Mo Dawod with his Sunseekr map app SWNS
In cloudy old England, an architect has created his own phone app that displays which pubs are currently in the sunshine.
Mo Dawod was out in London in April last year when he decided that he wanted an iced coffee in the sunshine, but there was no way to know which cafes would be blanketed in shade.
So, later that night, he created his own mobile map using publicly available data, such as a building’s height and footprint, to create a shadow simulation for pubs, restaurants, and cafes.
What started as a simple ‘hack’ for himself quickly turned into the number one app in the UK—called Sunseekr—and Mo has since quit his day job in architecture to pursue it full time.
“I decided to share it with the community to see if anyone was also struggling like me and would be interested,” said the 34-year-old. “People went crazy. It went so viral on Reddit that night.
“I was astonished and shocked. After that I decided to make it as an app.”
“The app went number one in the UK in the lifestyle category four days after it became real. It was so surreal that all this happened from me just wanting to have an iced coffee.”
Mo, who is originally from Egypt, next looked at how to monetize his invention so he could pay his bills while operating the Sunseekr app—now with over 250,000 users.
Sunseekr / SWNS
Last summer, he managed to get a sponsorship from Aperol, who used his map to create their own version showing where people could drink an aperitivo of Aperol Spritz in the sunshine.
With the app becoming less popular in the winter months, the founder decided to use the time to work on leveling-up the experience with new elements.
Venues now have a chance to be more featured, uploading pictures of their venue, mapping the garden, and pushing themselves on the explore page for £350 a year.
It uses a moon emoji if the location is in the shade, and a sun if it’s not. The app can also notify you when your favorite spot is getting sun beamed, displays closing and opening times, and offers the ability to leave comments and reviews.
“When I built this app it was more of a hack for the problem I had. Now I am trying to take it to the next level. I have rebuilt the whole app for summer 2026.
“It has been for me such a crazy journey. It was so unexpected. I never thought I would be running such a platform. I am so happy that I managed to put this together.”
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Sunseekr was also launched in other countries such as Germany and Spain.
“We reworked the app from the ground up to map the actual outdoor areas and show people, hour by hour, how much sun you will be having.
The company is now asking the community to help map more pubs because they don’t have the manpower to go and map every single venue in the country.
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