A place for
your own account.

I had a Myspace page, customized to my liking, complete with a Top 8. I joined Facebook when you needed a college email address. I also remember having a childhood without the internet.

There were things I enjoyed about those early spaces. You could make a corner of the internet feel like yours. Find people. Keep in touch. Share something because you wanted to.

Over time, keeping up began to feel like work. There was always somewhere to check in, something to post, another conversation to follow. I didn’t have the energy for the constant participation these spaces seemed to invite.

I gradually stepped back.

I still have Facebook because some group conversations happen in Messenger. I still catch myself opening Instagram out of boredom. LinkedIn holds the professional version of my story. I rarely post, but pieces of me remain scattered across these places.

And I still meet people. I still want connection.

Sometimes I want to share something I’ve made, explain what I care about, or give someone a little context before another conversation. I don’t have one place online that feels right for that. A professional profile tells part of the story. A few links leave a lot for the other person to work out. Some things only emerge through a long conversation, if we get that far.

That gap is where DefinedBy began.

I’m also someone who uses AI tools every day. I ask assistants to research, gather information and help me understand what I’m working on. That has made me think more carefully about what happens when someone—or their assistant—tries to understand a person.

What will they find? Which pieces will be available? What will they assume connects them?

I want a place to contribute my own account. Somewhere I can say: this matters to me; this is the part I played; here is why I chose to include it. Something I can stand behind and share, while leaving room to change my mind or become someone I haven’t quite figured out yet.

I’m building DefinedBy to make that possible.

The idea is straightforward: choose the pieces you want to share, put them in your own words, and give someone else a useful beginning to understanding you. An assistant can help gather and prepare things. You decide what becomes public.

There should be room for work, interests, contributions and things still being learned. There should also be room to leave things out. Nobody owes a website their whole life.

I think of this as a social utility. Its purpose is to help people make an introduction and find their way into a conversation. A profile that remains useful without frequent updates should be doing its job.

That purpose comes with commitments. No ads. No selling personal data. No pressure to keep posting for visibility. As I build, I’m treating the ability to revise, withdraw, take your information with you and leave as part of the product’s usefulness.

DefinedBy is still taking shape. I’m working toward these promises, and I want the experience to make them tangible.

The questions I keep returning to are these:

For me, something was missing. I’m building a place for it.

Brent
Founder, DefinedBy