A second ramen shop where the lunch crowd is

Kenji owns a small ramen shop in Calgary’s Beltline. The line goes out the door, so he wants a second one. Three empty storefronts are up for lease, and he has a week to choose. He drives past each one at lunch, counts noodle bars by eye, and guesses who could reach him in a January snowstorm. Pick wrong, and the lease runs five years. With xMap Flows, Kenji built Compass. On the first of each month, Compass draws everything within fifteen minutes by car of each storefront, finds the noodle bars, offices and colleges inside, works out the lunch crowd for every rival, puts the best site first, and emails Kenji the answer. Compass is clear. Kensington has nineteen offices and two colleges within fifteen minutes, and only one ramen shop. Inglewood has six rivals. Kenji signs for Kensington that Friday, and the new shop sells out its first weekend. Kenji stopped driving around to guess. Now he knows where they are hungry.

The story in words