Finding my Co-founder + Seeking Discomfort
Episode 3 of building my startup
This is the final chapter in the backstory on how I started MindGarden. Every week I send out updates on how the company is doing and my journey as a first-time founder, so make sure to subscribe to the newsletter if you haven't!Â
In January 2022, downloads started to triple. I had invested in working with an ASO agency and finally, after three months, we began to see results. The app started to rank third for the keyword meditation. As a result, I started to get over 100 downloads per day. Due to this visibility, I then received an email from a man named Bijan Pousti. He is a mindfulness-certified instructor with over 600k followers on Tik Tok. After multiple calls, I realized he was the perfect co-founder.
Bijan is the real deal. All of his content is super high quality, and you could tell he doesn't care about following viral trends but instead only wishes to help other people. He hadn't taken a single sponsorship because he knew it would create hidden motives, and his authenticity would be compromised. He flew over from San Diego to Philadelphia to make the partnership official in March.
Pitching at a Competition
In April of this year, my university announced a pitch competition for all student entrepreneurs. It was a 3 round process, with the final round requiring us to give a 10-minute pitch + 5 min Q/A to a panel of 17 judges (most were investors, and there were even two billionaires present đŸ˜¨).
Something to know about me is that I'm introverted. I hate public speaking, presenting, and even simple ice breakers. There was one time in high school when I took a zero on a presentation because I had so much built-up anxiety and fear. However, I decided to do this competition because I knew I had to break out of my comfort zone. If I continued to live like a scared, anxious kid all the time, I would never make anything of my life.
Life begins on the other side of despair. - Jean Paul Sarte
It was a surreal day I’ll never forget, messed up a couple of times, but it was crucial in understanding these limiting beliefs I tended to place on myself were simply stories I told so I didn’t have to change. It was a level-up moment for my character. Lean into discomfort, seek it, otherwise prepare for a life where comfort slowly kills you.
Product Market Fit
Since the partnership, we have just been in building mode. Fixing a bunch of features in the app, testing out implementing Instagram Stories, and new content in the app such as a learn page educating users on the importance of meditation. We decided not to really try to push on social media until we knew we had product-market fit. For us, that meant at least a 10% retention rate which we are still very far from.
During this time, we also completely redid the art style of the app and improved the onboarding flow. Another big problem we're currently facing is that no one seems to be referring others to use the app, even though we had a referral reward system (a big indicator of not having PMF).
After I graduated in May, I flew out to live with my co-founder in San Diego and really began to get serious about making this app a household name in the mental health space. Another big reason why I decided to leave home was to start growing my personal brand on social media and to document the process of building MindGarden, and there was no better way to stay accountable than to live with someone who's mastered it.
Where Are We Now?
That leads us to the present day. We implemented OKRs: a system to set and achieve goals, and I am now beginning to post content on a bunch of different platforms, including this newsletter. I have no idea if any of this will take off but I know one thing for sure:
I'm increasing the surface area of luck, which as a result will create more serendipitous moments in my life.
I can’t control whether or not people love MindGarden, and trying to would lead to insanity. I can only focus on becoming a person capable of creating such an app. That means improving my design skills, my understanding of cognitive psychology, human motivation, gamification, data analytics, etc. I don’t know what I don’t know. But that’s okay. Many people even some of the most successful ones, are also figuring it out as they go.
I have no idea how this next year will pan out, but I know one thing for sure: I'm going to document this process and enjoy the journey of leveling up. So I hope you continue to follow my wins, losses, learnings, doubts, and fun playing The Great Online Game.
See you next week! Logging out.