Los Angeles startup connects digital stories to physical places, giving creators a new medium for storytelling and discovery
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — September 2026 — The internet has created a digital layer for nearly every part of life. Thought GPS founder Johanna Topalian thinks there is still one layer missing: the stories attached to the places around us.
Her Los Angeles-based startup, Thought GPS, is building what she calls “the audio layer for the real world”: a location-based audio platform where creators can attach short stories, observations, history, recommendations, comedy and other audio to physical places.
The idea started with a question in Los Angeles traffic.
“What were all these people thinking?”
Topalian imagined a world where people could leave thoughts and stories behind for the next person who passed through the same place. Not buried in a social media feed or dependent on someone knowing what to search for, but connected directly to streets, buildings, campuses, landmarks and neighborhoods.
“Every place has stories,” said Topalian. “But most of them are invisible unless you already know where to look. Thought GPS is about connecting those stories to the places where they actually matter.”
From a Pin on a Map to a New Kind of Media
Thought GPS allows creators to record short audio clips and attach them to real-world locations. Individual clips can stand alone or be combined into multi-stop audio tours.
A historian might explain the building someone is standing in front of. A comedian might leave an observation about a neighborhood. A local could recommend the restaurant around the corner. A university could create a campus tour. A travel creator could build an audio experience across an entire city.
The common element is place.
Instead of requiring every experience to begin with a search, feed or predetermined tour, Thought GPS is designed around the idea that the physical world itself can become a discovery interface.
The platform is now live on iPhone and Android, with creator tools that allow users to build and publish location-based audio content.
A Platform for Creators
Topalian sees Thought GPS not simply as an audio-tour app, but as a new publishing format.
Creators can build individual location-based stories or bundle them into tours, giving podcasters, comedians, historians, tour guides, travel creators, neighborhood experts and organizations another way to reach audiences.
Thought GPS is also developing creator monetization features, including paid tours, tips, subscriptions and sponsorship opportunities.
“We want creators to look at a map and think, ‘What could I put here?’” Topalian said. “A street corner can become a piece of media. A neighborhood can become a show. A city can become a collection of voices.”
That model could also extend beyond individual creators. Campuses, tourism organizations, cultural institutions and other organizations can use location-based audio to create experiences tied to their physical environments.
Building the Platform in Los Angeles
Topalian began developing Thought GPS in 2025, bringing an unconventional combination of experience to the company.
An MBA from UCLA Anderson, she has worked across entrepreneurship, technology operations, go-to-market strategy and product development. She is also a longtime stand-up comedian and has produced the independent Los Angeles comedy series Dive Bar Comedy since 2017.
Those worlds increasingly overlap inside Thought GPS.
The company is experimenting with comedian-voiced tours and other creator formats that treat location-based audio as entertainment, not simply narration. Thought GPS and Dive Bar Comedy are also bringing technology and stand-up together through live events during LA Tech Week.
For Topalian, that combination is part of a larger idea about what location technology can become.
GPS has spent decades helping people answer a practical question: Where am I going?
Thought GPS is interested in a different one:
What’s here that I would never know otherwise?
“The map already knows where you are,” Topalian said. “The interesting question is what the world around you has to say.”
About Thought GPS
Thought GPS is a Los Angeles-based location audio platform building an audio layer for the real world. Creators attach short-form audio stories and multi-stop tours to physical places, allowing people to discover history, recommendations, entertainment and local knowledge as they explore. Thought GPS Creator is available on iPhone and Android.
Press & Partnerships
partnerships@thoughtgps.com
thoughtgps.com