Sidestage Join the free waitlist

Start before you're ready. Go public when you choose.

Grow from strangers, not your group chat.

Sidestage is a free guide and checkup that helps you set up a public Instagram or TikTok account so the app stops suggesting it to your family, coworkers and hometown.

An example of what the TikTok checklist covers. You change these settings yourself, in the app.

Sound familiar?

"I want to post about budgeting. I do not want my whole team watching it before lunch."
The coworker problem
"Every account I make gets suggested to my mom within a day. She comments. On everything."
The family problem
"I moved away for a reason. My high school class does not need a front row seat while I learn to edit."
The hometown problem
"My first thirty videos are going to be rough. I would rather strangers see them than people I sit next to on Sunday."
The early posts problem

How it works

Three parts. You do every step yourself, in the apps, with plain instructions for each screen.

  1. Clean setup

    • Start from a fresh email that is not tied to your personal accounts.
    • Skip contact syncing and keep the account out of Facebook and Accounts Center.
    • Turn off account suggestions on each platform, and block the specific people you name before your first post.

  2. Exposure check

    • A short quiz about how you actually use the account.
    • It flags what is still open, like "You are logged in on your personal phone" or "You follow people from your hometown."
    • You get a fix list, most important first.

  3. Stay clean

    • Reminders to recheck, because apps ask to sync your contacts again after updates.
    • A two-minute recheck instead of starting over.
    • Later: post from a computer, so the account never touches your personal phone.

What it will not do

Sidestage shuts the usual doors. It does not build a wall.

  • It cannot guarantee nobody finds you.

    A public account is public. Anyone can search your handle, or be sent a link by a friend.

  • It cannot undo a phone number someone already has.

    If your number is saved in someone's contacts, the app can still connect you through it. We show you how to lower that risk. We will not pretend it is gone.

  • It never asks for your password.

    It never creates accounts, logs in, or changes settings for you. It tells you what to tap. You tap it.

  • It does not cost anything.

    The guide and the exposure check are free.

Who it is for

Built for

  • People with a day job building something on the side.
  • Faceless and persona creators who keep the work and the person separate.
  • Students and side hustlers starting a brand before they are ready to tell anyone.
  • Anyone who wants their first posts seen by strangers first.

Not for

  • Harassing or watching someone.
  • Pretending to be a real person, or catfishing.
  • Getting around a platform ban or suspension.

If that is the plan, this is the wrong tool, and we will not help with it.

Build your side brand without your coworkers knowing.

Join the waitlist and tell us what is holding you back. We read every answer, and it shapes what we build first.