Blik — a marketplace for home services in Toronto
A mobile-first marketplace that connects Toronto homeowners with vetted local pros for cleaning, painting, car detailing, and more — discovered on a live map of the city.
- Role
- Product strategy · UX/UI design · iOS + Android build
- Visit
- theblik.ca ↗
The problem
Booking a cleaner, painter, or car detailer in Toronto means scrolling through Yelp, calling three numbers, and hoping someone shows up. Blik came to us with a simple ask: turn that mess into a two-tap booking experience — anchored to where you actually live.
What we shipped
A mobile-first marketplace for the Toronto market. Browse home services on a live map, chat with providers in-app, manage bookings, pay, and rate — all without leaving the conversation.
Three product surfaces, one experience
1. Discovery — a real map of the city
Your address pins to a live map showing every vetted pro within range. No more “service area not covered” surprises after the fact. The home screen leads with service categories — Cleaning, Painting, Car Detailing — each with motion-rich icons that hint at what’s behind the tap. A “Recommended for you” carousel surfaces pros most relevant to your block.
2. Booking — provider profiles and instant scheduling
Tap a category, see the soonest-available pro, the per-hour rate, and a real human profile with rating and reviews. Two taps from “I need a cleaner tonight” to a confirmed 5pm slot.
3. Wallet — payments that don’t break the flow
A virtual Blik card stored in-app, with PayPal and Apple Pay as fallbacks. Receipts auto-attach to past bookings. No emailing invoices back and forth.
”Soft Code took our hand-drawn flow and turned it into a product that actually feels like Toronto. The map alone got us 30% more first bookings.”Laura · Project Manager, Blik
The technical stack
- Mobile: React Native — single codebase across iOS and Android, with native maps and Apple Pay / Google Pay integrations.
- Backend: TypeScript + Postgres + a queue for asynchronous booking confirmations and provider notifications.
- Maps & geo: Mapbox for the discovery view; Postgres + PostGIS for “pros within 10 km of you” queries.
- Identity & payments: Stripe Connect for the two-sided marketplace flow (payouts to providers happen automatically), Apple Pay + Google Pay + PayPal at checkout.
- Real-time chat: WebSocket layer on top of Redis pub/sub — booking confirmations, photos, and updates all live in one thread per booking.
Outcome
Live on iOS, Android, and web. Used by 100+ Toronto homeowners across cleaning, painting, and car detailing. We continue to iterate with the team on category expansion (handyman, snow removal, dog walking) and the provider-side dashboard.