1.Hey Brady, what’s your background and what has been your career?
It’s always been tech really, starting with video games as a kid: NBA Jam, Mario Kart, you name it.
At a certain point I started to idolize the programmers of the indie games and emulators I was playing but programming wasn’t very accessible at the time. By the time I got to college and started learning web technologies, I understood the appeal of programming.
I’ve been working in tech ever since.
2.You could have built anything else, why Neurture and how did the idea come up?
I always knew I wanted to start my own business in tech but I needed the technical skills, an idea for a product people need, and one that I’m passionate about.
Working at a mental health company for two years, I developed opinions about what a mental health app should be (research-based) and a population it should serve (those with unwanted behaviors and addictions that isn’t being adequately served by quality mental health apps).
I also saw how AI could make a huge impact in the mental health, habits, and addiction space. Having developed skills at tech companies for a decade and having felt addicted to technology at times, I knew this was my startup.
3.How did you build it? (tools, time and resources used)
I have a background in frontend/web development so I used React Native and Expo from day 1. I knew my way around React Native but there were a lot of intricacies about the setup and the environment that I just wasn’t familiar with. I leaned heavily on ChatGPT at the start and this is how I learned to get the most out of pairing with ChatGPT (hint: context is key).
4.How did you get your first customers/users?
My wife and my mom were my first free users and for that I’ve rewarded them with lifetime subscriptions.
For real paying customers, I worked for two months, rubbing elbows with people that launched on ProductHunt, to try to secure a #1 spot on launch day. I woke up at 3am to start sending out messages to everyone I had been talking to for the past two months. A couple hours later I could see that Neurture was at #7 and it eventually slipped to #10. This was a huge disappointment for me but it did yield our first paying customers so it was an important part of our growth.
5.What are some challenges that you have faced and how did you overcome them?
A few months back I was in talks with another company in the mental health space that expressed interest in an acquihire. This provided some validation but the offer wasn’t strong enough.
I’ve been through acquisitions before so I know how they can go (e.g. sun setting or killing of a product). so it became obvious to me that I had to turn it down.
I knew I was in a unique position to build a tool that helps people struggling with addictions or bad habits and I couldn’t just let that go. This situation ended up slowing down development of Neurture but ultimately it was a good exercise for me to evaluate where Neurture could go and the value it provides.
6.Financially/user acquisition wise how is the product doing?
Neurture has been making money for several months now. It’s almost to a point of being profitable, but in terms of growth and user acquisition we’re still gaining traction.
We haven’t invested any money into advertising but we’re looking at slow growth via influencer marketing, SEO, and a few other avenues. We’ll also be starting a podcast (The Adaptive Mind) to provide free and valuable content to people that may not necessarily become paying users.
7.What are some of the mistakes you made while working on the product?
Not charging money sooner.
Maybe people wouldn’t have paid for Neurture early on…but maybe they would have. Setting up payments and subscriptions was a step we needed to take in order to get where we are now, so there was no reason to wait to do it. Next time I’d enable that from day 1.
8.What are some of your future plans?
I don’t want Neurture to be confused as an AI therapist but having a fluid and smooth UX for communicating with it is still critical.
Voice integration is something that we started and then put on pause a while back so we could prioritize other things. It’s definitely near the top of the list now.
Outside of that, we’ve got a few exciting things in the pipeline but we’re also taking requests for feedback here or at feedback@neurtureapp.com.
9.If you had the chance to do things differently, what would you do?
Generating hype and getting more product feedback before feeling like the product was done. There’s a product walkthrough on YouTube that I could have easily made with a Figma prototype and gotten feedback on before it was actually working.
10.Where can people go to know more about you and your work?
You can find information about Neurture on our website.
I also have a personal YouTube channel and a blog you can check out.
11.Getting personal, what does success look like to you as an individual and at what point would you say you have achieved said success?
Hearing success stories from users that need Neurture to improve their mental health. When I worked at Cloud9 fresh out of college, I was closely connected to the mission and the users. I read emails of users telling me how much they love the product and what a big difference it was making for them.
Getting acquired by Amazon took me far away from that and since then I haven’t felt a strong connection to the people I build apps for. Now I’m back in a spot where I get to read an email or a review from someone telling me their life is better because of Neurture. So that’s success to me: those moments when someone tells me Neurture taught them real, valuable skills to help them break their social media habit or overcome their vaping addiction.
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