Make real friends. Offline, for real.
Dostbox is a friendship-first community where students and young professionals find people who share their interests, join groups near them and meet in person: movies, gaming, treks, picnics and chill-outs. You run it, sell it and earn from it. Members and local partners pay a subscription; joining groups and plans is free for everyone.
dostboxDost means friend. The box holds the plans, the groups and the people.
Not a dating app that also has friends, but a friendship app where dating is possible.
The idea
Every young person in a city should find their people and a plan for this weekend within five minutes of signing up. Dostbox starts in Mumbai and MMR, with groups by neighbourhood, interest, college and profession.
Who it is for
Students, Gen Z professionals and, in a restricted Junior Mode, Gen Alpha teens. Plus the local partners who host the plans: venues, adventure and event organisers, gaming cafés, villas, mentors and course makers.
How it earns
Subscriptions only: member packages bought on dostbox.com and partner packages for vendors, merchants and mentors, invoiced by STARTIONS LLP. No booking commission: members pay partners directly through the partner's own gateway.
From a match to a meetup, with safety built in.
A bright, playful site and apps on dostbox.com: every member gets a Dost Card, a small daily deck of people, groups to belong to and plans to say yes to.
Dost Card
A profile built around interests, with Nickname Mode for people who would rather not show their full name yet.
Dost Deck
A small daily set of suggested people. Chat opens only when both tap yes, so nobody gets a flood of messages.
Groups
City, neighbourhood, interest, college and profession groups with posts, polls and group chat.
Plans in 30 seconds
Make a plan, share it, collect RSVPs, keep a waitlist and let people Bring-a-Dost.
Free Tonight
See who is free in the next three hours and turn an empty evening into a plan.
Mood discovery
Pick a mood, not a category: Dostbox suggests plans and people that fit it.
Warm-up Ladder
Small steps for shy members, from a group poll to a group chat to a group meetup.
Reliability and streaks
A reliability score and offline streaks that count real meetups, not app opens.
Safe Meet kit
Public-venue plans, check-in and check-out, an SOS button and trusted contacts emailed.
Junior Mode
13–15 and 16–17 see only their own age band, with parent consent; parents approve each plan for 13–15.
Verified badge
A selfie with ID, or a college check, before the badge shows.
Dating Mode
Only in Ultra Premium, only for verified adults (18+). Friendship comes first everywhere else.
Private screenings, gaming slots and movie nights from local partners.
Treks, kayaking, rafting, camping and picnic packages, with licensed operators.
See who is around in the next three hours and make it a plan.
Partners run courses on the STARTIONS kit's LMS; members join with friends.
Pain points of young people, solved
- Lonely in a new city: groups by area and interest
- Plans that never happen: 30-second plans with RSVP
- Shy: the Warm-up Ladder
- Flaky people: reliability scores
- Unsafe meetups: the Safe Meet kit
- Endless swiping: a small daily Dost Deck
For partners: vendors, merchants, mentors
- A storefront at dostbox.com/<name>
- Tickets, packages, villas, slots, treks, courses
- Group bookings with split payments
- Early-access and VIP coupons for members
- Sponsored plans and group messages
- Reviews, quality score and analytics
For parents of teens
- Junior Mode for 13–15 and 16–17
- Only their own age band is visible
- Parent consent to join
- Parents approve each plan for 13–15
- Public-venue plans with check-in
- No Dating Mode, ever
You run it from Nirmata.
Dostbox runs on the STARTIONS kit. Its startup panel in Nirmata is where the team works: Sales sees partner leads and packages, Marketing runs campaigns, groups and city launches, Operations handles safety, verification and support.
Dostbox board
Members, plans, groups, revenue and safety alerts on one screen.
Verification queue
Members waiting for the Verified badge, checked against the written guide.
Safety queue
SOS alerts, reports and strikes, worked by Operations with STARTIONS behind them.
Groups and plans moderation
Keep groups friendly and plans in public venues; hide what breaks the rules.
Partner reviews
KYC and safety review (adventure activities need a licence); students recommend, STARTIONS approves.
Trusted badges
Trusted Partner and Trusted Gold for partners who earn them.
Partner leads
Sales follows venues, organisers and mentors from first call to paid package.
Packages and prices
Founders and Co-Founders edit partner packages, member-package prices and the Dating Mode Spark cap; every change is audit-logged.
