Who is Dante Kim?
So a little background about me. I was initially gonna be a pediatrician in high school. I tried to learn to code freshman year and simply pushed it aside, thinking it wasn't for me. By the time senior year rolled around, I had read a book called The Inevitable by Kevin Kelly. This book changed the trajectory of everything. I knew learning to code would be necessary if I wanted to take part in the next tech revolution, changes were coming so drastic it would make the last 20 years look insignificant. I enrolled as a Computer Science major in college, but 95% of the coding I learned was self-taught.
A side note: In high school, I tried to learn how to code on my own three different times and quit all three times. I took an AP Computer Science class during high school and passed with a C minus. I didn’t retain anything, didn’t learn anything.
MOOCs, Udemy courses, and small side projects. It was extremely tough. The first 12 months of learning if statements, while loops, and object-oriented programming made me want to quit countless times, but I kept pushing through. My first mobile app was a To-do list app that took me over nine months to create and numerous sleepless nights fixing the stupidest bugs. But after it was completed, it gave me the self-confidence that I could actually create apps! The rest is history; I made three other apps after this, each one better than the last, and a bunch of small websites. Took a detour for nine months learning AI and finally stuck to IOS development.Â
This leads me to the summer of 2021. I now had a tool belt of skills I had developed over the past three years: design, coding & marketing. I knew the next app I built would turn into a startup. I thought long and hard about the intersection between my passions, my underlying skill set, and where the market was trending. That's how MindGarden was born. After brainstorming a bunch of different ideas and seeing how shit the general mental health of the world was and how difficult consistent meditation was, I knew a gamified meditation app was what the world needed.Â
During the beginning of the pandemic, I struggled with a lot of anxiety and even had a few panic attacks. I was in a terrible headspace, so I started meditating. After a few days, I felt almost no difference, but I kept sticking with it because it felt like I had no choice. Then slowly, after about a month, I noticed that I caught myself before I entered these self-destroying thought loops. I started to enjoy the little things, and my focus on my daily activities became almost effortless.Â
The same way we brush our teeth for our dental health, consistent meditation is crucial for strong mental health.Â
I tried to get all my friends and family to start the habit, but no one lasted more than three days. It's a chore, super boring, and in today's society, when everything is instantly gratifying, spending 5 minutes to meditate every day seems like an impossible task. Social media and video games continue to become more and more addicting, which as a result, is causing record numbers of health issues all over the world.Â
Gamification
Gamification currently is still extremely underrated. Many people think it's just slapping on some points, badges, and leaderboards. This is rarely the correct approach. You have to think of the feedback loops, rewards/incentives, and most importantly, who your target audience is before you even write a single line of code. I began doing tons of research on different designs, other gamified apps that were working well, and what the top meditations app were lacking.
I started creating a bunch of different designs on Figma and came up with a color palette and a general art style that I liked. I also decided to add mood tracking and a journaling feature to the app. These two things I felt synergized perfectly with the habit of meditation and also play a direct role in improving mental health.Â
With the rise of apps such as FinchCares, Duolingo, and Strava. It becoming clear to see that Gen Z is starving to interact with games, not apps. Tik Tok, Instagram, Discord, and Reddit are all social networks disguised as video games. They activate all the same neural receptors a multiplayer game like Fortnite would. Gen Z is one of the first generations to grow up with this addicting technology and our transition to the adult world is looking very ugly.
Things such as discipline, direction, and real connection have mostly gone out the window. This tiny metal box we keep in our pocket control all our waking hours, and most of the software we use is detrimental to us. With MindGarden I’m not trying to get users to make a drastic change, I’m trying to meet people where they are at. Mindfulness is such an amazing gift, and if it takes wrapping it in gamification wrapping paper then that’s the way I’m going to do it.
The Future
In Part 2, I tell the story of how I developed the beta / got my first users and validated the entire idea.
Thanks for reading. Until next time.
Logging out.