Launch HN: Quirk (YC S19) – Open-Source Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Nice work! This is a great idea and something I've thought should exist since getting interested in CBT a few months back. Before even trying the app, here are some thoughts.- On pricing: $4/mo seems like a difficult price point to build a business around, and it doesn't reflect the value you're offering. People pay hundreds/thousands per month to therapists to improve their mental health. If outcomes from using your app compare favorably to a therapist, shouldn't your pricing reflect that? $4/mo makes me think 'toy', not serious therapeutic tool. For people to be willing to pay anything for an app like this, they have to be convinced it can really work. But if they are convinced, they'll pay a whole lot more than $4/mo. I would consider freemium (so people can try it out and see the value) and then a much higher price point (maybe $50-100/mo?). You might get undercut by competing apps, but if you're clearly the best one, I think many people will want the best option and won't be very price-sensitive if they believe it can really help.- On branding: while it's important to mention that the app is based on CBT so you can piggyback on the awareness people already have about CBT, I think referring to it as a "Cognitive Behavioral Therapy app" severely restricts your market to people who already know what that means, which I'd guess is a very small slice of the people who could benefit. I would try to lead with the benefits--feel better quickly; easier, cheaper, more effective than a therapist; evidence-based; etc.--and save the more technical/jargony stuff about CBT for supporting info.- On stigma: I would also try to avoid positioning this as something mainly for people experiencing a 'mental illness' like clinical depression/anxiety, but rather something that everyone can benefit from and use to feel better and improve their lives, regardless of how they currently feel. I think many people who don't consider themselves to have a serious problem still engage in cognitive distortions and could see major benefits from using CBT techniques, so I would try to include these people in your messaging as well. While going from bad mood to good mood is obviously valuable and desirable, so is going from good mood to great mood. But if you make it seem like using the app is effectively self-identifying as 'mentally ill' or even just 'feeling bad', many folks in the latter camp will be turned off, so that's something to be careful about.