How the Pagebound App Reinvents Social Reading

Discover Pagebound, the social reading app by Lucy Zhao & Jennifer Dobak. Learn how to gamify your reading life from quests to forums in today’s beginner chat.

Ever wish Goodreads had a heart or deeply desired a buddy read for every book in your book stack? It exists. This week, we’re stepping inside Pagebound, the new social reading app built by readers for readers, with co-founders Lucy Zhao and Jennifer Dobak.

This “building block” episode is designed to deepen your reading life and provide a behind-the-scenes look at tools to enhance it. Discover how these two women built a no-AI, reader-first platform that’s reimagining how we connect through stories online.

In this enlightening conversation, we discuss:

The Origin Story: Learn how Lucy Zhao and Jennifer Dobak transformed their shared love of reading into a bold tech venture built from scratch. From late-night coding sessions to their first “scrappy” testers, they share what it really takes to launch a reader-first social platform in an industry long dominated by giants.
A Human-Centered Platform: Discover how Pagebound’s no-AI promise and book-by-book forum model create genuine connections instead of algorithmic noise. The founders explain why every title deserves its own conversation and how thoughtful design shaped the community from day one.
Gamifying the Reading Life: Explore how Pagebound is transforming the way we engage with our books through clever, joy-filled features like reading quests and milestone interactions that encourage active community membership, bringing a sense of adventure back to your reading life.

Meet the Guests

Lucy Zhao grew up as a cheeky kid, always carrying a book. She studied creative writing and business at the University of Michigan and has spent the last decade leading tech startups and launching products. Her favorite authors include James McBride, Maggie Nelson, and Jonathan Franzen. She lives with her toy aussiedoodle, Libby, and loves ice-cold watermelon slices.

Jennifer Dobak studied Economics, French, and Italian at the University of Notre Dame before becoming a software engineer. When she’s not coding, she’s hanging out at her local indie bookstore. Her favorite authors include Lauren Groff, Mona Awad, and V.E. Schwab. She’s a lifelong writer herself and is currently chasing her dream of finishing her own novel.