Founding intake is open across six paid tiers and one free Recovery tier — venues, saunas, promoters, retail, wellness, recovery, media. Pick the tier that fits what you run.
Why this exists
“I built HOTMESS because I lost Lee Harris. Scene legend, my friend, and the co-founder of this project in spirit. He took his own life last year, on the launch week of what became HOTMESS. After that it was either chems or code. I chose code.”
I've spent over a decade in London gay nightlife — promoting, DJing, building, breaking, recovering. I know what these venues actually are. Not bars. The only place some of these men have. That's why the safety infrastructure isn't a feature. It's the floor.
— Phil, founder · Full story →
The signal is already there
The work is already happening. We just give it a floor.
Active members coordinating their nights across four London gay WhatsApp groups
Messages in an 8-year export of a single 1,021-member group
Messages (18%) that map directly to HOTMESS features — no HOTMESS to channel it
Every one of those messages is your customers organising the night your venue is part of. We surface that work as a platform. You sit inside the platform. They find you faster, safer, and more consistently.
Founding tiers
Choose your tier.
Six paid tiers, plus one free care tier. Founding intake is reviewed manually — availability shifts by category and city readiness.
Your venue on the HOTMESS city layer — steady gold pin, live check-in data, and a direct line to the boys already moving through the city.
- —Live gold pin on the 3D HOTMESS globe — visible to every member in the city in real time
- —Choose your venue type: club, sauna, leather, gym, café, cruising, aftercare, or market — each has its own glyph on the globe
- —Live check-in data — see who's there, when, and how footfall trends across the week
- —2 beacon drops per quarter — fire a timed signal to nearby members with custom copy
- —Tap-Pack: 1 NFC tag + 2 QR codes (door, bar, cloakroom, toilets)
- —Your venue appears in the member stories rail with a gold ring when your beacon is live — HAPPENING TONIGHT visibility
- —Check-in analytics dashboard
- —Founding partner badge — permanent on your listing
- —Mutual commitment letter: no ads placed on your listing, no data resold, your pin is yours to withdraw
- —Annual founding rate held for as long as you renew, in good standing
Everything in Venue — plus a breathing, animated pin, full-bleed home-screen banners, push notifications, and native ticketing with QR issuance.
- —Everything in Founding Venue
- —Breathing animated pin — your globe dot visibly pulses, signalling live energy to members browsing the city
- —Full-bleed event banners on the HOTMESS home screen — your poster, ON NOW or COMING SOON badge, direct tap-through
- —Push notifications to nearby members — fire event alerts, last-entry calls, or doors-open signals
- —Native HOTMESS ticketing — sell directly to members already in the app. No separate platform, no PDF email, no forced install. QR issues the instant Stripe confirms payment — built, in controlled testing
- —0% platform fee as a founding partner — you pay Stripe processing cost only (~1.4% + 20p per UK card). Standard rate is 2–3%; DICE, Eventbrite, and RA charge 6–10%
- —Anti-tout guarantee at the system level — every ticket binds to the buyer's age-verified member profile. One ticket per member per event pool. Scanned tickets cannot be resold or transferred
- —First-class resale queue — if a holder can't attend, their QR voids on initiation; a new ticket routes automatically to the next member on the waitlist at or below the original face value
- —Guestlist per member identity — each comp and guestlist slot binds to one HOTMESS profile. No spreadsheet names, no mystery groups at the door
- —Refund in one tap — no support queue, no 5-day hold. Issue the Stripe refund from your beacon dashboard; QR voids in the same action
- —4 beacon drops per quarter
- —Tap-Pack: 2 NFC tags + 4 QR codes
- —HOTMESS Letter of Partnership — on official letterhead, recording your place in the founding cohort
- —Founding Signal badge — permanent
The flagship tier. Pulsing ring, named label on the globe, your city's Anchor designation, priority push, radio slot, and a direct operational line.
- —Everything in Founding Signal
- —Pulsing ring animation on the globe — the highest visual presence of any venue tier
- —Named label on the globe at city zoom — your venue name floats above your pin in gold
- —Your city's Anchor — one per city, named on the globe. No second Anchor appointed in your city while you hold it.
