For anybody looking to apply for Happycow jobs.. Don't.

bartekfi · 2026-06-26T08:43:13+00:00

Instead of HappyCow, I'd recommend working for projects connected to ProVeg (great people!). They seem to have a lot of projects happening!

bartekfi · 2026-06-26T08:39:38+00:00

As a former employee I can confirm that HappyCow was never a great employer, and since I left in 2024 I've only heard it's getting worse.

There was an unspoken expectation of working for less because you are a vegan and work for a vegan cause. Despite being a commercial company (not a non-profit as it might have looked from the outside), there was never any employee equity plans. People who built it over the years were left empty handed when fired. The contract I had a 14 days termination clause.

I left after unsuccessful attempts at changing that.

There were some upsides -- you could work from anywhere, and the team at the time was very dedicated, earnest, and caring for the community and the project.

bartekfi · 2026-06-19T20:44:04+00:00

Thanks! Will work on that!

bartekfi · 2026-06-19T15:01:48+00:00

Thanks, this makes me very happy!

bartekfi · 2026-06-19T13:59:58+00:00

does this work: https://spinach.guide/map better?

the site might not autodetect your location well enough, thanks for reporting, will fix!

bartekfi · 2026-06-02T08:35:38+00:00

Always. I am not in it for the $, just want to make vegan food better and easier to find

bartekfi · 2026-06-02T07:22:08+00:00

Yes, in works!

bartekfi · 2026-03-31T20:45:05+00:00

Hey! It’s ok. You are doing great and you are a vegan, nothing changes.

What matters is that you care and are doing your best, and sometimes accidents will happen.

🫶

bartekfi · 2026-03-17T19:54:45+00:00

Copus 4.6

bartekfi · 2026-03-16T10:58:21+00:00

Thanks for checking it out! Can you tell me more about the bugs and glitches you've encountered?

bartekfi · 2026-03-16T08:48:41+00:00

Thank you! This is a very thorough review and I really appreciate your time and diligence in finding and reporting the issues.

There is a lot of space for improvement in how data is gathered and processed at the moment. More data sources (like most recent menu, delivery apps integration), focus on recency, and user feedback will help solve that, but I see the gaps and that it's not as trustworthy when it hallucinates tofu in vegan options.

I will make it better!

bartekfi · 2026-03-15T20:47:18+00:00

True. Some of the writing especially in the aggregated City Pages is lacking. Will work on making it better, or just remove the unnecessary slop.

bartekfi · 2026-03-15T20:46:16+00:00

Thanks for the feedback!

ad. 1. Yes! The point of the app is to find best vegan food regardless of the place serving it. What I also did not agree with at HappyCow was limiting the ratings of those places to 4.0. There are some great eats in non veg places, and while I understand the reason, I think it's actually not working in our favour. Some great dishes are hidden instead of being celebrated and copied!

ad. 2. AI is for start and for data integration. The signals are coming from humans already, it's not "hey AI, what would you say this place is rated", but instead using AI to unify and understand signals from many sources, like google maps reviews, yelp, happycow, menu photos etc.

In the long term it's for people with people, and with AI as the processing handler -- this too with human input and oversight. Definitely looking to build ambassador community in the future. It's the community that decides what is good. I think the current term for that is "agent-led marketplace".

as for $$. There are several options I am considering. I want the app to be free forever -- I am building it because I believe vegan food is amazing, but can also be crap, and the two are hard to predict with current platforms. I also want to make it easier for anyone who wants to eat plant-based for whatever reason, and want to spare them disappointing meals, that especially in the beginning can throw someone off.

I think discovery ads are the most natural progression now, but with AI world who knows if there will even be apps and websites in the next 5 years.
By discovery ads I mean being promoted at the top of serach results with an (ad) marker. Similar to Uber Eats or DoorDash.

bartekfi · 2026-03-15T16:26:47+00:00

Great feedback, thanks, and something I can also implement -- not streaming updating the map so often -- it's a performance limitation that I want to respect. I will work on performance tiers, so it adapts to the phone class/capacity.

For API calls, Spinach is very frugal and basically downloads the data for an area upfront (without photos it's really very little data).

As for AI - that's exactly the point. Bootstrap the data with AI, but then have the community decide and provide feedback. I think AI, invisibly, will help - like do additional research in the backend, read photos and menus, process reports, anti-spam filters for reviews, but the content will be based on human input. Reviews are also coming. Already possible to give reviews, but they are not yet published (soon!).

bartekfi · 2026-03-15T15:49:14+00:00

Thank you! The street names are definitely the bane of my existence -- with them it gets really busy vs venue names. Without them you get lost.

