I founded a Digital Therapeutic company focused on ADHD treatment
I founded Eachday Inc. with the goal of creating technology that would achieve similar clinical outcomes as prescription ADHD medication
As CEO I raised and budgeted $325K in venture capital which I used to build and ship 4 products, conduct UX research and run 2 clinical discovery studies with ADHD patients.
Finding a large unadressed market
My brother was diagnosed with ADHD at a young age, more and more of my peers were getting adult diagnoses
They weren't alone. As of 2020, Adult ADHD impacted 9.34% of the global population, and there is a 91% chance of ADHD being passed down generationally. This was a massive growing market.
To capture the attention of a group that is notoriously inattentive, I needed to empathize with their symptoms, then quickly build an MVP to put the product in their hands to see data on whether the digital solution is sticky and useful or not.
I used online research and scoured social media support groups to look for business opportunities
My co-founder Gabe asked, "Does music REALLY help you focus?" on Reddit where it was 99% upvoted and got over 250 comments from users of the R/ADHD community.
My Co-founder Gabe's post garnered 200+ comments in 1 day
Building an MVP
Moments.fm
We used this signal to design and quickly build Moments.fm ADHD Radio, a tool that played different background music tied to ADHD self-management tips as a way to establish our ethos.
We launched it on Product Hunt for free to collect sign-ups and build a waitlist of future potential customers.
Moments.FM, Our logo and my family and early co-workers demo bug fixes before going to market
Selling early market indicators
Pitching the business
The experiment garnered 57 upvotes on product hunt and several hundred sign-ups for a waitlist. Armed with these indicators I began to contact accelerator program and pre-seed funds.
Carnegie Mellon's startup accelerator
I then pitched to Carnegie Mellon's Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship who invested $25,000 in Eachday and invited us into their accelerator program.
The Venture Bridge Accelerator program introduced us to VCs and helped me pay for the administration of setting up a business. I used the money to file for incorporation and develop our next MVP. Eachday Inc. was registered as a Delaware C-Corp 07/07/2021
Hiring a medical team to develop a wellness product
Hiring experts
At its height my team was 13 people. Hiring a psychiatrist and executive function coach helped me to understand how to approach working with clinicians and insurers. Most were unpaid and worked for equity, they came from all backgrounds and consisted of professionals with over 2o years in the medical field, learning specialists and technologists.
Starting with a wellness product
Our first app blended task management, visualizing time and a content library for pediatric ADHD patients. We couldn't make any medical claims because it hadn't been tested in a clinical setting.
Using stickies from the design thinking workshop I created iterations in Figma that focused on recurring topics: time management, education and task completion.
The app aimed to strengthen working memory and shifting executive functions.
Piloting our first mobile app
Partnering with a medically sophisticated school
We piloted it at Wesley High School a local Pennsylvania special needs high school that our psychiatrist Duke had worked for previously. His relationship allowed us to gather both qualitative UX feedback and clinical data.
Adding clinical measurements to a digital product
We used the Conners and Vanderbilt rating scales. Opting for students and their parents to rate changes in ADHD severity over the course of the clinical discovery study.
The Conners rating scale is a questionnaire that asks about things like behavior, work or schoolwork, and social life.
The Vanderbilt ADHD Diagnostic Rating Scale (VADRS) is a psychological assessment tool for parents of children aged 6 to 12 designed to measure the severity of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms. Developed by Mark Wolraich at the Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, this rating scale also includes items related to other disorders which are frequently comorbid with ADHD.
Conducting UX research
I ran in-person tests with students and then their parents online. The focus was on usability in the beginning then user experience later in the pilot after they had used the app for several weeks.
Using moderated interviews and unmoderated surveys we were able to get app feedback from both students and their parents.
The research made it clear that there were serious usability concerns around the App's information architecture and the labeling of app features. We needed to double down on the productivity side and pivot our target audience to adults who had the buying power.
Our users had plenty of feedback, which I gathered and synthesized.
