I realized I wasn't building a publication. I was building a filter.
When I first started working on ReadRiff, I thought I was creating another online publication.
The more I researched, spoke to people, and rebuilt the website, the more I realized I had misunderstood the problem.
The internet doesn't have a content problem.
It has a filtering problem.
Every day we're surrounded by AI-generated articles, newsletters, blogs, podcasts, videos, and social feeds. There are more great ideas available than ever before, but finding the ones actually worth your time feels surprisingly difficult.
That realization changed almost everything about the project.
Instead of asking, "How do we publish more?", I started asking, "How do we help someone leave feeling that the last 10 minutes were genuinely well spent?"
That single question led me to rethink the entire experience.
Over the past few weeks, I completely redesigned ReadRiff.
Not because the old design looked bad, but because it didn't clearly communicate why the publication exists.
Some of the biggest changes included:
A cleaner editorial homepage focused on clarity instead of features.
Stronger messaging around solving information overload.
A transparent roadmap showing where the publication is headed.
Better onboarding for early readers.
More emphasis on trust and thoughtful reading instead of endless scrolling.
The most valuable part of this process wasn't redesigning the website.
It was listening.
Almost every meaningful improvement came from conversations with other founders and early readers who weren't afraid to point out what didn't make sense.
Now I'm back for another round of honest feedback.
If you had just 30 seconds on the homepage:
Would you immediately understand what ReadRiff is?
What's the first thing you'd change?
Would anything make you curious enough to come back?
If you're interested in following the journey, you're also welcome to join the Founding Reader waitlist. It isn't just for launch updates—I'm using it to share progress, collect feedback, and involve early readers in shaping where ReadRiff goes next.
Whether you decide to join or simply leave a brutally honest comment, I'd genuinely appreciate it.
Sometimes the smallest piece of feedback ends up changing the product more than weeks of building.
I'd love to hear what stands out to you, good or bad.
