Learn it, then show it
Learn a real fact about the city, then apply it: point out where the mayor works and say what happens there, or lead the way to Old Town Hall from memory.
“The water goes all the way to the Sound!”
For kids and grown-ups who just moved to Stamford, CT
Rooted
Settle into Stamford faster. Kids get a weekend menu of real local challenges. Grown-ups get real events to meet people. Pick one, go, and the week actually ends.
A 90-second walkthrough of the working prototype. No sign-up.
Try it on your phoneScan to open rooted.cyou
New town, full-time jobs, no friends yet, and nobody left to plan the weekend.
Households where every kid is under 6 move more than any other kind of family: 20.5% of them in a single year. More than half of parents (54%) worry how their kid will take the move, and for kids the top worry is making friends (54%).
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, “Households on the Move”; Rent.com survey via Banker & Tradesman.
No time to research
Two full careers leave no one free to also be the family’s activities researcher.
Lists that never end
Event listings and parent groups hand you more options. Nobody tells you when you’re done.
Everyone starts from zero
Kids worry about making friends. Grown-ups left their friends and coworkers behind too. Getting out into the new town is how both settle in, and it’s the first thing to slip.
Meet the Settling-In Family
- Household
- Two full-time working parents, newly relocated. Often a nanny runs the day while parents direct.
- Kids
- About 2 to 7, toddler through early elementary: the most common age to move with, and the easiest.
- Grown-ups
- New city, no network yet. They want two or three real places to meet people this week, not a feed of 200 events.
- Real pain
- Weekends are the only open family time, and there’s no spare capacity to plan them.
- What they want
- A short menu the kid chooses from, a few real events for themselves, and a way to mark things done instead of watching the list grow.
The Parkers’ weekBefore Rooted
MonWork, bothNanny pickupUnpacking
TueWork, bothNew school forms
WedWork, bothLate callDentist search
ThuWork, bothNanny pickup
FriWork, bothToo tired
Sat
?
Mill River ParkOld Town Hall
Sun
?
Lizsue BagelsWeekly recapDone
Weekend planned and closed out
How it works, for kids and grown-ups
Pick
Kids choose a real Stamford challenge, closest first. Grown-ups pick a real event, soonest first.
Go
A parent or the nanny takes the kids. Grown-ups get the time, place and link on one card, with a map.
Show it
A kid’s challenge closes when they show what they learned or a real encounter is logged, not just by showing up.
Done
A weekly recap tells the family the week is finished, and enough of them earns the kids a certificate.
Go and meet it
No quizzes. Say hello to the person behind the bagel counter, climb the wooden ship, spot the fish in the Fish Church. Closes with a logged real encounter.
“Today’s top bagel is everything!”
Meet your people
Real, hand-checked Stamford events where newcomers meet people: tech nights, trivia, founder office hours, networking. Shown as cards on a map, happening-now first.
“Vibe2Pitch is on right now at UConn!”
Kids end the week with a recap and a certificate that reflects something real, not just attendance. Grown-ups end it with a real event attended and a few new names.
The standard we borrowed: London’s “Knowledge”
To get a licence, London cab drivers memorize roughly 25,000 streets and landmarks, then prove it by driving the fastest route between any two points, on demand, with no GPS.
A 2011 study at UCL found that trainees who passed showed measurable growth in the hippocampus, the brain’s memory and navigation center. A credential means something because it was shown in the real city.
25,000streets and landmarks
3–4 yrsto prepare
Try it: Jack’s first Stamford weekend
This is the working prototype for kids. Start fresh with your own explorer, or press play and watch Jack, age 6, go from “we just moved” to a certificate. For grown-ups, open Ask Rooted and tap “Meet people in Stamford”.
- Pick the trackA short chat: zip code, name and age, and what they’re curious about. Age sets the track.
- Choose and close challengesReal Stamford places sorted by distance. Track A closes when it’s demonstrated; Track B when a real encounter is logged.
- Wrap up the weekCount what they gave back, then a recap that says the week is done.
- Reveal the certificateStamford Explorer, Tier 1, with the child’s name, date, categories and challenges. Download or print.
During the walkthrough: Space pauses, the right arrow skips ahead, Esc stops. Progress is saved on this device only.
Why not just use what’s already out there?
| What a busy family needs | Event listing | Parent group | Welcome packet | General AI chatbot | Rooted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Curates for you | No | No | Partly | Partly | |
| Kid has a real choice | No | No | No | No | |
| Gives closure, not an endless list | No | No | No | No | |
| Works when the nanny runs the day | n/a | n/a | n/a | No | |
| Builds toward a credential | No | No | No | No | |
| A short list of real events to meet people | Partly | Partly | No | Partly | |
| Knows if it’s talking to a kid or a grown-up | n/a | n/a | n/a | No | |
| Answers at a kid’s level, no open-ended chat | n/a | n/a | n/a | No | |
| Facts checked by a local person | Partly | No | Partly | No |
No event listing tells your kid to learn the bagel shop owner’s name, or to point out where the mayor works and explain what happens there. That’s curated knowledge, proven the way a London cabbie proves “The Knowledge”: by driving the route, not naming it.
And a general AI chatbot never knows who is typing. Rooted does: a grown-up sets Kids or Grown-ups mode, and only a grown-up can switch back. In Kids mode answers are short and simple, stick to kid challenges, and never show outside links or events. Kids never get an open-ended chat; the AI only checks what they learned and gives a gentle hint.
What we’re standing on
Research Sourced
Experts recommend exploring the new area together and connecting with local groups as the standard way to help kids adjust after a move. Households with young kids move most often, and kids’ biggest worry after a move is making friends.
Our insight Not yet independently sourced
Two full careers leave no spare bandwidth to also curate enrichment. The certificate’s job is closure for the parent and pride for the kid, not proof for anyone outside the family.
Where AI helps Claude on Bedrock
- Tour-guide check. A kid explains a place in their own words; Claude decides whether it shows real understanding and gives a gentle hint if not.
- Ask Rooted. Plans the family’s weekend and finds real events for grown-ups to meet people, shown as cards on a map. In Kids mode it answers in short, simple words and only about kid challenges.
- Built with AI. Designed in Figma, coded with Claude and ChatGPT.
Place facts checked against the National Register of Historic Places listing and stamfordhistory.org (Old Town Hall), Mill River Park Collaborative and CT Public (Mill River Park), fishchurch.org and SAH Archipedia (First Presbyterian Church), and the Stamford Museum & Nature Center. The Knowledge: Woollett & Maguire, Current Biology, 2011.
What we’d build and test next
What we’re asking for
Families who just moved to Stamford and want to pilot, local places that would host a challenge, event organizers who welcome newcomers, and relocation or HR partners who meet families first.
Team 8
H
Helen
Data, Stamford content and the pitch
P
Peter
AI prompts, backend and deployment
M
Mujtaba
Design, UI and deployment