Pagebound, a social reading and book-tracking platform launched in January 2025, has built its brand around a simple proposition: human book recommendations trump any algorithm.
Co-founders Lucy Zhao and Jennifer Dobak, a self-funded two-person team based in Brooklyn and Nashville, respectively, built the platform on the premise that algorithmic recommendations consistently fall short. "I don't think humans, especially our reading tastes, can be accurately captured by AI," Zhao said.
The platform aims to be an alternative to platforms like Goodreads and StoryGraph, but organizes itself around book-specific public forums rather than providing a space for reviews or book ratings. Users can post reactions indexed to their reading progress, and all forum activity is open to anyone on the platform, similar to Reddit. It has attracted 130,000 users who are currently running some 25,000 active forums, according to Zhao and Doak.
Users can also create a personal to be read list of titles or browse those created by other readers, which Zhao likened to making a mixtape. Another feature called Quests offers themed reading challenges created by designated top contributors, covering niches from cozy fantasy to feminine rage to a category dubbed “here for the himbos.” Users earn tiered badges for completing challenge books.
The platform is also designed to be largely anonymous, with users selecting an avatar rather than uploading a photo, follower counts are hidden, and most choose anonymous usernames—by design, there is no path to becoming an influencer on the Pagebound.
"The safety of this anonymity kind of pushes people out of their comfort zone," Zhao noted, adding that users have told her it helped them get over shyness and make friends, and helped collapse assumption based on gender. "You can contain multitudes," she said. "You can be all these things, and it doesn't have to be your actual personality or person in any way."
There are no ads on the platform, but Pagebound recently launched its first publisher partnership, a sponsored Quest with Simon & Schuster. Zhao said the company wants to expand such arrangements, particularly for indie authors who struggle with marketing costs, as long as partnerships feel organic to the platform.
Revenue comes from a "Pagebound Royalty" subscription at $10 per month—closer to a donation than a premium tier, by Zhao's own description—offering subscribers a crown badge, additional profile customization, and the ability to comment on the public product roadmap.
Zhao and Dobak have not paid themselves salaries in the two years since they began building the platform, but it is breaking even. The platform, Zhao said, is "very anti what everything the tech industry stands for right now. I'm so happy we did it this way."
