Building Alio – a gig/share app to help artists and creatives support themselves.
I want to start sharing a bit more openly about what I’m working on right now. The app is called Alio.
At a very practical level, Alio is going to be a platform that facilitates rides, short-term stays, and deliveries (and probably other forms of person-to-person service over time). We’re starting with rideshare first, because that’s where the need is obvious, the pain points are real, and the current options feel increasingly misaligned for the people actually doing the work.
Right now, Alio is being built as an MVP using Lovable.dev with Supabase on the backend. It’s real software. There’s a map. There’s pricing logic. There’s a ledger. There’s a system for tracking earnings and something I call CVU—a kind of trust and contribution score that reflects long-term participation, not just one-off transactions. None of this is theoretical at this point. It’s working, but still rough, still in motion, and very much in the “build it, test it, break it, fix it” phase.
What I’m building isn’t just another gig app. The deeper intention behind Alio is to create a system where providers are actually taken care of—where drivers, hosts, and couriers can earn real money and have a pathway toward stability, ownership, and dignity. I care a lot about quality of service, but I don’t believe quality comes from squeezing people harder or dangling bonuses that disappear the moment you depend on them. I think quality comes from people who feel respected, fairly compensated, and supported enough to live full, human, creative lives.
In other words: happy providers make better service. This feels obvious to me, and strangely absent from most platforms.
This project also sits inside a broader ecosystem I call Poiesis Studio, which is where my work around creativity, wellness, systems, and livelihood all intersect. Alio is one expression of that, and is grounded in the day-to-day realities of work and money. It’s also deeply tied to the same questions I’ve been circling for years: How can I live, work, and pursue a meaningful life on my own terms?
Over the next stretch of time, I’ll be posting periodic updates here as the prototype comes together—what’s working, what’s stuck, what’s changing, what I’m learning as I go. This isn’t a launch announcement. It’s an update of what I’m up to currently.
If you’re a driver, a host, someone who works in the gig economy, or someone who’s simply curious about alternative ways of organizing work and value, you’re welcome to follow along. There’s also an early access / founding provider list if you want to stay in the loop as testing begins.
More soon.
— Robert