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Press Kit, First Out, Updated 2026

A non-coder strategist built a tube exit app for every London Underground station, line, and door, working alone with AI tools. 383 stations. 19 lines. Front, middle, or back, every time.

The fastest way off the tube. Free PWA, no account, works offline. Now coming to the App Store.

London's only door-side, exit-position, Parent-Mode tube guide.

Back to First Out Copy press release Get quotes
383 Stations Every Tube, DLR, Elizabeth, Overground
19 Lines The full London network
183 Step-free Verified from TfL data
1 Builder Solo, non-coder, AI tools
£0 To use No account, works offline
Media enquiries: Mike Litman · hello@mikelitman.me Free to use · Attribution: First Out (firstout.app)

The Story Four beats. Lift verbatim.

1
The hook
"Standing in the wrong place costs you 60 seconds. Every journey."

Every London commuter has had the moment: doors open, you step off, and you are at the wrong end of the platform. The escalator is a 90-second walk through the wrong-direction crowd. The exit is behind you. The information was always knowable. Nobody had ever organised it.

2
The scale
383 stations. 19 lines. Every door, every direction, every exit.

First Out covers the entire London network: 11 Tube lines, the Elizabeth line, the DLR, and all six newly-named London Overground lines (Lioness, Mildmay, Windrush, Weaver, Suffragette, Liberty). For every station, on every line, in both directions, the app tells you the best carriage to board, the platform position to stand in, and which side the doors will open. The TfL data layer adds 183 step-free stations, 131 with lifts, 143 with toilets.

3
The builder
No team. No engineers. No Jira board. One strategist with AI tools.

Mike Litman is a 15+ year strategy director in advertising, not a developer. He built First Out alone using AI as the leverage layer: structuring data, writing code, testing edge cases. The product covers the full London network and ships as a Progressive Web App today, with an iOS build queued for the App Store. The same data engine also powers Buggy Smart, the pram-focused sibling product for parents navigating with a pushchair.

4
The moment
A new category of maker is shipping real London infrastructure tools.

First Out is part of a quiet shift: people without engineering backgrounds building useful, real-world software using AI. No bootcamp. No co-founder. No funding round. The deeper story is not the app, it is who built it, and how that changes who gets to make things for a city of nine million people.

Story Angles Pre-written pitches, lift any of them.

Technology / AI-native building
A non-coder strategy director built a full London tube app, alone, using AI as the engineering team

Mike Litman spent 15+ years in advertising. He is not a developer. Using AI tools as the build layer, he shipped First Out as a complete Progressive Web App covering all 383 stations and 19 lines in the London network. The product is in the App Store submission queue. The story is not the tube. The story is that the gatekeepers to building software just changed.

Accessibility
The tube app that actually answers the question disabled and family travellers ask first: where is the lift, and is it working?

"Step-free" on most maps is binary: can you avoid stairs, yes or no? That is the wheelchair-user lens. Parents with buggies, travellers with luggage, and anyone with limited mobility need more: how wide is the platform gap, where exactly is the lift, is there a quieter route. First Out surfaces this on every relevant station, with a Parent Mode toggle that switches the whole product into family-first mode. 183 stations have step-free routing from the TfL accessibility data.

Data
The first complete, machine-readable dataset of exit positioning for the London Underground

TfL publishes accessibility, lifts, escalators, and platform measurements. It does not publish "best carriage for exit." That knowledge has lived in commuter folklore for a century. First Out collects, structures, and exposes it for every station, every line, every direction, every exit. The dataset is the product. The app is the interface.

Local / London
The first London tube app to launch with the new Overground line names baked in: Lioness, Mildmay, Windrush, Weaver, Suffragette, Liberty

TfL renamed the Overground lines in 2024. Most apps still treat the Overground as one orange tangle. First Out launches with all six lines named, coloured, and routed correctly from day one, alongside the Elizabeth line and the DLR. A native Londoner built it for the network as it actually is in 2026.

Human interest
From advertising strategist to solo product builder: what happens when one person can ship infrastructure

Mike Litman's day job for 15+ years was strategy at agencies including MediaMonks, R/GA, and Contagious. He has a young kid, a household, and no engineering team. He built First Out in the gaps. The same engine powers Buggy Smart, the pram-focused product he shipped for parents. Two brands, one dataset, one person, one shift in what is possible.

Product / consumer
A free, no-account, fully-offline London tube app that works underground when nothing else does

First Out has no login, no ads, no tracking. The core feature, positioning data for every station, works without any internet connection. Built specifically for the moment you are deep underground with no signal and need to know which carriage to board. The product is free, full stop.

Founder Quotes Attributed to Mike Litman. Lift freely.

"Standing in the wrong place costs you 60 seconds. Every journey. Over a year of commuting, that is hours of your life back."
Mike Litman, founder, First Out, on the core insight
"I am not a developer. I am a strategy director with 15 years in advertising. I built the whole thing with AI tools. No team. No sprint planning. No Jira board. We are not pretending. Non-coders are not cosplaying as developers. We are a new category of maker."
Mike Litman, founder, First Out, on who built it
"Step-free was designed for wheelchair users. It answers a binary question: can you avoid stairs, yes or no. But parents with buggies, travellers with luggage, and anyone with limited mobility need completely different information. Nobody was answering those questions. So I built the answer."
Mike Litman, founder, First Out, on Parent Mode and accessibility
"The hardest part was not the code. It was the decisions. Which audiences to serve. How to position the product. What to surface first. What to leave out. Those are strategy decisions. And they are the decisions AI cannot make for you."
Mike Litman, founder, First Out, on building with AI

The Data Lines covered, per the London network as of 2026.