Partners and members, two ways to earn.
Partner packages: vendors, merchants and mentors
- A storefront at dostbox.com/<name>
- Listings with slots and group bookings
- A sponsored plan and courses on the LMS
- Paid straight into your own gateway
- Everything in Standard, more listings
- Messages to hyperlocal groups
- Analytics, events and courses
- Trusted Partner badge after review
- Everything in Premium, no listing caps
- Top banners and video
- Lead insights
- Trusted Gold badge after review
Member packages, bought on dostbox.com
- A bigger daily Dost Deck
- Advanced filters, no ads
- A video intro on your Dost Card
- Early-access partner coupons
- Everything in Standard, more of it
- Priority in circles, fast track
- A monthly profile boost
- 7-day free trial, once
- Everything in Premium
- VIP partner coupons
- Dating Mode: 18+ and verified only
- Priority support with call-back
Prices as set for Dostbox today; the partner packages' billing period and the GST treatment of member prices are still to be confirmed. STARTIONS can change prices at any time; Founders and Co-Founders edit packages too, and every change is audit-logged. Joining groups and plans is free for everyone, and Dostbox takes no commission on bookings.
What a Student Admin does.
Find
Sign up local partners: gaming cafés, screening rooms, trek and camping organisers, villas, workshop hosts and mentors.
Launch
Start groups by neighbourhood, college and interest, run campaigns and open new areas of Mumbai and MMR.
Keep it safe
Work the verification and safety queues, moderate groups and plans, review partners for STARTIONS to approve.
Grow
Members moving up to Premium and Ultra Premium, partners upgrading, renewals, and the next city.
Students never create partner accounts, change plans or read members' private chats: partners and members sign up on dostbox.com, and every plan change comes from a verified payment.
Everything a founder needs, from day one.
Your Nirmata panel
Dostbox's startup panel: the Dostbox board, verification and safety queues, groups and plans moderation, partner reviews, packages and finances.
Business email on dostbox.com
yourname@dostbox.com for every partner pitch and campus visit.
Free tech support
The STARTIONS tech team runs hosting, payments, updates and fixes. You run the business.
Premium Bitrix24 CRM
Your pipeline of partners and campaigns, tasks per role and invoices, synced with the kit.
A domain
dostbox.com with certificates handled for you.
Brand logo and identity
The Dostbox look: violet, coral, sunny yellow and mint on deep ink, across the site, the apps and the workspace.
A live product ready to sell
Dost Cards, the Dost Deck, groups, plans, Free Tonight, the Safe Meet kit, Junior Mode and the partner portal are built, with Android and iPhone apps (store release pending developer accounts). Your job starts at the first partner.
Four roles, one profit pool, paid to students.
100% of Dostbox's net profit goes to its students; STARTIONS takes none of it. Each role has a share of the pool, split equally among that role's seats and paid once a year after the financial year ends, as Startup Execution Remuneration with TDS deducted.
Founder
Leads Dostbox, owns the sales targets and the team, prices and edits packages, sits on the Finance Committee.
Co-Founder
Runs a department (Sales, Marketing or Operations) with the Founders, prices and edits packages, sits on the Finance Committee.
Teammate
Runs a sub-team such as Customer Onboarding, Support, Online or Branding & Content. Views packages.
Intern
Learns inside a department alongside the team. Views everything; earns the experience and the certificate.
Every department (Sales, Marketing, Operations) has three sub-teams, and the whole team takes part in a Lean Startup strategy review every quarter. Five consecutive paid years with an active seat earn ownership: 11% shared by Founders, 11% by Co-Founders and 11% by Teammates, growing 20% a year on your dashboard certificate. A Major startup can take a ₹75,000 STARTIONS loan for operating costs on a unanimous vote of all 27 seats.
Who is already on the team.
Every box is one seat of Dostbox, live from Nirmata. Tap the i on any seat to see its responsibilities, expectations and tasks; tap an open seat to take it and pay here. A seat turns "Taken" the moment its payment is verified.
