nstop

Every morning, same routine. Google Maps to check walking time to the station. NS app to see if my train is actually running. Calendar to check if I'll make my 9 AM meeting if I take the next one instead. Some mental math. Repeat.

I'm a Hungarian expat living near The Hague. I commute by train every day, and I've done this little ritual for over two years. My boyfriend does the same thing on his commute. Every expat I've talked to does some version of it.

The weird thing is: the information I actually need is just one sentence. "Leave at 8:12." But no app says that. Every Dutch transit app tells you when trains depart. None of them tell you when to leave.

That's the gap. Departure times are an intermediate step. The real question is always: given where I am, where I need to be, and when I need to be there — when should I walk out the door?

So I'm building nstop — a transit app for the Netherlands that answers that question. It connects to your calendar, knows your location, and works backward from "I need to be there at 9" to "leave now." No more triangulating between three apps.

Where it is now: The backend is live — it's ingesting real-time vehicle positions from the Dutch national transit data feed (NDOV/GOVI, a government ZeroMQ stream that pushes ~100k messages/day). The iOS app is in active development. I'm the solo dev, my boyfriend handles design and product UI/UX.

What I've learned so far:

• Getting access to Dutch government transit data requires signing an actual contract with an industry body called NDOV Loket. It took a couple of days, but the data quality is genuinely excellent.

• The Netherlands has one of the most complete open transit datasets in the world, but almost nobody has built anything consumer-facing with it beyond the incumbents (NS, 9292).

• "English-first" is a surprisingly underserved wedge. 1.5M+ expats in the Netherlands, most using English, and the default apps are Dutch-first with translations that feel like afterthoughts.

What's next: TestFlight beta in the coming months. The goal is simple: one correct, timely "leave at X" notification within two weeks of installing.

I'd love to hear from anyone who's built for a hyper-local market or a niche language/cultural segment. How did you find your first users outside your own friend group?