Loz Manifesto

Honestly, I don't know why we decided to write a manifesto (mostly to add an extra link in the footer so it looks bigger 😅)

Why Loz?

Every recipe app currently on the scene is just a "collecting" app. They give you features to scroll through sites and social media, scrape recipes, and bundle them up for you in one place.

Okay, cool. But then what?

Most of what you learn while cooking just evaporates. A dish turns out perfect, or a slight tweak makes it mind-blowing, or a tiny mistake completely ruins it... And in the end, all of that gets forgotten.

At Loz, we adopt a fundamentally different model

we focus on growth. We believe a recipe isn't the final product; it's merely a "starting point" or a hypothesis. The real value is what you learn between the first and the tenth attempt. "Loz" exists to help you get better, not just to cook.

What Do We Believe In?

Iteration beats inspiration.
Data beats memory.
Written notes beat "winging it".

Improvement must be measurable

The phrase "I feel like it tastes better" isn't data. If the result changes, we want to know exactly what changed.

Imagine "Cottage Food Business" or cafes; their core pillar is flavor and Consistency. If a cookie tastes one way today and another way tomorrow, how do we figure out why? Was the issue in the measurements? Did we forget an ingredient, or was it because we swapped Lurpak butter for another brand? Improvement deserves clear evidence. (I swear this isn't an ad 🫠)

Failed attempts are research

Most apps only care about success and the picture-perfect final look of a recipe.

We care about failure, too. The dish that flopped taught you something, and the dish that succeeded taught you something else. Both need to be logged.

Our core loop is simple: Log ← Compare ← Iterate.

How Do We Build Our Product? (The Loz Philosophy)

We build tools we actually want to use

It's impossible for us to build a feature we aren't comfortable using ourselves. We care about things people use every single day, totally avoiding features built purely for flashy marketing screenshots.

Arabic First (No to "Arabish")

As an Arab Saudi app, we simply cannot prioritize English over Arabic. We deeply care about UX Writing; we strike a balance so we don't sound overly formal like robots, but we also avoid being so casual that we sound like (Spotify). We hate forced westernized Arabic and literal translations. Our community is aware and deserves a product that respects it.

The MVP is our real storefront

We don't believe the first version of a product should be "half-baked" and terrible. Simplicity is great, and lacking features early on is expected, but mediocrity is not a strategy. The first version is our very first conversation with the user, and that conversation matters to us.

Balancing Simplicity and Flexibility (Layers)

The more freedom and flexibility an app has, the less convenient it becomes, and vice versa. Staying in the sweet spot is tough, so we believe in building a product made of "layers". A beginner should be able to log their attempt with a single click without having to set up complex "projects". Meanwhile, the pro will find the space to dive deep into comparisons or use features like bulk actions and Keybindings.

Red Lines (Things We Refuse to Do)

Respect for the user and their peace of mind is our baseline, therefore:

Total transparency: You won't find any "Book a demo" tricks or "DM me for the price" nonsense here. We hate apps that hide their prices and treat you like they're selling on the black market. Equally, we hate "hidden teams" and cold apps that feel like they were built and run purely by soulless AI. That's why I share the behind-the-scenes of building and developing; as the developer and founder, I'm being straight with you from day one.
No spam or ads: We won't plaster your screen with ads (AdMob / Banners) that drain your attention.
No Pop-ups: We will not interrupt your workflow with annoying pop-ups, even if it's to announce a cool new feature.
Respecting the Inbox: The absolute worst thing in apps is that single Checkbox that forces you to agree to the Terms and subscribe to a spammy newsletter at the same time. At Loz, if we want to send you emails, we'll give it a separate box and it will be (Unchecked by default). You opt in entirely by choice.
No malicious Dark Patterns: We won't trick you, and we won't treat you as just another Metric to boost app engagement at the expense of your actual benefit.

Open Source Spirit

We love open source. Loz is heavily influenced by open-source software, and we fully believe in its value. Because of that, we plan to give back. We’ll definitely be open-sourcing parts of what we build whether it’s some of our frontend components or a core tool we cook up for our internal workflow.

Companies We Admire (And Learn From)

We look up to companies that build products people genuinely love, trust their users, and prioritize long-term reputation over fake, rapid growth (PLG).

Thmanyah: An unconventional model we're proud of in the Arab content and influence industry from transparency to incredibly creative marketing (i miss abumalih 💔 )
PostHog: Absolute legends. They hate dark patterns, value real transparency, and offer a generous free tier that's so packed with value that it feels like a mistake.
Linear: The founders of obsessing over product quality and user experience.
Raycast: A masterclass in product vision, nailing the genius balance between ease of use and hardcore customization. They are a prime example of Community-Led Growth (CLG) done right. .
37signals: The absolute kings of simplicity and clarity.

And the list goes on, of course shoutout to Notion, featurebase.app, and duolingo (in marketing).

We learn from them not to become them, but to become our own unique version.

Things We Are Still Learning

We are still learning how much organization and structure cooks actually need in the app.
We are still learning how AI can participate in the creative process of cooking.
We are still learning where simplicity should end and flexibility should begin.

Some of our current convictions will definitely change.

And some will stand the test of time. That is the very essence of building.

The Long-Term Vision

We don't want to build just another recipe app.

We are building the system people use to level up in cooking. A place where recipes evolve, experiences accumulate, and knowledge multiplies with every single attempt.

This is what we are building at "Loz".

And we're only just getting started.