Seats and yearly fees by startup type, with the readiness discount
| Startup type | Founders | Co-Founders | Teammates | Interns | Seats | All seats, a year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yearly seat fee | ₹97,200 | ₹72,900 | ₹40,500 | ₹18,000 | ||
| With readiness, 30% off | ₹68,040 | ₹51,030 | ₹28,350 | ₹12,600 | ||
| Solo | 1 | — | — | 5 | 6 | ₹1,87,200 |
| Micro | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 9 | ₹3,96,000 |
| Mini | 2 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 18 | ₹7,92,000 |
| Major This one | 3 | 6 | 6 | 12 | 27 | ₹11,88,000 |
| Mega | 4 | 8 | 8 | 16 | 36 | ₹15,84,000 |
Fees in INR, the same for every type, plus 18% GST. Seat fees are STARTIONS' income, not the startup's revenue. Each student chooses manual or automatic yearly renewal.
- Founder 80–100
- Co-Founder 60–79
- Teammate 40–59
- Intern 0–39
Clear the readiness test, get 30% off your seat.
Take the free Startions Readiness Score test: ten questions, about three minutes. Your score places you at a level, from Intern up to Founder. If your level matches the role you apply for, or is higher, you get a flat 30% discount on that role's annual seat fee.
| Your score | 30% off these seats |
|---|---|
| 80–100 · Founder level | Founder ₹68,040, Co-Founder ₹51,030, Teammate ₹28,350, Intern ₹12,600 |
| 60–79 · Co-Founder level | Co-Founder ₹51,030, Teammate ₹28,350, Intern ₹12,600 |
| 40–59 · Teammate level | Teammate ₹28,350, Intern ₹12,600 |
| 0–39 · Intern level | Intern ₹12,600 |
For example, a score of 65 is Co-Founder level: you get 30% off a Co-Founder, Teammate or Intern seat, but not a Founder seat. A score at Teammate level gets 30% off a Teammate or Intern seat only. Discounted fees shown are a year, before 18% GST. Your best result of the last 30 days counts, one result discounts one seat, and that seat keeps the discount every year you renew it. Your first attempt is free, and you can retake the test up to five times.
What a seat could pay back.
Move the sliders. Partner packages are Dostbox's revenue here (ex-GST); member packages would add to it. Approved costs come off; a tax reserve is kept aside; the rest is net profit, split into the role pools and shared per seat.
Plans: Standard ₹4,995 / Premium ₹9,995 / Ultra Premium ₹19,995 a year, ex-GST, as set in Nirmata today. Revenue counts in the month it is paid. Each role's pool is split equally among its seats, assuming every seat is filled; a role with fewer students pays each of them more. Paid once a year, after 31 March, with TDS deducted. A loss is not paid out and carries forward.
Money partners pay the startup each month, 24 months
An illustration from the numbers you set, not a promise. Income depends on the customers your team signs and keeps.
Four steps to your first partner.
Book a clarity call
Thirty minutes on Dostbox, the open seats, the readiness discount and what your first 30 days look like.
Pick your role
Founder, Co-Founder, Teammate or Intern, and the department you will run.
Take your seat
STARTIONS invites you; pay the seat fee and get your Nirmata login, dostbox.com email and Bitrix24 CRM.
Start selling
Sign up the first partners, launch the first groups in your area and get the first plans on the board.
Before you apply.
Is Dostbox a dating app?
No. It is a friendship app where dating is possible: Dating Mode exists only in Ultra Premium, only for verified adults (18+). Everything else is about friends, groups and real plans.
Can school students join the team?
Yes, as Interns (Std 8 to 10). Founder and Co-Founder roles are for 18+. Teen members of the product use Junior Mode, where they see only their own age band and parents approve plans for 13–15.
Does Dostbox handle partners' money?
No. Members pay partners directly through the partner's own payment gateway, and Dostbox takes no commission. Dostbox earns only from member and partner packages, invoiced by STARTIONS LLP.
Can I read members' chats or see their details?
No. Students work from queues, totals and reports. Safety and verification follow written guides, and STARTIONS makes the final calls on partners.
Do I need to code?
No. The product, the apps, hosting and payments are built and run by STARTIONS. You find partners, grow groups and keep the community safe.
What is the readiness discount?
Take the Startions Readiness Score test: if your level matches the role you apply for, or a higher one, you get 30% off that role's yearly seat fee (see the seat table above).
Is income guaranteed?
No. The calculator is an illustration from the numbers you set. Results depend on the partners and members your team signs and keeps.
Ready to run Dostbox?
Book a clarity call and we will walk you through the open seats, the pricing, the readiness discount and your first 30 days.