How Sarah Ritter Turned Her Love of Books Into a Viral AI-Powered Reading Revolution

In a world where algorithms are often blamed for narrowing our horizons, Seattle-based entrepreneur Sarah Ritter is using artificial intelligence to do the exact opposite—expanding the literary universe one carefully curated recommendation at a time. What started as a passion project fueled by late-night coding sessions has blossomed into Sarah’s Books, a web app that’s already being hailed as a potential game-changer in the world of book discovery.

From Tribute to Turning Pages: A Founder’s Journey

Sarah Ritter isn’t new to the startup scene. The former director of product marketing at Microsoft and Seattle University MBA graduate made waves in the Seattle tech community with Tribute, a workplace connection platform she founded and led as CEO for seven years. When Tribute shut down in 2025, Ritter faced the all-too-common founder’s dilemma: what comes after the dream doesn’t quite materialize?

“I felt a fair bit of failure,” Ritter admits candidly. “Like any founder, I wanted to go on that journey of having an idea, raising capital, building a rocket ship and taking off. That didn’t happen in my case, and it was kind of like, ‘Who am I now? What do I do?'”

The answer came from an unexpected place—her lifelong love of books and the power of modern AI tools that democratized software development.

The Birth of Sarah’s Books: Late Nights, AI, and Literary Passion

During her children’s winter break, Ritter found herself drawn to a new kind of coding adventure. Using what’s become known as “vibe coding”—a term for rapid, intuitive software development—she poured herself into building Sarah’s Books. The numbers tell the story of her dedication: over 350 hours of coding time, 100,000 lines of code, and 2,000 Git commits that tracked every step of her journey.

“I logged more than 350 hours of coding time, 100,000 lines of code and 2,000 ‘commits’ to Git—essentially a timestamped paper trail of every individual brick I laid while building the app’s foundation,” Ritter explains.

The foundation of Sarah’s Books rests on a unique blend of human curation and AI assistance. Ritter began by photographing her personal book collection and using Anthropic’s Claude AI assistant to inventory and index the images. She then created a Google doc filled with curated themes, genres, titles, and descriptions that reflected her sophisticated literary taste.

What Makes Sarah’s Books Different?

In a market dominated by Amazon’s Goodreads and other algorithm-driven platforms, Sarah’s Books takes a refreshingly different approach. The app doesn’t point users to Amazon at all. Instead, each recommendation includes a Libby link for library users and Bookshop.org links that ensure a portion of every sale goes directly to independent bookstores. The platform also supports Libro.fm, an independent alternative to Audible.

“I trained my algorithm on my particular taste profile of a book,” Ritter explains. “The differentiator between Goodreads and something like Sarah’s Books is the more personal nature of it.”

Books are organized by creative themes like “emotional truth” or “beach read,” as well as traditional genres including mystery, fantasy, and historical fiction. The platform combines Ritter’s carefully curated collection with AI suggestions that extend beyond her personal library, offering recommendations for readers of every age and preference.

Features That Book Lovers Are Raving About

Sarah’s Books offers several innovative features that have early users excited:

Personalized Profiles: Users can create free profiles to add their own books, share favorite authors, and receive personalized recommendations based on their reading preferences.

Book Mashups: Perhaps the most intriguing feature is “Book Mashups,” where Ritter experiments with having ideas from different authors “collide, complement, and start talking to each other.” This unique approach creates unexpected connections between books and authors that traditional recommendation engines might miss.

Library and Indie Bookstore Support: Every recommendation includes direct links to borrow from libraries via Libby or purchase from independent bookstores through Bookshop.org, ensuring that the reading ecosystem remains diverse and community-focused.

The Philosophy Behind the Platform

For Ritter, Sarah’s Books represents something purer than most tech ventures. “I have no idea where it will go, but for the time being, I love not knowing and building Sarah’s Books for the love of reading,” she told GeekWire. “There is a purity to it that feels more satisfying than trying to make it be something because a VC threw money at it.”

This philosophy extends to how she approaches the platform’s development. Rather than chasing venture capital or scaling at all costs, Ritter is focused on creating something genuinely valuable for readers—a space where book discovery feels personal, thoughtful, and community-oriented.

Beyond Books: A Pattern of Purposeful Innovation

Sarah’s Books isn’t Ritter’s only recent project born from her “vibe coding” experiments. She also created Summer Camp Finder, a web app designed to help Seattle families navigate the often overwhelming world of summer activities for their children.

Currently, Ritter balances her passion projects with her role at Workato, an agentic orchestration platform, proving that it’s possible to maintain a career while pursuing meaningful side projects that serve communities.

The Future of Reading in the AI Age

Sarah’s Books represents a fascinating case study in how AI can enhance rather than replace human curation. By using AI to extend her personal taste rather than replace it, Ritter has created a platform that feels both technologically advanced and deeply human.

The timing seems perfect. As readers increasingly seek alternatives to Amazon-dominated book discovery and as AI tools become more accessible to non-traditional developers, Sarah’s Books sits at the intersection of several important trends: the democratization of software development, the desire for more authentic online experiences, and the ongoing renaissance of independent bookstores and libraries.

What Early Users Are Saying

While still in its early stages, Sarah’s Books has already generated buzz among book lovers who appreciate its thoughtful approach. Users praise the platform’s clean interface, the quality of recommendations, and the satisfaction of knowing their purchases support independent bookstores rather than corporate giants.

The “Book Mashups” feature, in particular, has sparked conversations about how AI might help readers discover unexpected connections between books and authors they might never have considered pairing.

The Bigger Picture: When Failure Becomes Foundation

Perhaps the most compelling aspect of Sarah’s Books is what it represents for Ritter personally. After the disappointment of Tribute’s closure, this project has allowed her to apply everything she learned as a founder in a space that feels authentic and joyful.

“It suddenly doesn’t feel like it was all for naught, which is kind of nice,” Ritter reflects. “The vibe coding stuff for me and Sarah’s Books in particular is very full circle, because I’m using a lot of what I learned at Tribute.”

In an industry often obsessed with unicorn valuations and hockey stick growth charts, Sarah’s Books offers a different narrative—one where technology serves passion, where failure becomes fertilizer for new growth, and where the simple joy of recommending a great book can be amplified rather than automated away.

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