Sign Up<\/a><\/p>\nDisco also provides information about a destination\u2019s history, ownership, and other context when available \u2014 \u201ca Spotify for travel,\u201d as Sharma called it.<\/p>\n
She began developing the platform in February 2026 alongside Pratham Arora, Disco\u2019s chief executive officer, and Abhiyansh Arya, its chief technology officer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we started off, the core problem we wanted to solve was mediocre recommendations that don\u2019t let you explore a city meaningfully,\u201d Arora wrote in a statement. \u201cWe had a good sense of what makes a place worth going to, and wanted to see if we could abstract this decision-making and scale it for the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
The idea grew partly from Sharma\u2019s own experience moving to Philadelphia from India. Sharma said the information she received about Philadelphia centered on which neighborhoods and streets to avoid, leaving her feeling \u201cquite confined.\u201d<\/p>\n
Attending music performances and art events eventually took Sharma farther into the city, where she discovered spaces that made Philadelphia feel more familiar.<\/p>\n
\u201cI realized that there are so many South Asian artists, and galleries like Twelve Gates in the Old City, that allow international students to feel at home immediately,\u201d Sharma said.<\/p>\n
That experience led Sharma to propose a map documenting Philadelphia\u2019s public art. She eventually decided the concept would be difficult to scale and began brainstorming a digital platform that could personalize exploration.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor you to be able to make the most out of your time in a city, it has to be a personalized experience,\u201d Sharma said.<\/p>\n
Sharma primarily oversees growth and user interface design, while Arora focuses on Disco\u2019s overall strategy, product management, and fundraising as CEO. Arya leads the startup\u2019s technical development.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The three work alongside two interns, although Arora said the size of the team means each founder contributes across different areas of the business.<\/p>\n
Building Disco\u2019s Philadelphia database also exposed shortcomings in existing online recommendations. Sharma manually reviewed around 450 locations across the city to determine whether they were still operating. She found that roughly two dozen closed businesses were still being recommended online.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur most important asset is our database,\u201d Arora wrote. \u201cOur aim is to be an app that doesn\u2019t miss. No bad recommendations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Philadelphia is currently one of Disco\u2019s primary markets alongside New Delhi, but Arora said they view it as a testing ground for a product that could operate globally.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Although the platform remains free to use, the founders expect to introduce subscriptions. Sharma said the company does not plan to sell sponsored recommendations, a decision they discussed from their first day on the job.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason for our displeasure with platforms like Instagram was that there\u2019s more advertised content than genuine recommendations,\u201d Arora wrote. \u201cWe know that paid promotions for spots we recommend is not the way to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead, the founders are prioritizing user growth before revenue.<\/p>\n
Sharma said she wants Disco to become a platform users consult not only while traveling, but when making decisions on how to spend time in their own cities. She envisions users documenting places they visit and sharing recommendations with friends, creating a record of the places that shape their lives.<\/p>\n
The startup has plans to launch an app, introduce a subscription model, and expand its personalized city recommendations globally.<\/p>\n
Staff reporter Advita Mundhra covers student life and can be reached at mundhra@thedp.com<\/a>. At Penn, she studies cognitive science and economics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new platform for exploring cities with personalized itineraries has its roots at Penn. Disco \u2014 which recently…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70],"class_list":["post-281236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}