"The world is yours. Travel bold."
Built in response to the Fix My Itch by Razorpay problem:
"Why isn't there a women-first travel app for solo travellers?"
73% of solo women travelers feel unsafe at least once during their trip.
89% say no existing travel app was built with them in mind.
$180B+ market. Zero dedicated safety platforms.
Solo women backpackers and travelers exploring unfamiliar cities face a brutal gap: when something goes wrong — getting lost, being followed, facing harassment, or needing urgent help — they have no trusted local human to call. Generic SOS apps call the police. Navigation apps show routes. Community apps share tips. But nothing combines all of this into a safety-first system built specifically for solo women, with real, verified people on the ground.
That's the gap SHELTR was built to fill.
SHELTR is an AI-powered safety companion and guardian network for solo women travelers. It combines four core pillars into one app experience:
| Pillar | What it does |
|---|---|
| 🛡️ Verified Guardian Network | Background-checked local residents in 50+ cities who are on-call as trusted contacts for travelers passing through |
| 🚨 One-Tap SOS | Hold a button for 2 seconds — your live location is instantly shared with your nearest guardian, your emergency contacts, and local authorities if needed |
| 🗺️ Safe Route Planner | AI-generated routes that favor well-lit streets, avoid known harassment hotspots, and surface real-time alerts from other women in the community |
| 💬 Women's Reviews | Honest, women-only neighborhood and venue reviews — the things Google Maps won't tell you, from people who get it |
The key differentiator: the Guardian Network. No app today connects travelers with verified, background-checked local residents who actively volunteer as on-call safety contacts. That's SHELTR's core innovation.
This prototype is powered by Claude (claude-sonnet-4) via the Anthropic API. The AI acts as a real-time safety assistant that:
- Knows the user's current city and neighborhood
- Is aware of nearby verified guardians and their distances
- Gives specific, calm, step-by-step guidance for any safety situation
- Renders structured response cards — Guardian cards, Safe Route cards, SOS cards — dynamically based on the query
- Never panics. Always practical. Always warm.
- "I'm lost and it's getting dark, what should I do?" → Calm step-by-step advice
- "Find me a verified guardian nearby" → Renders a real guardian profile card with connect button
- "Give me the safest walking route to Barceloneta beach" → Generates a safe route card with community-verified safety tags
- "A man is following me, what do I do right now?" → Triggers a red SOS card with immediate action steps
- "Is this neighborhood safe at night for solo women?" → Honest safety assessment from a women's perspective
sheltr/
├── sheltr-landing.html # Landing page / pitch deck (static HTML)
├── sheltr-demo.html # Full AI-powered interactive prototype
└── README.md # You are here
A fully designed pitch landing page for SHELTR. Includes:
- Hero section with animated app mockup
- Problem framing with real statistics
- Feature breakdown (4 pillars)
- How it works (3-step flow)
- Waitlist CTA section
- Scroll-reveal animations throughout
Built with vanilla HTML/CSS/JS. No frameworks, no dependencies. Open in any browser.
The full interactive AI-powered prototype. Includes:
- 3-panel app layout (sidebar, AI chat, live status panel)
- Real Claude AI responses via the Anthropic API
- Dynamic response cards: Guardian cards, Route cards, SOS cards
- One-tap SOS emergency flow
- Nearby guardian sidebar with live status indicators
- Simulated map with guardian locations
⚠️ Note: The demo requires a valid Anthropic API key to function. The API call is made client-side for prototype purposes only. In production, this would be handled server-side.
Both files are single self-contained HTML files. Just open them in any modern browser — no build step, no server needed.
open sheltr-landing.html # View the landing page
open sheltr-demo.html # Run the interactive AI demonpx serve .
# Then open http://localhost:3000/sheltr-demo.htmlThe demo calls the Anthropic API client-side. For the AI to respond, the API key must be injected. In production this moves server-side — for the prototype, you can set it up via a simple proxy or a .env + backend wrapper.
