Frolic

Overview

Frolic is a full-stack application that helps you discover events and things to do in Denver, tailored to your preferences. The platform combines AI-powered recommendations, automated event curation, and real-time data from multiple sources to deliver personalized experiences.

A scheduled batch processing pipeline uses Deep Research agents to build a high-quality event inventory — a nightly run for Denver. Events are ingested from 21 scraping sources plus Ticketmaster, ESPN, 19hz and Eventbrite APIs, and Google Places, then normalized, geocoded, validated, deduplicated, and stored in MongoDB for fast geospatial and temporal queries.

The AI recommendation engine considers your preferences and history (via a Memory Service that learns over time), current context (time, location, companions, budget), deterministic filters (distance, price, accessibility), and a scoring algorithm that balances distance, popularity, category match, and freshness.

Why we built it

Most discovery apps show the same top-10 lists and star ratings. Frolic is built to bring back serendipity — surfacing offbeat, delightful things to do right now, personalized to who you are and what you're in the mood for. The cache-first architecture means recommendations are instant, not waiting on slow API calls.

How it works

1. Tell Frolic what you're looking for — or let context (time, location, companions, budget) guide the recommendations 2. AI curates and ranks — OpenAI scores and reranks events from the cached inventory based on your preferences and context 3. Smart filtering — Budget, distance, time slot, and companion-based filters narrow results to what's actually doable 4. Personalization improves over time — The Memory Service tracks your activity preferences, budget tendencies, location history, and feedback to refine future recommendations

Feature highlights

• AI-Powered Recommendations — OpenAI-driven personalization based on user preferences and context
• Automated Event Curation — Scheduled Deep Research agents precompute the Denver event inventory in a nightly run
• Multi-Source Integration — Combines 21 scraping sources plus Ticketmaster, ESPN, 19hz and Eventbrite APIs, and Google Places for broad coverage
• Cache-First Architecture — MongoDB-backed for instant responses; events are pre-indexed for geospatial and temporal queries
• Smart Filtering — Budget, distance, time, and companion-based filtering
• User Memory & Personalization — Learns activity preferences, budget tendencies, and feedback over time
• Real-Time SSE Streaming — Recommendations stream to the client as they're generated

Notes

• Tech Stack: Node.js + Express, MongoDB + Mongoose, OpenAI GPT-4, React Native (Expo), JWT + Apple Sign-In, Server-Sent Events, node-cron
• Data Sources: 21 scraping sources plus Ticketmaster, ESPN, 19hz and Eventbrite APIs, and Google Places
• Current Scope: Denver metro area; multi-city support in progress
• For Whom: Anyone looking for something to do — solo, couples, families — who wants personalized suggestions beyond generic top-10 lists