The case for partnering with Zeli early.

Zeli is pre-launch. We haven't turned on customer marketing yet, so the app isn't at scale — no fabricated numbers here. What we have is a working end-to-end product, a legal foundation, and a clear read on what Bonaire actually needs.

We're inviting a small number of partners to join before we open publicly. Not because you'll be swimming in traffic on day one — you won't — but because being the first restaurant, hotel, or shop on Zeli means shaping the product, keeping premium placement forever, and starting the flywheel with us instead of scrambling later.

• ~20,000 residents, ~180,000 annual tourists in a 288 km² area. Small enough that a local platform can serve the whole market with a modest driver fleet.
• Fragmented taxi supply: mostly independent operators, phone dispatch, cash-only, no real-time tracking, no receipts. Tourists especially struggle.
• No dominant delivery app: restaurants deliver individually (or not at all). Groceries, parapharmacy, and shops have essentially zero delivery infrastructure.
• A tech vacuum a competitor can fill in 24 hours — unless a local team gets there first with a product built for the island specifically, not a Curaçao/Aruba tool with Bonaire copy-pasted in.

That's the bet. Zeli fills that vacuum from Kralendijk, with a full stack, before anyone else does.

A production Next.js + Supabase app running on Vercel + Supabase, with these portals live:

• Customer PWA — rides (economy / comfort / premium / XL / party) and delivery in one app: restaurants, groceries, shops, parapharmacy, and peer-to-peer parcels.
• Driver app — accept, navigate, upload receipts, wallet + earnings, cash-deposit tracking, dispatch mode toggle.
• Merchant portal — menu management, promos, live order queue, prep-time controls, monthly statements.
• Dispatcher portal — live trip board, delivery orders, driver map, incident response, category maintenance mode.
• HR portal — driver applications, documents, contracts, onboarding, incidents, team access.
• Finance portal — revenue, cash deposits, driver payouts, merchant payouts, partner payouts, per-ecosystem fare pricing.
• Payment infrastructure — Stripe cards, Apple Pay / Google Pay, cash on delivery, driver wallets, customer wallets, refund flows, and 24-hour withdrawal velocity limits.
• Realtime dispatch — Postgres-based rides table with server-side filters, retry crons, and dead-letter reconciliation for money-critical events.

Every one of those exists in the codebase and runs today — this is a working platform, not slides.

• Shekhinah Tours B.V. is the operating entity. Real company, Bonaire-registered, holds the transport permit. "Zeli" is the consumer brand.
• Driver contract, merchant contract, terms of service, and privacy policy are drafted and in use.
• We follow local restricted-goods rules: no alcohol, tobacco, or prescription medication through the app. Parapharmacy is OTC only.

• Founding-partner pricing. Locked-in favorable commissions for your first 12 months, no matter how the mainstream rates land later.
• Product influence. We adjust the platform for the way Bonaire actually works. Menu section names your customers use, how you want driver hand-offs to happen, what prep-time defaults fit your kitchen — we build to match.
• Premium placement. Founding partners get priority sort in the customer feed, launch marketing co-listing, and a founding-partner badge on merchant cards.
• Own the category. First grocer on Zeli owns "groceries" in Bonaire's app-native mindshare. Same for parapharmacy, home goods, and specialty shops.
• Direct line to the team. No 800-number support. WhatsApp thread with dispatch + a founder.

• Payouts: monthly, straight to your Bonaire bank (MCB or IBAN accepted).
• Statements: downloadable per-month PDF from the merchant portal.
• Cash flow: cash orders are collected by the driver, deposited to Zeli, netted from your payout — you never handle Zeli's platform fees yourself.

You'll never be surprised by a fee. If we change something, we tell you 30 days ahead. All actual fee tables are configurable per ecosystem so we can meet different verticals where they are.

• Sign the merchant agreement (or QR partner agreement for hotels / venues).
• Give us 15 minutes to set up your menu, hours, and delivery zone in the portal.
• Test a few orders with us before we go public.
• Be honest with us — what breaks for your customers, what feels wrong, what would make you actually rely on this. We'll fix it.

• Weeks 1–2: finalize founding-partner cohort. Onboard menus, drivers, and test orders.
• Weeks 3–4: limited soft launch. Real customer orders, one ecosystem at a time.
• Weeks 5–8: open rides + food delivery to the general Bonaire market. Marketing goes live.
• Weeks 9–12: open groceries, shops, and parapharmacy.