- —Priority push — your notifications are sent first in the dispatch queue
- —8 beacon drops per quarter + 1 emergency drop (deploy any time, no notice needed)
- —HOTMESS Radio slot — a dedicated presence on HOTMESS Radio for events, residencies, or editorial
- —Co-branded Tap-Pack hardware — your venue name on the physical NFC tags
- —HNH MESS launch pack — Hand in Hand care and aftercare products for your space (harm reduction infrastructure)
- —Monthly call with Phil — direct operational relationship, not a support ticket
- —Bespoke Letter of Partnership drafted for your specific premises
- —Founding Anchor badge — permanent, the rarest partner status on the platform
You move, your pin moves. Built for promoters who run nights across multiple venues — with a live migration arc on the globe.
- —Movable globe pin — update your location venue to venue, night to night
- —Live migration arc on the globe — when you activate a night, an animated arc traces from your base to the active venue, visible to all members
- —Your event appears in the member stories rail with a gold ring when live — HAPPENING TONIGHT
- —Native HOTMESS ticketing per night — sell tickets through the app members already use. No separate platform, no PDF, no forced install. QR issues the instant Stripe confirms — built, in controlled testing
- —5% platform fee on ticket sales — covers QR issuance, inventory management, the resale queue, age-verification compliance, and payout. No hidden per-ticket charges
- —Anti-tout guarantee — every ticket binds to the buyer's age-verified profile. One ticket per member per event. Scanned tickets cannot be resold or transferred
- —Resale queue built in — holder can't come? Their QR voids on initiation; a new ticket routes to the next member on the waitlist, capped at face value
- —Unlimited events and guestlist management — issue comps by member handle, not spreadsheet names. Each slot binds to one HOTMESS profile
- —Per-event attendance data — see who came, via which touch point (NFC fob, door QR, app link), and how it trends across your nights
- —Portable NFC fob + QR code — carry your HOTMESS presence in your pocket
- —4 beacon drops per quarter — fire signals wherever you're operating that night
- —Founding Promoter badge — permanent
Multi-site operator partnership. Base covers 3 locations — the globe shows a centroid parent pin with individual venue pins expanding on tap.
- —Globe pins for 3 locations — all live on the city layer simultaneously
- —Chain parent pin with venue count — one gold pin representing your estate, expands to individual venues on tap
- —Additional locations at £200/year each (no cap)
- —Pooled beacon allowance across all sites — deploy where the demand is
- —Operator partnership terms — co-authored specifically for multi-site operators, not boilerplate
- —Unified check-in and footfall data across your entire estate in one view
- —Tap-Pack hardware for each location
- —Native HOTMESS ticketing across all sites — unified pool management across all locations. Drop a beacon at any site and ticket sales open instantly
- —Anti-tout guarantee on every ticket at every location — member-identity binding, scanned-ticket resale lock, and age-verified purchase gate apply identically across your estate
- —Pooled earnings dashboard — net-to-venue (what you actually take home) across all sites in one view, broken down by location and event
- —Founding Chain badge — permanent across all your listings
Distinct visual register. Same platform. No brand gold, no nightclub tone.
Care-register presence on the HOTMESS globe — muted pin, no nightclub aesthetic, listed alongside harm reduction and recovery services.
- —Calm globe pin in the care register — visually distinct from the nightlife layer, quieter glow animation
- —Beacon category: clinic or aftercare — your specific glyph appears on the globe map
- —Check-in data — see who's engaging with your space and when
- —Your venue appears in the care circles row of the member stories rail (cream ring, not gold)
- —Tap-Pack: 1 NFC tag + 1 QR code
- —HOTMESS Letter of Partnership for your premises
- —Listed alongside harm reduction and recovery services — members find you from the care layer, not the nightlife layer
- —No brand gold, no nightclub tone — the care palette throughout all surfaces
- —Founding Wellness badge — permanent
No standard subscription fee while active. For gay recovery, harm reduction, and mental health organisations — no upsell, no data extraction.
