Remarkist began as a question: why does fandom have to be so fragmented? Fans were splitting their time across Reddit, Discord, Tumblr, YouTube, even merchandise platforms. None were built specifically for fandom. They just evolved to meet specific fandom needs, with little connectivity. Cities with no roads between them or incentives to build them.

John Cabrera, a former actor with direct experience engaging at fan conventions and within fandom communities, began building the first version of what would become Folkic in 2021. It was during a 5-month nightly watch party for the TV show Gilmore Girls—which he was an ensemble member of—that the foundation for Remarkist was first laid. Not just a social platform, but a broader ecosystem to address the fragmentation of fandom and give fans a real voice.

Sean Harding, with senior engineering experience at Google, Amazon, and Twilio, joined as co-founder and helped build the foundational technical architecture.

The company incorporated as Remarkist Inc. and entered an official closed beta in 2022 with 270 members. That beta produced over 4,000 hosted events, 1,300 digital collectibles crafted, and a 65 percent daily-to-monthly active user ratio that proved the concept could work.

A collaborative fandom knowledge base was developed as a companion product, and it would later become Masslore. Where Folkic provides the community layer, Masslore provides the knowledge: a structured, community-maintained index with intent to cover every story franchise on earth, large and small.

Remarkist's official magazine, Rmrk*st, publishing fandom culture writing under the tagline "A Field Guide to Story Culture," launched in 2021 and has covered a wide range of fandom topics since then.