Every line on the London Underground, plus the Elizabeth line, the DLR, and all six renamed London Overground lines. Station counts include shared interchanges. Free to screenshot. Attribution: First Out (firstout.app).

Line
Stations
Share
Bakerloo
25
7%
Central
45
12%
Circle
35
9%
District
57
15%
Hammersmith & City
29
8%
Jubilee
27
7%
Metropolitan
35
9%
Northern
49
13%
Piccadilly
53
14%
Victoria
16
4%
Waterloo & City
2
1%
Elizabeth
12
3%
DLR
45
12%
Lioness (Overground)
19
5%
Mildmay (Overground)
28
7%
Windrush (Overground)
30
8%
Weaver (Overground)
25
7%
Suffragette (Overground)
13
3%
Liberty (Overground)
3
1%
Accessibility data layer

From the TfL accessibility dataset, integrated into First Out: 183 stations with step-free access (140 full, 21 partial, 22 step-free interchange). 131 stations have lifts. 143 stations have toilets. Every accessible station is surfaced in the app with lift locations and gap warnings, and the entire product flips to family-first mode under Parent Mode.

Draft Press Release Plain language. Edit hints in brackets.

For immediate release. London. 2026.

A non-coder strategist has built First Out, a London tube exit positioning app covering all 383 stations and 19 lines, working alone with AI tools and no engineering team.

First Out (firstout.app) tells passengers exactly where to stand on the platform, front, middle or back, for the fastest exit at every London Underground, Elizabeth line, DLR, and London Overground station. The app covers all 11 Tube lines, the Elizabeth line, the DLR, and all six renamed Overground lines (Lioness, Mildmay, Windrush, Weaver, Suffragette, Liberty). Every direction, every door, every exit.

It is the first product of its kind to launch with the new Overground line naming baked in, and the first to integrate the TfL accessibility dataset into an exit-position interface: 183 step-free stations are surfaced with lift locations, gap warnings, and a Parent Mode that flips the whole product into family-first mode for travellers with pushchairs, luggage, or limited mobility.

First Out was built by Mike Litman, a strategy director with 15+ years across agencies including MediaMonks, R/GA, and Contagious, working without a development team. The product was built using AI tools as the engineering layer, shipped as a free Progressive Web App that works fully offline, and is currently being prepared for the App Store.

"Standing in the wrong place costs you 60 seconds. Every journey. Over a year of commuting, that is hours of your life back," said Litman. "I am not a developer. I built the whole thing with AI tools. The hardest part was not the code. It was the decisions: which audiences to serve, what to surface first, what to leave out. Those are strategy decisions, and they are the decisions AI cannot make for you."

First Out is free to download and use. No account, no tracking, works offline underground. No paid tier, no ads, no upsell.

About First Out: First Out is a London tube exit positioning tool covering 383 stations and 19 lines. Free PWA, iOS app in submission. Built by Mike Litman, founder, Cultural Capital Labs. The same data engine also powers Buggy Smart (buggysmart.app), the pram-focused sibling product.

Media contact: Mike Litman, hello@mikelitman.me, firstout.app/press.html

Social Copy Pre-written, one click, lift any of them.

For Journalists

Exclusive offer for press

What you get if you cover First Out before anyone else

Get in touch before publishing and you can have any or all of the following, free, with credit to First Out (firstout.app):

  • Custom dataset slice for your borough, line, or accessibility angle, formatted to your spec (CSV or JSON)
  • Demo walk-through of any tube journey on camera or via screen recording, suitable for video and broadcast
  • Founder interview with Mike Litman on the non-coder, AI-native build process, day or night, London-friendly hours
  • Early access to upcoming features (commute analytics, AR wayfinding, Apple Watch widget) for an exclusive lead
  • High-resolution app screens for any station, line, or feature, captured to your dimensions

Reach out at hello@mikelitman.me with the angle and we will move fast.

About the Founder

Background

Mike Litman is a London-based digital strategist and product builder. 15+ years in advertising, most recently as Senior Director at MediaMonks where he founded the agency's Web3 brand strategy capability.

Past roles include Innovation Strategy Director at Digital Frontier, Head of Digital at Contagious, and senior strategy positions at R/GA, Dare, Poke, and AnalogFolk.

Now building full-time under Cultural Capital Labs.

Credentials
  • BIMA 100 Tech Pioneer
  • Published author, "Getting Started with Web3 and NFTs" (BCS, 2024)
  • Client roster includes Nike, Adidas, Google, Meta, Gucci, BMW, P&G, EA, Netflix, Sony
  • 20+ live AI-native projects shipped since 2025
  • First Out is one of four live voice and product projects, alongside Buggy Smart, First Order, and The Queue Index

Media Contact

For interviews, demos, data slices, dataset requests, or anything else, get in touch directly:

Response within 24 hours. Happy to provide tailored data, screen captures, technical briefings, or a London-based founder interview.