- —Globe pin in the care register — visible to members from the care layer, distinct from nightlife
- —Beacon category: aftercare — your specific glyph on the map
- —Listed in the care circles of the member stories rail — discoverable by members in a care context, not a social one
- —No charge ever — this is not a trial, a freemium model, or a hook
- —One-page mutual commitment letter — no data extraction, no upsell, no ads, ever
- —Direct relationship with the HOTMESS team — not a support queue
- —Founding Recovery badge — permanent
Live today
The Safety Suite.
HOTMESS ships with a working harm-reduction safety suite — not a roadmap promise, real infrastructure operating now.
Silent SOS
One-tap emergency signal. Trusted contacts receive SMS via Twilio within seconds.
Fake Call
Simulated incoming call to escape uncomfortable situations. No internet required.
Check-in Timers
User sets a return-by time. If they don't dismiss it, trusted contacts get alerted.
Help Beacon
Privacy-protected globe-anchored signal. Visible to trusted contacts and venue staff if user opts in.
Trusted Contacts
User-managed, GDPR-by-design, consent-first.
Location is shared as anonymised coordinates — precise enough to help, but with no reverse lookup to addresses or venue names. Users control precision in settings. Trusted contacts can see where but never where, by name of place. GDPR Article 5 data minimisation built into the architecture.
Founding Anchor partners receive a Letter of Partnership — a one-page document on HOTMESS letterhead recording your venue's place in the founding safety network. Yours to keep.
Commerce as signal
Beacons — a signal, not noise.
Beacons are time-limited, qualifying drops that surface on the globe. They show up because they're real — not because someone paid for an ad slot.
- New product launch — first time shipping
- Sale or discount — meaningful percentage off (≥15%), real end date
- Exclusive / limited drop — capsule, collab, anniversary edition
- Founding partner exclusive — HOTMESS-member-only offer
- Event tie-in — pop-up, residency, anniversary, takeover
Beacons ship within 10 days of founding partner signup. Founding partners sold the feature in week 1 will be the first to use it.
Physical infrastructure
Your door, made tappable.
Every founding partner receives a HOTMESS Tap-Pack — NFC tags and QR backup posters. Users tap their phone on arrival. What happens:
- Verified check-in for the venue (you get the data)
- Safety Suite primed for the user (their trusted contacts can locate them)
- Globe visibility if the user opts in (your venue lights up with real-time presence)
- Beacon engagement — if you've dropped a beacon, users see it surfaced contextually on arrival
Tap-Pack ships within 14 days of founding partner signup. Anchor tier receives co-branded NFC tags plus the HNH MESS 12-bottle launch pack.
Before you sign
Questions?
What happens after my founding year?+
Founding partner status is recognised as permanent. After year 1, the relationship continues at standard rates (announced in advance), but your founding designation, badge, and Welcome Portal access stay. Tier benefits continue unless we substantially change the offering, in which case we'll notify you with reasonable transition assistance.
Refund policy?+
14-day full refund from purchase, as long as you haven't yet activated your Welcome Portal. After activation, refunds are at our discretion (we'll always be reasonable).
Are you VAT-registered?+
Smash Daddys Ltd is registered in England. VAT status is currently below threshold — your invoice will reflect this. If we register, future invoices will include VAT and you'll be notified.
How is my data handled?+
Per the partner terms. In short: your arrival data is yours, anonymised aggregates contribute to network intelligence, we never sell partner data, GDPR-architected throughout. Compliance email: compliance@hotmessldn.com.
Can I see who else is a founding partner?+
Founding cohort goes public on the platform launch. We won't disclose names until then. We can confirm partner categories in advance.
What if HOTMESS doesn't deliver on the promised features?+
Beacons and Tap-Pack are sold as week-2 features (live within 10-14 days). Globe presence and Safety Suite are live today. If a promised feature isn't operational by its date, we'll either refund the portion attributable to that feature or extend your founding year — your choice. We'll never just shrug it off.
The cohort closes
when the spots fill.
Choose your tier. Pay. Welcome Portal activates within 24 hours. Your pin appears on the globe within 48 hours.
Choose your tier →Recovery Partner (free, no sign-up) → · Media Partner enquiries