This is a prototype. A production SHELTR would require:
Frontend (Mobile)
└── React Native or Flutter (iOS + Android)
Backend API
└── Node.js / Express or Python / FastAPI
└── PostgreSQL (users, guardians, reviews, routes)
└── Redis (real-time location, sessions)
Real-Time Layer
└── WebSockets (live location sharing, SOS alerts)
└── Firebase Cloud Messaging (push notifications)
AI Layer
└── Claude API (safety assistant, route advice, guardian matching)
└── Custom fine-tuning on women's travel safety data (v2)
Maps & Routing
└── Google Maps API or Mapbox
└── Community-sourced danger zone overlays
Guardian Verification
└── Onfido or Checkr API (ID verification + background checks)
└── Human review pipeline for interview screening
Auth
└── Phone number verification (Twilio)
└── Biometric auth for SOS trigger
| App | What it does | What it misses |
|---|---|---|
| NomadHer | Women travel community | No real-time safety, no guardians |
| Tourlina | Find women travel companions | No emergency features |
| Noonlight | Generic SOS → police | Not travel-specific, no local human |
| bSafe | Location sharing + SOS | Generic, no guardian network |
| GeoSure | Neighborhood safety scores | Data only, no human network |
| SHELTR | All of the above + verified local guardians | This is the gap |
SHELTR's moat: The Guardian Network. It's operationally hard to build (vetting, training, maintaining guardian quality), which makes it defensible once established. The AI safety chat is the UX layer on top of that trust infrastructure.
- 1.2M+ solo women travel internationally every year
- $180B+ women-led solo travel market (growing 8% YoY)
- 73% report feeling unsafe at some point during solo travel
- 0 existing apps with a verified local human guardian network
Target users: Women aged 22–45, solo backpackers, digital nomads, solo business travelers, women returning to travel post-pandemic.
Phase 1 — Validate (0–3 months)
- Launch waitlist landing page
- Interview 100 solo women travelers
- Sign up 50 volunteer guardians in 3 pilot cities (Barcelona, Bali, Bangkok)
- Build clickable Figma prototype
Phase 2 — MVP (3–9 months)
- Mobile app (iOS first)
- Guardian verification pipeline
- AI safety chat (Claude-powered)
- SOS + location sharing
- Pilot in 3 cities
Phase 3 — Scale (9–18 months)
- Android app
- Expand to 20 cities
- Freemium model: free basic features, paid Guardian Priority access
- B2B: partner with hostels, travel agencies, travel insurance companies
| Revenue Stream | How |
|---|---|
| Freemium SaaS | Free basic access; premium tier (~₹499/month) for priority guardian access, offline SOS, and route history |
| B2B Partnerships | Hostels, solo travel agencies, and travel insurance companies pay to offer SHELTR to their customers |
| Guardian Certification | Optional paid guardian training + certification program |
| Data Insights | Anonymized, aggregated safety data sold to city councils and urban planners |
This project was built as a response to Fix My Itch by Razorpay — an AI-powered repository of 10,000+ real problems faced by Indians and the world, curated to help founders identify what's worth building.
The problem statement that sparked SHELTR:
"Solo women travelers and backpackers exploring unfamiliar cities face safety concerns about getting lost, experiencing harassment, or encountering emergencies far from home, and they need verified local guardian networks of background-checked residents they can contact immediately if they feel threatened or require urgent assistance."
This isn't a niche problem. It's one of the most universal and underserved gaps in travel tech — and the tools to build a real solution (AI, background check APIs, real-time location infra) have never been more accessible.
- HTML / CSS / Vanilla JS — zero-dependency prototype
- Claude API (claude-sonnet-4) — AI safety assistant
- Google Fonts — Playfair Display, DM Sans, DM Mono
- Anthropic Messages API — real-time AI responses
This is an open prototype — feedback, ideas, and contributions are welcome.
If you're a:
- Solo woman traveler — your experience and feedback is the most valuable thing here. Open an issue and share your story.
- Developer — PRs welcome. See the architecture section above for what a full build would look like.
- Guardian candidate — interested in volunteering as a local guardian in your city? Open an issue tagged
guardian-signup.
MIT — use it, fork it, build on it. If you launch something real from this, pay it forward.
- Fix My Itch by Razorpay — where this problem was sourced
- razorpay-fix-my-itch topic on GitHub — other builders solving India's problems
Built with 💛 for every woman who's ever walked faster at night and wished she had someone to call.