Hi, I’m RozaSign up
Share your neighborhood, interests and the ways you'd like to connect.
Community within walking distance.
Find people nearby for whatever you want to do. From grabbing coffee and playing pickleball to starting a book club, swapping pet sitting, and making local friends.
1002 neighbors have already signed up
This is me at a picnic with some awesome neighbors I’ve met through this project.
Hi, I’m Roza
I started this project because I wanted my neighborhood to feel more like a community — familiar faces, grocery store hellos, spontaneous nearby plans, and neighbors who support each other.
It felt strange that we have so many ways to meet people all over the city, but almost none to help us connect with the awesome people right around us. So I’m building what I wish existed: a way to spend less time coordinating and commuting to see people, and more time connecting nearby.
How it works
(and yes, it's free... I created this to help me build my community, and hope it can help you too)
Think of Hey There Neighbor as a modern neighborhood directory designed to help people actually connect.
Find people nearby you have things in common with
Discover nearby neighbors who share your interests — whether you’re looking for a walking buddy, pickleball partner, fellow parents, someone to trade pet sitting with, or just more familiar faces nearby. See recommended neighbors to meet, browse events, and join or start groups around things people nearby want to do.
Say hi for 10 minutes
Get paired with neighbors for 10-minute neighbor chats — a deliberately short, low-pressure way to say hi to someone you might otherwise only pass on the sidewalk.
More about Hey There Neighbor
When you sign up, you'll be answering the questions below so you can find neighbors with common interests
What are you hoping for in your neighborhood?
Activities and topics you’d enjoy connecting around
How far away do you want to meet neighbors (in miles)?
How is it different from Nextdoor, Bumble BFF, my building’s WhatsApp, etc?
Nextdoor
Nextdoor is largely built around posts and neighborhood information. Hey There, Neighbor is built around meeting people. There’s no endless feed to scroll. The goal is to help you discover neighbors you might like to know and give you an easy way to actually meet them.
Bumble BFF, Timeleft, and other friend-finding apps
Those can introduce you to cool people, but often those people live across town and you will literally never see them again without a full-time project management job. Hey There, Neighbor introduces you to people you can run into again without coordinating plans and commuting across the city. And Hey There, Neighbor is free…
WhatsApp, Facebook groups, Google Groups, building chats, etc.
These are great for broadcasting information to everyone: announcing an event, asking about a lost package, or sharing a neighborhood update. But they’re not very good at helping individual neighbors actually connect. Most things you might want to do with a neighbor—like find a tennis partner, grab coffee, trade pet sitting, meet another parent, or start a book club—aren’t things you’d necessarily send to an entire mailing list or group chat. Hey There, Neighbor lets you see who nearby shares your interests, so the right people can discover each other without having to broadcast every idea to the whole neighborhood.
What is a 10-minute neighbor chat?
It’s the easiest way to turn someone who lives nearby from a stranger into a familiar face. You might pass the same neighbors on the sidewalk, in the elevator, or at the grocery store for years without ever having a natural reason to talk. These chats create that reason. Hey There, Neighbor regularly suggests neighbors for you to meet, along with a time that works with both of your schedules. If you’re both up for it, you meet at the local park or coffee shop and say hi for 10 minutes.
The 10 minutes is intentional: it’s long enough to get to know someone a little, but short enough that it doesn’t have to feel like making plans with a stranger. If you hit it off, you can always keep talking or meet again.
And while these chats are a normal part of how Hey There, Neighbor works, there’s never any obligation to meet a particular person—or to do them at all. You can also use the directory, message neighbors, and join groups.