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So I've been trying out
(similar coaching concept for fitness).
While I really like the concept (esp since it means I don't need to make my own workouts, which was often an excuse I used not to workout) I haven't found the accountability aspect very effective, I was at it for a few months and then dropped off, despite the daily "YOU GOT THIS!!" text from a stranger on the other side of the country.
It's entirely plausible that at the end of the day I'm just lazy/not motivated enough and no amount of accountability will be helpful, but I wonder if there's a better form of accountability, particularly through likeminded social circles, you could integrate.
Just riffing (using workout as the habit, since I will absolutely pay big $ if something gets me to work out more, future is $150/m);
1. Social shaming
a. the app notifies a bunch of friends every time you miss a workout.
b. I pay for someone to blow up my phone / texts ad infinatum at a certain time until I'm in the gym's geofence.
2. Material loss
a. you use Plaid to pull $XX out of my account and send it to my buddy every time I miss a workout.
b. set aside some large amount of $ like $1000 and if I don't get to the gym 20x in a month, confirmed by a third party, the money is gone forever.
3. Material gain;
a. join a group of friends; y'all put $100 in a pot, add 1 point for every workout and subtract 3 points for every miss. When the squad hits 100 points you spend the money on a trip to Fogo de ChĂŁo. If you go below 0 the money is gone forever.
b. partner with gyms & give a 40% membership discount if the person has a rolling 15 days / month attendance.
Re: the app; love the idea, the design is gorgeous, but the name is not something I'd be comfortable sharing with friends :)
> b. set aside some large amount of $ like $1000 and if I don't get to the gym 20x in a month, confirmed by a third party, the money is gone forever.
I was thinking of creating an app like this one, my major issue was that the app's incentives (making money) and the user's incentives (working out) were not aligned. I like the idea of giving money to your buddy (or charity) better.
Easy resets for when you fall off.
I like this feature.
When the pandemic first hit, I realized how important routines and (associated) metrics would be in keeping me afloat in a tumultuous time. To that end, I built my own little CLI-based habit/checklist tracker and started analyzing trends and habits on a weekly and monthly basis.
It worked great at first, I had a privileged insight into my week and could therefore fine-tune parameters to optimize for certain metrics. However, as the pandemic dragged on, the drudgery of waking up from my bed and working from my desk (which is a foot away [0]) eventually caught up to me and I started burning out. Looking back, a relentless pursuit to optimize for certain KPIs was part of the reason. Having successfully mechanized a large of my life with little room for error (for fear of rebuke from those pretty charts in Tableau), I started dreading those weekly-check ins with myself, eventually dropping the habit altogether. My tracker went _poof_ soon after that. After all, there will be no rebuke from a chart if there is no chart to begin with :))
A couple months later, I cleared the backend database, and started anew. I had also come to realize over this "break" that I should not tie my self-worth to some graphs [1], and if I was getting the important stuff done, I had little to worry about. My "system" since then has been working fairly well, I use Trello to keep track of stuff, and if something super alarming pops up, I investigate. If not, I let things flow.
I believe it would help your user retention massively if you could remind users you are not a drill sergeant, but are there to help. And part of helping them is to sometimes remind them that (bad) metrics are not a judgement of their character and its okay to let things slide. You can always start anew.
Good luck to y'all, I wish you well! :)
[0] - I am an undergrad living in off-campus housing. Real-estate is unfortunately an expensive luxury at my time in life.
[1] - I recommend Jenny Odell's book "How to do Nothing" to anyone feeling like they are on a never-ending treadmill. There are parts of it that I didn't like, but all in all, it was a good read.
Really helpful tip that we should remind users we're not a drill sergeant and that your productivity scores don't equal your identity.
We don't yet have a profile page in the app, but when we build it, we want it to represent the user's identity with a lot of fidelity, which will include creative, professional, or personal milestones alongside productivity data that the user wants to showcase.
I.e. sometimes you will be proud of yourself for a cessation streak, but sometimes you will want to proudly display a new artwork that is difficult to map to your productivity data.
Definitely that's how I think about it too. I use my weekly check ins to revise or remove goals all the time. We're going for kindergarten teacher vibes over drill sergeant.
Also we live in NYC and are acutely familiar with [0] LOL
Your most favorable review comes from an account named “revdemigod.” No way that’s you, is it? Lol
That's my bff from 10th grade
Hmm, I've been a user of this kind of thing for a long time and there's quite a few 'habit-tracking' apps out there (my personal choice being Loop Habit Tracker, I dig its minimalism). Is your key differentiator the accountability check in idea? $15 per month seems quite steep for that, that's like 1/4th of a weekly session with a personal trainer.
Totally understand that $15 per month seems like a hefty price tag for a new product, but it's the lowest we could go since we pay human coaches for check-in calls with users.
The average personal trainer charges $30-39 per session depending on whose data you check. Assuming 1 session per week, the price of a personal trainer is $120-156 per month and our combined software and 1:1 human solution is <1/10th of the price.
Your signup flow is repetitive.
I "signed up" with Apple Login and then it asks for all the info again.
Sign in with apple has an option to obfuscate the data being shared with the devs, so we get this random relay like 89yzx94n77@privaterelay.appleid.com. We ask for name and email again in case
Asking for email after sign-in with Apple is against their TOS. At some point when you release an update they'll notice and require you to change this. (It happened to me ~6mo after we launched!)
But as icloud user that’s my #1 reason to use apple signin.
Why isn’t that information enough?
The point of enabling that option is that users want you to use the relay so they don't have to give you their real email address. If you're just trying to send an email, why isn't the relay acceptable?
Then you've missed the point of Apple Sign In
My cofounder had been using Demigod for awhile (I was excited to try it out, but I'm an Android user). So I've been able to see him work through habits vicariously with his coach.
Seems like a great idea!
Much love
why two years to launch?
Two years? That's nothing. RescueTime took 14 years:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28683597
The project looks interesting, and I like the approach. But the "Claim your habit plan" paywall after a few onboarding screens with no option to try the application does not look right and feels like another "dark pattern" we are familiar with (force to waste some time and then block the results with a paywall).
Thanks for the heads up - it's definitely our intention to demonstrate the potential value before asking for payment. We try to make the app as accessible as possible at $5 for the first month. We're offering a personalized onboarding call with a coach to everyone who onboards which is why we paywall upfront.
Maybe state the cost earlier in the flow. Feels crappy to spend time giving you data about me and then get hit with the paywall, and no option to see what Demigod is even about.
What is the business model behind it?
It's $5 for the first month and $15 for each month after that. Each user gets a personalized onboarding call with a human coach ($5), with the option for weekly calls thereafter ($15) to reflect on the past week's data and plan tasks and habit goals for the following week.
No Android app? Any plans?
Not just yet but we built on React Native so it could be soon!
Is there an Index Fund for YC and their startups I can hedge?
The latest crop of note taking & productivity apps is really disappointing.
Sorry this is sort of a ridiculous comment, but your company name is a turn off. I'd feel weird using, talking about or recommending it to people because of the immediate narcissism it invokes.
I'd like to second this, it was the first thought that came to mind when I read the headline.
3 commenters provided the same feedback. We can change the name. What do you guys think about calen.com? I can nab it for $40K (pricey but seems reasonable for a .com domain)
My rules for naming:
Rules for naming a startup
1. Easy to pronounce
2. Easy to spell
3. Easy to remember
4. As few syllables as possible
5. .com unless very good reason otherwise
6. Related to the product/service
Calen.com would be a no go if it were me because it violates rules 1,2,3 and 6.
I’d go with something like habitkeeper.com which is only $2.5k.