easier to meet.
The first test
A quiet first run.
The first relationship between SEYA and a venue should feel modest.
Input · A few weeks
A small number of beta sessions may take place at your venue over a few weeks.
Listen · All sides
SEYA gathers feedback from guests, Sources, and from you about how it felt in the room.
Adjust · Together
We adjust the practical details: best windows, table norms, anything we should know to brief future sessions well.
Watch · 01
Sessions completed.
Bookings that actually happened, end to end, within their time window.
Watch · 02
Feedback from both sides — and you.
Honest reads on the room, the conversation, and the brief. Especially yours.
Watch · 03
Repeat behavior.
Whether people come back — to the same Source, the same format, or the same room.
If the rhythm works, the relationship can deepen post-beta: a SEYA Place marker, possible programming, a more formal arrangement.
The invitation
SEYA is selecting its first NYC places.
If your place has the seating, the atmosphere, the staff, and the basic comforts of a room where good conversations already happen, SEYA would like to consider it for the beta.
The first conversation is small: a short visit, a few questions, and a clear sense of whether the room works well for SEYA sessions. No commitment beyond that.
Face-to-Face is back.
hello@seya.world · Download the deck (PDF)