About

Readup was invented and built by Bill Loundy and Jeff Camera, who met in pre-school and became lifelong friends.

Bill and Jeff both loved reading, but were frustrated by how hard it was to actually read full articles on the web. Distractions abounded, and on top of that, people commented on articles without even reading them fully. They set out to create an app to fix this.

Today, Readup.org is continued by a group of volunteers who came to love Readup over the years. They maintain and improve the platform, and let hundreds of people enjoy deep reading online.

Meet the Team

Readup is 100% volunteer-owned and operated.

Jeff CameraReadup Owner

Reader name: jeff

jeffcamera.com

Thor GalleReadup Maintainer

Reader name: thorgalle

thorgalle.me

Special thanks to @tarunika for the illustration on the homepage!

Readup's History

2016	Bill gets annoyed about the internet and calls Jeff with an idea: People shouldn't be able to comment on articles and stories that they haven't actually read. They start the company reallyread.it, inc.
2017	Bill and Jeff invent reallyreadit's read-tracking technology. Readers begin voting with their attention to surface the best articles on the web.
2018	The iOS app gets released in the fall and roughly doubles the size of the community overnight.
2019	reallyread.it becomes Readup.com. Bill and Jeff abandon their initial B2B business plan. Instead, they focus on Readup's social reading features.
2020	Early in the year, Readup fails to get into Y Combinator for the third time. Bill and Jeff decide to make one last, big move: Start charging people for Readup. Long-time reader Thor joins the team to help.
2021	Readup launches a direct reader-writer marketplace, an ethical alternative to Facebook, Twitter and Reddit for people who want a healthier, more humane way to read. Readers pay to read on Readup and watch their money go to the writers they read.
2021	Sad news. Readup's marketplace was unsuccessful and couldn't convince investors. This signifies the end of the company's runway. Bill, Jeff & Thor look for ways to let Readup's community and core product live on.
Spring 2022	Rejoice! Readup.com is reborn as the open-source Readup Project, the free Readup Service, and the non-profit Readup Collective. The Collective maintains the Project, which is hosted by Jeff on Readup Service. Readers continue to read happily ever after!

Join us!

Want to contribute? Let us know on our Discord what you want to do, contribute financially, or dive in the code on GitHub.

Organization

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