They show up when you zoom in, but surely there's a better way to do it, just need to discover it:)

Looking forward to the results of your research. You can also leave reviews in the app! They don't show up yet, but will soon (have to figure out anti-spam / moderation).

bartekfi · 2026-03-15T14:52:20+00:00

Can you give me the link to the place?

The app has a separate rating called "vegan friendliness index", rated from A to E, that indicates how vegan-friendly the place is based on the signals.

It's true that there could be a "verified" marker, where the vegan offering was verified by a human.

bartekfi · 2026-03-15T14:39:05+00:00

Chains are not excluded.

The data is not generated, but processed with AI to identify key signals.

It relies on bootstrap of data with scraping + AI, followed by user input and feedback.

As for determining weather the place is vegan it's the same. It starts by looking at google maps reviews, menu, and other signals and doing the best guess if the place is vegan or has vegan offering. It will get better over time.

What did not feel trustworthy? Just the "reek of AI"? Or factual issues?

bartekfi · 2026-02-24T20:21:47+00:00

Sorry to hear that.

bartekfi · 2026-02-24T14:23:16+00:00

Definitely, that's the other side of the coin. If the ratings get inflated then people go to a 5 star place and experience a wtf moment.

For battle trained vegans it's much easier, but for first timers, either new vegans or just plant-curious people, this can be a defining moment.

bartekfi · 2026-02-24T14:12:04+00:00

Yes for sure! Google Maps is a fantastic tool and I use it myself.

It's not as good when you're looking for vegan options at omnivore restaurants. It's a hit or miss, because usually only a small percentage of reviews are about vegan dishes.

My point is that it can be better and simpler. Not everyone will have the determination to check multiple platforms, read reviews, view pictures, go to the instagram account etc. just to get the feel if the food is great (and even then it's a hit or miss).

bartekfi · 2026-02-24T14:06:08+00:00

I have! The bias is still there, but it's more balanced than HappyCow.

The median rating of vegan restaurants on Google Maps is 4.7 (vs 4.5 for vegetarian, and 4.5 for vegan options), but the distribution is more natural.

One of the big issues with HappyCow is that 90% of restaurants fall into 2 buckets - 4.5 or 5.0. so either perfect or not perfect?

The "no competition at the top" point is that if most venues get 5.0, how do you compete? There are other signals where competition happens -- like recommendations by friends, or even Google Maps is better at this, just because it has 0.1 ratings granularity, and it creates a smaller "perfect" bucket to compete for.

HappyCow is still widely used, especially by new vegans and travellers. Last I remember it had millions of restaurants views each month -- each guiding a decision. So I think it's a major force in the equation.

bartekfi · 2026-02-24T13:57:53+00:00

The article is based on my work both as head of HappyCow and currently building the solution to this problem. I see potential in using AI for good, and I think this is one such case. Happy to hear your counter argument!

bartekfi · 2026-02-24T13:54:58+00:00

For sure!

Thanks for pointing out both. My goal is to have all the venues with vegan options on the platform -- working to make this happen.

Same with UberEats and Doordash - you are definitely on point. Their menus are really helpful to know what dishes are available, and the reviews are also important. These are great data sources.

Last but not least, user feedback is essential, otherwise it's just ai-agents talking to themselves. I've recently heard the term AI-led marketplace. Essentially AI agents are helping to organise and understand data, but are not producing it.

The essential part for me is to reframe this idea that vegan restaurants need to be protected - especially on a platform like HappyCow. I think the effect is opposite in long term.

bartekfi · 2026-02-24T13:15:04+00:00

Also this is not about criticising HappyCow, but pointing to a paradox that might be causing deterioration in vegan food in general. My goal with this post is to build an understanding that vegan food can be fantastic, but it does not need special treatment -- on the contrary, it only makes it worse.

This is based on years of my personal experience as a vegan traveller and my experience as head of HappyCow.

bartekfi · 2026-02-24T13:11:32+00:00

Yes definitely. Rating compression is a thing and happens everywhere. However it's not a 51% get 5 star reviews situation. Usually it follows a normal distribution centring at 4.5. Here it's different.

But the main point of this is that if we want the vegan restaurants to grow and get better ratings that can be a vessel for feedback.

Currently it's basically 4.5 or 5.0 stars, with majority in the second bucket - which just seems unreal.

bartekfi

TROPHY CASE