Hello, World

Hi! We’re Rover.

A little bit about us as we get to know each other.

First off, and to avoid any confusion, we are not the pet sitter marketplace. Instead, Rover is an audio-first, Ai-driven social content platform. What does that mean? Well, with Rover you can:

• Ask Rover about any topic, and Rover will create a short podcast about it.

• See what your friends and others are listening to and

• Share your podcast with others.

Rover is the result of a lot of conversation last year between me and Josh. We’ve been friends since we worked together in the early days of Tumblr. We both loved what social media was in 2011, and regret what it has become. How, we asked, could we bring some of that sheer joy of discovery that made early social great, back into our lives? A lot of brainstorming and user interviews later, we started building Rover with the help of John and a couple of top developers. Here are some things we believe about the product:

People want meaning, not mass

Here are a few things people told us in user interviews that really stay with me:

• “I scroll through feeds all day for work, and then I have to spend a lot of time figuring out whether the things I’m looking at are true.”

• “I’m never finished. At the end of the day it just stops, and starts again tomorrow.”

Our goal with Rover is to give people only meaningful things, and not just to hold their attention by any means necessary. As a host, Rover is designed to answer a few questions, suggest a few things to you, and then let you get on with your day.

AI gives us the first real opportunity to break away from the feed

Some other things a lot of folks told us: “I spend a lot of my day training algorithms so I can get what I want in my feed.” And “I’m afraid of the algorithm. If I choose the wrong thing my feed is clogged with bad things for weeks.”

People forget now, but there was a time before most of the content you see came to you in a neverending stream. And there’s a lot to be said for that stream! Before the feed, the Web was a series of scattered islands, connected by search (shoutout to backlinks!). We all existed in a void, the feed liberated us from that, and it was great! I was exposed to so many great, interesting things, ideas and people because of the Tumblr feed.

Over time, of course, we found out that the problem with the information firehose is that it is an information firehose. We love, say, Bluesky, but we feel that to move away from that firehose requires more than just implementing that firehose on a more ethical platform.

Audio is the best surface for this

Audio is intimate. And audio is finite. Unlike the infinite feed, a podcast has an end. Our bet is this provides a crucial beat for the user, to stop and actively choose to go onto the next thing vs. continuing a mindless scroll.

Audio is also how an increasing number of people like to get their information. As my young boys love to tell me, “I was elected to lead, not to read.”

Fun is crucial

We have to design for joy. Rover isn’t homework. It’s not eating your broccoli. It’s designed to spark thought, to help you form unexpected connections and deliver the thing that you didn’t even know that you wanted.

Join us! Itttssss blissssss……

Interested? Join our beta, and we’ll let you know when Rover is ready to test. Thanks!