FOB: Dating & Friends

FOB started at home. My fiancée, Honomi, moved to Canada from Japan, and honestly, the move was the easy part—meeting people was harder. She felt shy walking into events where she didn't know anyone, and the language and culture gap made it difficult to connect unless someone shared part of her story. Dating apps didn't feel comfortable either. Once she made a few friends, many of them said they had experienced the same thing. A friend encouraged me to build a solution, so I did—from scratch, with no app development background. FOB, which stands for “Fresh off the boat? So were we,” helps newcomers in Canada meet people who share their background, language, hobbies, or journey, whether they're looking for friendship or dating. Profiles show where someone is from and where they live now, the foods they miss, and the languages they speak. Users can make plans in chat that appear on a shared calendar, start group chats, discover local events, and use the platform in more than 60 languages. FOB is made for newcomers, but anyone who wants to welcome them is invited too. The website is available at joinfob.com, and the iPhone and Android apps are currently in closed testing. We're still early, so there aren't any big numbers yet—just real people. Thirty-four people have signed up so far, and 16 volunteered to test the iPhone and Android apps before launch. Testers have already shared feedback that we shipped the same day, including a proper country and city picker after someone listed their hometown as Wakanda. The grand opening on the App Store and Google Play is planned for October 24, 2026. The biggest wow moment has been getting the real iPhone and Android apps through TestFlight and Google Play from the same project as the website. I'm not a developer, so going from an idea to an app that my fiancée and our friends are actually using in just a few weeks still feels a bit unreal. The same-day fixes based on tester feedback have been the best part.