Seed round open · $3.5M

The web is evolving toward what’s important near me.

iTrek has built the first spatial market registry that lets any local business be found by consumers, search engines, and AI agents — without paying a toll to Google, Yelp, or Zillow. Businesses register once, for free, and reach every channel searching for what’s nearby, cutting the cost of being discovered by up to 90%. Those gatekeepers extract up to 30% of every sale in fees and commissions — iTrek charges none, because the registry itself is the product, not the toll booth. The MVP is live today, with enhanced experiences already underway for Safeway and Yosemite’s park services, and we’re raising $3.5M to hit Series A metrics before our Q4 2026 California launch.

Live MVP, full category set
40M+ CA shoppers/mo via Safeway
Q4 2026 California launch
Billion Dollar Bully — official trailer thumbnail

Official trailer for Billion Dollar Bully (2019, dir. Kaylie Milliken) — a documentary investigating Yelp’s alleged review-manipulation and pay-to-play tactics against small businesses. Watch the full film ↗

The Problem

Three kinds of extractive platforms control local discovery

Since the Web fragmented into silos, businesses have had to pay a toll just to be found — and AI search is making that worse.

Attention extractors

Google Maps, Apple Maps

Navigation tools mistaken for discovery. A business shows up only if a customer already knows to search for it — or pays for placement.

Reputation extractors

Yelp and review platforms

A one-star rating swing moves restaurant revenue 5–9%, yet businesses pay $300–$5,000/mo just to be treated fairly by the algorithm.

Transaction extractors

Zillow, DoorDash, OpenTable

Positioned as essential infrastructure, then a toll follows — up to 30% of a commission or an order, on every single transaction.

Today, AI answer engines compress discovery even further — shrinking the number of businesses a customer ever sees, and shrinking market transparency with it.

Why Now

Extractive platforms have crossed a line — and the fix is finally buildable

“These platforms have become extractive tools, capturing value they did not create.”
Tim Wu Columbia Law · Former White House tech & competition policy advisor · Author, The Age of Extraction
30%+

of revenue lost to extractive platform overhead — with no level playing field and no single marketplace to be found in.

Spatial registry + AI

For the first time, the two technologies needed to build a neutral, efficient discovery layer both exist and are affordable.

Up to 90% cost-out

A registry-based model can strip extraction costs that today run as high as 30% of revenue for local businesses.

A registry is a utility

Like the Web’s DNS, spatial registries tend toward one dominant, neutral utility — not many competing extractors.

The Solution

Add a Spatial Market Registry — and disintermediate the silos

The same way DNS turned domain names into addressable infrastructure, iTrek turns physical places into an open, addressable registry.

01

Today: DNS only

The Domain Name Space maps names to addresses — but has no concept of physical location. That gap is what lets silos and extractive platforms exist.

02

Add the Spatial Registry

iTrek maps places, organizations, content, and sensors to real-world locations — one open, neutral layer sitting alongside DNS.

03

Everyone builds on it

Businesses, consumers, search, and AI all query the same registry — with value-added services (the iTrek app) monetizing on top.

Market Opportunity

A large, fragmented market with no dominant independent-first platform

U.S. local commerce is enormous and underserved — every neighborhood has businesses that are effectively invisible online unless they pay a gatekeeper.

33.2M
U.S. small businesses
$182B
Local U.S. digital ad market, growing 15%/yr
76%
Consumers trust peer/community recs over algorithmic ads

Sources: SBA Office of Advocacy (2023); BIA Advisory Services local ad forecast; Nielsen Global Trust in Advertising (2023).

Product

One stop to see everything about every place around you

Web-native — no app to download. Consumers arrive via a shared link or QR code and are instantly in the product.

Places to live & stay

Real estate, apartments, hotels, short-term rentals

Food & everyday needs

Restaurants, fast food, groceries, shopping, gas & prices

Health & safety

Pharmacies, doctors, hospitals/ERs, police & fire, wildfires, quakes

Getting around

Airports, transit, parking, jobs, schools

Experiences

Parks, events, wineries, tourism content, webcams

Web & social content

Wikipedia and other web content, plus every major social platform

Go-to-Market

A geography-first rollout, in partnership with dominant market influencers

Discovery platforms live or die on local density — so we go deep in one market before expanding, riding existing institutional relationships.

Phase 1 · Q4 2026
California — MVP release

Real estate, jobs, and restaurants launch as early revenue sources, backed by warm introductions from Visit California and the CA Restaurant Association.

Phase 2 · Q1–Q2 2027
Western states

Southern California, Seattle, and Portland — markets with 3–4x the population/tourism spend and strong independent-business cultures.

Phase 3 · Q3–Q4 2027
Nationwide

White-label licensing turns every tourism board and CVB into a distribution channel — scaling without market-by-market direct sales.

Competitive Landscape

iTrek is the only platform that is discovery-first and business-empowering

Map & navigation apps

A pin on a map, not a story — no browsing, no serendipity, pay to be seen.

Review platforms

Businesses pay thousands a month to protect reputation from an opaque algorithm.

Transaction platforms

Essential infrastructure that extracts a toll — up to 30% per transaction.