Fundraising using our clinical data
Getting into IndieBio the #1 life sciences accelerator
I pitched to IndieBio NY and took on $200,000 to build and test our next iteration of the Eachday app. IndieBio helped us organize our Data Room, document the scientific validity of our product and promised the opportunity to pitch to 100+ investors at their New York demo day event.
Adding product talent
I hired 2 engineers, a product management intern and a junior UX designer to help with wireframing. My goal was to use Flutter to create a cross-platform mobile app with an AWS backend that could be sold by the end of the year.
Designing and building medically valid product
The second app iteration had numerous challenges around data protection, syncing time with activities. Adding self-reporting clinical scales in the app would allow us to collect crucial measurement data that would show whether the app actually had efficacy around lowering ADHD.
Conducting a clinical discovery study
My psychiatrist and I organized a second clinical discovery study around the next iteration of the app
This time we focused on adult patients and again measured changes in ADHD while gathering UX feedback. I wrote a usability protocol and conducted online interviews, using sticky notes and then Figjam to digitize sense-making for the rest of the team.
User Recruitment & Selection
Our psychiatrist tested patients for major comorbidities to ensure that they were primarily ADHD and didn't suffer from severe mental health disorders that would skew their experience on the app.
To do this he did screening interviews and had them fill out the Gad-7 for anxiety, ASRS for adult ADHD severity.
In the end we had 27 adults ages 19-57 who were primarily ADHD 15 females and 12 males.
Research results
Our research showed strong qualitative feedback that this was a tool adult ADHD patients would benefit from. Adherence to the scales made it difficult to gauge whether or not the app had efficacy.
Our research required controlled groups of patients to ensure valid results.
IndieBio NYC Demo Day
I presented my findings at IndieBio's demo day at the Gramercy Theatre in NYC.
I talked through the prevalence of ADHD and the lack of medically validated self-management tools available for high-functioning adults.
The end of my company
It's very difficult to talk about something that you've worked so hard on failing
A series of misfortunes led to the inevitable winding down of my company and an end to my 3 year journey as CEO.
Fundraising woes
We left NYC with 4 committed investors and a $5M company valuation, unfortunately that investment was never realized.
A second opportunity opened up with 3 interested investors.
After 3 months of back and forth, the first group of investors pulled out after agreeing to terms. They felt like there wasn't enough of a clear go to market and that the economy was too tumultuous. There was no signed paperwork and little money in the bank for arbitration or a pivot.
At that point I had already closed the door on the previous investors because terms had been agreed to. I was devastated and willing to try anything to increase our runway.
Optum pulls out of our pilot
Eachday was accepted into the Optum Startup Studio which would allow us to run another Clinical Discovery Study with a larger patient populaiton.
A month after signing the paperwork Optum went through a reorg and cut the Startup Studio program. Defaulting on $25k investment and the pilot we had organized.
Upwinding Eachday Inc.
Winding up is the process of liquidating a company.
While winding up, a company ceases to do business as usual. Its sole purpose is to sell off stock, pay off creditors, and distribute any remaining assets to partners or shareholders.
I spent time with SOSV's legal team to get the correct paperwork and necessary steps to shut down the company, focusing on the employees and contractors first before tackling outstanding debt.
I had always paid on time so most vendors were reasonable when it came to consolidating final invoices and forgiving some of the outstanding debt. Next I cut payroll and tax services. Then went through Shareholder and Board dissolution.
Reflecting years later
While I still feel anger and sadness, what I feel most is gratitude
Running my own company let me understand how design plays into creating products, selling services, establishing an online ethos and truly understanding your customers.
I was able hire and work with some extraordinary people who believed in our mission and me as a leader. I sat shoulder to shoulder with CEO's of big companies like Cloudflare, Optum and small passionate businesses that never made it out of incubation.
It helped me grow as a man, a leader, a son and student. There's always a bigger fish out there— but hardwork good luck and a good team can change the world. I didn't do it this time, but left with a lifetime of lessons learned.
