About Hobbiest
An app for people who'd rather climb, cook, ride, or paint than scroll — and want to find someone who feels the same way.
Most apps measure what you look like. We measure what you do.
Most apps reward speed. We reward specificity — the way you actually talk about the thing you love, the gear you've worn out, the route you take on Sundays.
Most apps are designed to keep you on them. We're designed to get you off the phone and into the place where the thing happens.
The world has plenty of swiping. It needs more people who showed up for the climb, the studio, the run, the kitchen — and brought someone with them.
That's Hobbiest.
I've always lived by what I call the quarter tank rule.
Life pulls you in every direction. Work. Family. Friendships. Obligations you didn't ask for. If you let it, the tank empties — and the version of you that shows up everywhere becomes the leftover version. The one that's just trying to make it to Saturday.
The quarter tank rule says: no matter what life is asking of you, keep at least a quarter of your tank for yourself. That quarter isn't selfish. It's what makes the other three-quarters worth giving.
That quarter is the part of you that makes things, plays, learns, moves — the part of you that loves what it loves without explaining why. Most people lose it slowly. They don't notice until the thing they used to do for joy starts feeling like one more thing they don't have time for.
Hobbiest exists to protect that quarter tank. To carve it out, defend it, and spend it on something that actually fills you back up. And if you can do that next to someone else who's protecting theirs — even better.
Most apps are built to take more of your time. This one is built to give it back — in the only form that matters: the hour you spent doing the thing you love, with someone you genuinely wanted to spend it with.
That's the bet. I hope you'll take it with us.
Most product principles read like a wish list. These are lines we won't cross, even when it costs us.