Business-empowering
Platform-extractive
Navigation / Transactional
Discovery / Experiential
Facebook
Google Maps
Apple Maps
Yelp
OpenTable
DoorDash
Zillow
Airbnb
Booking.com
TripAdvisor
iTrek
Traction & Validation

The product is built and the earliest partnerships are already in motion

De-risking factors for a seed check: this isn’t idea validation capital — it’s hiring fuel for demand that already exists.

MVP built & live

Web-native product functioning today across the full category set — no app download required for a consumer to engage.

Institutional relationships

Warm, direct relationships with the California Association of Realtors and others — unusual for seed stage.

Safeway

Deep in-store integration — coupons, specials, and job board support — with reach to 40M+ California shoppers per month.

Yosemite park services

Working with the head of Yosemite park services to produce a “VisitYosemite” experience together.

Business Model

Location registration + services — no ad fees, no transaction cuts

No conflicts of interest, because iTrek never sits between a business and its customer at the moment of sale.

Registration
$0/mo
  • AI-researched business listing
  • Summarized ratings & reviews
  • Direct inbound customer connect
  • Competitor update notification
Pro
$99/mo
  • Full experience control + API access
  • Dedicated onboarding
  • Multi-location support
  • White-label maps

Additional revenue: white-label B2B licensing for CVBs, tourism boards, cruise lines, and destinations, plus an emerging AI-agent data channel — our largest customers may ultimately be AI systems themselves.

Leadership Team

Deep local-market expertise, startup execution, institutional relationships

Mike McEvoy

Mike McEvoy

CEO

Cross-domain CEO/CTO across Web solutions, imaging, e-commerce, blockchain & IoT. CTO/CIO at J&J; VP & Sr. Director at Adobe.

Roger Sanford

Roger Sanford

Chairman

Architected Google AdWords. Board/C-level at Anaplan, Apptricity & others. Professor Emeritus, Santa Clara University.

Arka Bala

Arka Bala

CTO

Founder/CEO of ContextGrid. Data architect at Expedia and JPMorgan Chase. Open AR Board member.

Helen Lambert

Helen Lambert

COO

Directed ProspectSV & Cleantech accelerators. Ops/IR leadership at Infreeda.

Jonathan Hirshon

Jonathan Hirshon

Advisor

Principal, Horizon Communications — PR for Apple & Sony. Orchestrated global launches for Sony, Apple, Pioneer, and others.

The Ask
$3.5M

Seed round · SAFE or priced equity

18 months of runway to reach ~$800K ARR and Series A‑ready metrics.

40%
$1,400K
Product & Engineering
30%
$1,050K
Sales & Marketing
20%
$700K
Operations & G&A
10%
$350K
Working Capital

18-month milestones & comparables

3,600+ businesses onboarded · ~$800K ARR run rate · NPS 50+ · Series A thesis: $8M at $40M valuation, triggered at $2M ARR. Toast raised $20M Series B at $60M valuation with $3M ARR · Yext IPO’d at $900M on 20,000 business customers.

Important investor disclosures

This website and the materials referenced or made available on it (collectively, this “Site”) are provided for informational purposes only and do not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities of iTrek, Inc. (“iTrek” or the “Company”). Any such offer or solicitation will be made only through definitive offering documents (for example, a subscription agreement, SAFE, or similar instrument) delivered directly to qualified prospective investors, and only in jurisdictions, and to persons, where and to whom it is lawful to do so.

The securities referenced on this Site have not been, and will not be, registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), or under the securities laws of any state or other jurisdiction. They are being offered, and will be sold, in reliance on exemptions from registration, including Rule 506(c) of Regulation D promulgated under the Securities Act. Any offering will be limited to persons who are “accredited investors” as defined in Rule 501(a) of Regulation D, and the Company will take reasonable steps to verify accredited investor status before accepting any investment, as required under Rule 506(c). Securities acquired in any such offering will be “restricted securities” and subject to significant limitations on resale and transfer.

An investment in an early-stage, unregistered company such as iTrek involves a high degree of risk, including the risk of loss of your entire investment. Such an investment is illiquid: there is no public market for the Company’s securities and none is expected to develop. Prospective investors should be able to bear the economic risk of an investment for an indefinite period of time, and should consult their own legal, tax, and financial advisors before making any investment decision.

Statements on this Site regarding future events, plans, projections, or performance — including statements about market opportunity, product roadmap, financial targets, valuation, or fundraising milestones — are forward-looking statements. They are inherently uncertain, involve significant risks and assumptions, and actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied. iTrek undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, and comparisons to other companies’ outcomes (e.g., prior financing rounds or exits) are illustrative only and are not a prediction or guarantee of iTrek’s future performance.

Nothing on this Site should be construed as legal, tax, financial, or investment advice. iTrek is not a registered broker-dealer or investment adviser, and no person associated with iTrek is acting as a broker-dealer or investment adviser in connection with the activities described on this Site.

By requesting materials, downloading documents, or otherwise engaging with this Site, you represent that you are an accredited investor (or are acting on behalf of one) and that you are accessing this information solely for your own evaluation purposes. This Site and its contents are confidential and intended solely for prospective investors; they may not be reproduced or distributed, in whole or in part, without iTrek’s prior written consent.

This is a summary for informational convenience and is not a substitute for definitive offering documents or advice from qualified securities counsel. If you have questions about your eligibility to participate in this offering, contact Mike.McEvoy@itrek.ai before proceeding.