Dorado — Documentation

Dorado helps entrepreneurs, franchise operators, and real estate developers identify the best locations for a new business. It overlays a scored hexagonal grid on a live map, combining population data, economic activity, and competitor density into a single visual intelligence layer.

Think of it as a treasure map — deep blue hexagons are high-opportunity locations, pale hexagons are saturated or low-demand areas.

How to use Dorado

Search for a city or area using the search box in the top bar. Type any city, neighbourhood, or address and select from the dropdown. The map will jump to that location.

Choose a business category from the dropdown selector. This is the type of business you are prospecting for — for example Pharmacy Supermarket Restaurant. The category is used to count competitors in each hex cell.

For advanced users, select Custom tag… at the bottom of the list to enter an OpenStreetMap tag directly — for example shop:optician building:retail leisure:swimming_pool. Any valid OSM key:value tag is supported. You can browse available tags at taginfo.openstreetmap.org.

Zoom in until the Analyze button is enabled. The grid appears at zoom level 14 and above. If there are more than 500 cells visible the Analyze button is disabled — zoom in further to reduce the cell count.

Click Analyze ▶ to score all visible cells. Dorado queries OnCoord services simultaneously, colors each hexagon based on its opportunity score, and places red pins showing the exact locations of competitors in the map view.

Click any hexagon to inspect it. The info panel shows the full data breakdown — population, economic activity, urbanity, competitor counts, and the area POI mix. You can click cells before running Analyze to query them individually on demand.

Pan to a new area and click Analyze to score the new cells. Use Clear to reset all scores and start fresh.

What the colors mean

Fill color represents the Opportunity Score (1–10). Border color represents competitor saturation.

Fill color	Score	Meaning
Deep navy	9 – 10	Market gap — high demand, few or no competitors
Strong blue	7 – 8	High opportunity — strong demand, limited competition
Mid blue	5 – 6	Moderate — viable entry, some competition present
Light blue	3 – 4	Competitive — market exists but crowded
Near transparent	1 – 2	Saturated or low demand — avoid

A gold border means that cell is currently selected.

How the score is calculated

Each cell is scored using data from three OnCoord services:

Demand (65% of score)
  · Population density — residents per km² from the OnCoord population service
  · Development index — economic activity derived from VIIRS nightlight data
  · Urbanity index — richness of POI categories within 1km from Pelias/Elasticsearch

Supply penalty (35% of score)
  · Count of your chosen category within the cell radius from the OnCoord POI nearby service
  · Competitor pins are fetched for the entire mapview in one call and counted per cell
  · 0 competitors → no penalty | 6+ competitors → heavy penalty

score = clamp( demand − supply_penalty, 1, 10 )

Cell sizes by zoom level

Zoom level	Cell size	Best used for
10 – 11	2km	City-wide overview, regional comparison
12 – 13	1km	Neighbourhood-level analysis
14+	500m	Street-level site selection

Business categories

Categories use OpenStreetMap tags in key:value format. The tag is used to search for competitors in the OnCoord POI index. Examples:

amenity:pharmacy amenity:restaurant amenity:bank amenity:fuel shop:supermarket cuisine:italian cuisine:pizza shop:car_repair tourism:hotel

Tips

· Start at zoom 12–13 (1km cells) for neighbourhood-level prospecting — it balances coverage and detail.

· Deep blue + blue border is the prime signal — high demand, zero competitors.

· Deep blue + amber/red border means the area is hot but already served. Consider whether you can differentiate.

· Pan freely after Analyze — scored cells keep their color. Only new unscored cells appear transparent as you move.

· Click any cell to see the full data breakdown even without running Analyze. Useful for spot-checking specific locations.

· Change category and click Clear to re-analyze the same area for a different business type.

How usage is counted

Dorado usage counts against your OnCoord API quota. Here is exactly what is logged:

Action	API calls logged
Click Analyze ▶	4 entries — one each for nearby competitors, population, activity, and POI density, regardless of the number of cells in view.
Click a hex cell	2 entries — one for the reverse geocode and one to retrieve nearby competitors. Supporting data calls (population, activity, POI density) are not counted.
Type in the search box

You can monitor your usage from the OnCoord's Usage Dashboard.