While tech giants pour billions into the next wave of social media, a mother of five is about to launch an app from her home — and it’s already climbing the App Store charts.

Meet Neptune: a creator-first, customizable algorithm social media platform built by a remote team of 47 volunteers who have never met in person and who, until now, hadn’t taken a single cent of outside investment.

“At Neptune, we are so excited to break that cycle,” said Neptune CEO and founder Ashley Darling. “We have no interest in suppressing anyone like that, because why? Why would you?”

The Neptune app went live on the Apple App Store on Tuesday night after months in beta, with a slow-release strategy built on “key drops” and grassroots hype on Discord. The team will begin to release keys, which is access to the app, to their audience on Thursday.

The app had already reached No. 142 on the iOS App Store at the time of this reporting. The team hopes to onboard 10,000 users by the end of month one.

And they’ve done it all without venture capital.

“We’re self-funded and we have no money. We’re bootstrapped, man,” Darling said, laughing. “I literally took to threads and I was like, guys, I have an idea for an app. I have idea for a social media platform and I spilled my guts about it.”

That vulnerability sparked a movement. Developers volunteered. Creatives shared it. And Darling discovered her technical co-founder, Chris Jones. Together, they built an entire startup culture — 100% remote — in less than a year.

“We have people working until like two or three in the morning,” she said. “Nobody on our team is getting paid and they’re all here out of the goodness of their hearts.”

What Is Neptune?

Neptune is a bold reimagining of social media. The platform replaces manipulative engagement algorithms with customizable feeds and “ghost” metrics — a feature designed to reduce the pressure to perform.

The user can “go ghost” and that would hide likes and follows of the user.

Neptune’s future vision goes further: from prioritizing accessibility, to building voice-activated tools for disabled creators, to avoiding the performative monetization tactics that dominate social media today.

The Neptune team is laying the foundation for a future where social media isn’t just about scrolling and liking.

That’s why Neptune has gained traction with creators who have often been left out of traditional platforms — including cosplayers, gamers, disabled artists, and BIPOC and queer storytellers.

A Values-Driven Platform in a Venture Capital World

That values-first approach has cost Neptune some traditional funding opportunities. One investor, Darling recalled, balked at the platform’s mission to center marginalized voices.

“He was like, ‘Can we not with that narrative? That doesn’t make money,’” she said. “We were like, excuse me?”

She declined his money.

“They’re looking at any company that they invest in as a transaction and as a math equation,” she said. “They’re not focused so much on the heart of what we’re doing. And to be frank, there’s not a lot of heart.”

Instead, Neptune has sustained itself through Substack podcast subscriptions, community donations, and a fiercely loyal Discord base of more than 130,000 followers. A paid podcast — The After Party — brings in $8/month per subscriber, helping to offset user hosting costs, which range between $1–$1.50 per user monthly.

When the Neptune team asked their followers if they’d help fund the app’s beta, they showed up.

“Every time we’ve had an ask of our user base … they’ve come through 100 times powerfully than we ever anticipated,” Darling said.

Still, the team is looking ahead — actively seeking angel investors and advertisers who align with their mission. Larger brands are already circling, waiting to test ad placements once user analytics are fully online.

“Not to say that we wouldn’t (take funding), we just haven’t found any that have been aligned with what we’re doing,” she said.

Building Something That Lasts — With or Without the App

Despite the attention Neptune is getting, Darling knows this is a risky path.

“I think all of us on the team at one time or another were like, yeah, this there’s no way this can work. This is dumb. What are we doing? How did we think we could come into an arena and take on TikTok?’” she admitted. “Even if the app completely fails and we get removed from the app store or something like that happens, our community will thrive on Discord as we have for six months. ”

The Neptune audience refers to her as “Mother of Neptune.”

The name is fitting. At 38, Darling champions parenting five kids (ages 3 to 19), leading a startup, and navigating life as an autistic, ADHD, queer woman in tech.

“I was built for this,” she said. “I am very used to wrangling the chaos.”

What comes next? In the near term: expanding access, fixing bugs, building out advertiser tools, and eventually — if funding allows — launching an AI-powered accessibility model where the entire app can be navigated with voice.

Darling says Neptune is “really trying to be intentional on the front end” of accounting for the needs of users with disabilities.

That contrasts with the common occurrence of companies reacting “when they get sued for not being accessible or when there’s like a big stir and it kind of becomes like a ‘here, fine’ situation,” Darling said.

‘We Already Won’

As launch day is about to unfold, Darling remains unfazed.

“It’s just another day in the office,” she said. “There is so much to build and so much release. We’re going to be releasing new features and bug fixes every week.”

Still, she knows what’s been accomplished already is rare — and worth celebrating. She said that even if the app fails, “we already won.”

“Either way, whatever happens, Neptune as a culture will exist,” she said. “Our community will drive outside because what we’ve built is not tied to a platform.”

Neptune is now available for download on iOS but you will need a key to access it.

Limited access keys are being released via Discord and their Substack can be found here.

For advertisers, collaborations, and partnerships, email Neptune’s PR team.

Investors can reach out directly to Darling.

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