Building a social internet on what already works.
The long-term goal of SocialWeb is a social internet that looks more like email and podcasts than like today’s walled gardens. You choose your client, your server, and your subscriptions, and no single platform can revoke that choice.
Why we built this.
Three things bothered us about where the social internet had ended up. First: the algorithm problem. Platforms that optimize for engagement produce feeds that are bad for the people reading them, not maliciously, just structurally. When attention is the product, calm reading gets optimized away.
Second: surveillance as a default. The dominant revenue model for social platforms requires building a detailed picture of each user and selling access to that picture. This is less a choice individual companies make than the business model the infrastructure selects for. Building on different infrastructure makes a different outcome possible.
Third: platform lock-in. When your social life lives inside a single company’s walls, that company can change the rules at any time. Email works because no single company owns it. Podcasts work the same way. RSS has been moving information across the internet since 1999. We built SocialWeb on that foundation because it has already proven it can last.
The people building it.
Brian Hendrickson
Co-Founder
Brian Hendrickson has been a tech entrepreneur since 2005, co-founding a national pickleball ratings system (acquired by the governing body) and Radious, a property tech company reimagining home office space. A former high school tennis coach who led his team to a state title, he was inspired by his players to build an app that respects personal data.
Evan Kendig
Chief Marketing Officer
Evan Kendig has a background in marketing, luxury real estate, and video production, with experience creating content that helps brands and businesses tell their story online. He studied marketing at Oregon State University, where he built a strong foundation in consumer behavior, branding, and business strategy. At Social Web, Evan brings a practical understanding of digital media and user-focused marketing.
Ben Martin
Founding Engineer
Ben is a software engineer and founding engineer at Social Web. Since attending Hack Reactor in 2013, he's worked as a developer across companies large and small, with experience spanning native iOS and full-stack engineering. He's also an active real estate investor and has operated Airbnb properties since 2022, including building an ADU in place of his old garage. Outside of software, Ben enjoys being part of the tennis and padel communities.
Cade Nelson
Product Manager
Cade is the product manager at Social Web, where he splits his time between product and engineering. He graduated early with a cybersecurity degree from Grand Canyon University and works as a software and security specialist at an MSP in Oregon. That security background is why he cares about how a product treats user data, and about building one that doesn't sell it. Outside of work he's usually hiking or playing rec soccer with friends.
Where we’re going.
This is future work, not a set of promises. The order may change.
Deepen the core experience.
Better stack navigation, offline reading, and a refined mobile layout are on the near-term list. The goal is to make the everyday reading experience feel as polished as any native app, without any of the surveillance.
Make self-hosting simpler.
A one-command installer and better upgrade tooling so that running your own instance is a realistic option for anyone comfortable managing a small server, not just a full-time sysadmin.
Propose the RSS chat extension as an open standard.
The protocol that powers SocialWeb's group chat is already published. The next step is to bring it through a formal standards process so that other apps can interoperate with it, the way any email client can read any email.
Questions, press inquiries, or just want to say hello?
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