Jawger formed out of a desire by three technology veterans (Scott Handley, Brad Chin, and Jenny Dormoy) to create a unique inclusive privacy-first social network for family and friends to safely connect and share their life experiences as life unfolds. Our journey began in coffee shops throughout the Bay Area during the Summer and Fall of 2015, and Jawger was offically incorporated in January 2016.

Due to separate life circumstances later in 2016, Brad and Jenny left Jawger while Scott continued to develop the vision for a privacy-by-design social network. Scott sought out opportunities to enhance and sharpen his startup accumen through various meetups, forums, and programs with other entrepreneurs, such as the Founders Network, Y-Combinator's Startup School, and Santa Clara University's California Program for Entrepreneurs (CAPE)

Jawger ultimately went live in December 2017 as a subscription service with an Apple iOS App and a webapp for desktop and other mobile devices. Jawger launched with the guiding principle that we don't have to sacrifice our privacy to communicate with others authentically online. Scott believes privacy is freedom to express our most authentic selves by communicating freely with the people who know us; free from concern of strangers, corporations, and bad actors from gaining access and exploiting to our personal information and relationships.

Jawger continued operations gaining membership for the next two years. Unfortunately due to a change in life priorities, Scott made the difficult decision to shutdown operations and Jawger ceased services to the public in December 2019. Jawger has since become Scott's personal research project on private social network innovation, the decentralized web and the fediverse.