Why I Built Snugg

I'm a small business owner running a yacht surveying business in the Caribbean, thousands of miles from my friends and family in the UK. For the past 15 years, I've relied on social media to stay connected with the people who matter most to me.

It worked well enough—until it didn't.

The final straw came when I realised I was drowning in a constant stream of ads and algorithm-driven content, while posts from my actual friends and family had virtually disappeared. When I clicked to hide content I didn't want to see, the platform ignored me and served it anyway. I wasn't just being neglected—I was being actively disrespected.

So I started researching. What I found horrified me. The extent to which platforms like Meta harvest our data and manipulate our feelings and behaviours isn't just invasive—it's fundamentally opposed to genuine human connection.

I'm not a software developer by trade. I'm a former project manager who built my own website 15 years ago and ran a successful sailing holiday business. But with recent advances in AI-assisted development, the barrier to building something better has dropped. So I decided to give it a go. I made a survey and found I wasn't alone. People want to stay connected with their friends and family without being surveilled, manipulated, or force-fed content they never asked for. They want control over their own social connections. That's why I built Snugg.