Startup Q&A: BetterYou
By: The Startup Grind Team
Tags: Startup Lessons, Startup Spotlight, Startup, Founders, Startup Life

We’ve all been there.

Scroll, scroll, scroll. Stop. Scroll, stroll. Stop. Scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll…

Three hours later and you’re blurry-eyed and guilty. What was supposed to be a productive afternoon somehow turned into a time-warp of surfing the web, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, and unnecessarily checking email eight dozen times.

Enter, BetterYou.

BetterYou is a digital coach that helps people make better health and wellness decisions by logging how you actually spend your time and comparing it to your goals. It leverages the background data from our phones to log progress without intensive manual entry, and their AI-based coach uses this insight to nudge employees and students toward the outcomes they want to see.

Sean Higgens, BetterYou’s CEO, recently shared more about BetterYou with Startup Grind, digging into what sets BetterYou apart from the competition and the unique approach they take to growing a team.

— In a single sentence, what does BetterYou do?

BetterYou is a digital coach that helps you make better decisions every day.

— How did BetterYou come to be? What was the problem you found and the ‘aha’ moment?

Sitting on the couch scrolling through email, I realized two things. First, that I had no reason to even be on email right now, and second, that I don’t know why I selected the app in the first place. My head knew I shouldn’t be here, but my hands were moving on their own.

How much of our time is intentional? How much of it is us going down the rabbit hole without realizing it?

In 2007, 32% of free time in the US was on devices. Today that number is over 90%. But as our time on device has gone up and up, our satisfaction with that time has gone down.

Today our time on device is optimized, not for what we want, but for what we’ll watch, time on page. We’re creating a world where your time on device isn’t optimized by apps or advertisers, it’s optimized for the things you care the most about.

— What sets BetterYou apart in the market?

BetterYou doesn’t require manual entry. We leverage the power of the phone to give you credit for how you spent your day. Your phone can give you credit for calling Mom this week, or going to a park near your house. We leverage this data exhaust to automatically log progress toward your goals.

This enables us to provide redirection in real time. Say it’s 6pm and I’m going for another Yotube video. The BetterYou AI knows my habits that get in my way for achieving goals. So if I’m going for that next video and I haven;t chatted with Mom yet, I’m likely to get a real time notification, “Hey Sean, you said chatting with Mom this week was important, got a minute?” This real time redirection helps people make time in their day for the things that matter most.

— Have you pursued funding and if so, what steps did you take?

We raised 1.8M in seed funding by building a great team of Ph.Ds and product people, making a stellar product and getting early customer traction.

— What KPIs have been most important for you to track?

We measure our demos generated per month (top of funnel), our monthly deals closed (bottom of funnel), and our annual customer churn (customer success).

— How did the core team meet?

I’ve known Edwin for over 10 years and he has always been building things. BetterYou was the perfect chance for us to team up.

Tommy, I met at a conference. I saw his background sheet: Ph.D in applied mathematics, research around behavioral change. When I got to talking with him he was fluent in Node.js from some RPOG games he had created. We were building our backend in Node.js. I knew, then and there, that this was someone to build around. He moved to MN to help us create the AI and leads our data team today.

— How do you build and develop talent?

We source candidates from beyond the job board. We look at Blogs, Social engagement, community events, Twitter, Instagram to find people that demonstrate the skills we need to be successful. When you open up the job search to people doing amazing things and don’t bucket into years of experience, you can find great talent fast. Our last hire (Business Development) we found through her blog.

She had great writing skills and it prompted us to reach out to see if she had thought about BD work. One week into the new role and she had already booked a customer demo.

— What’s been the biggest success for the team?

This summer based on user feedback we had a massive product overhaul. It was the culmination of 6 months worth of work for the product and development teams. We launched this new version and saw instant positive feedback. Our metrics moved in the right direction.

We celebrated with a social distance team outing at a nearby park.

— What milestone are you most proud of so far?

Bringing our product to life and getting it in the hands over over 35 companies in the last year.

— What’s something that’s always on your mind?

Where are mobile applications in 2 years? In 5 years?

— Have you been or are you part of a corporate startup program or accelerator? If so, which ones and what have been the benefits?

Yes, Realco. Realco is a great way to connect with mentors, companies, and grow your business. It is an 18 month virtual program that provides you with resources to grow for the long term. I would highly recommend to anyone looking to build a venture backed business.

— What advice would you give to other founders?

“If you want to change a decision, you don’t try to convince someone, you change the options they get to pick from.”

This is why mobile apps are so good at taking our time, and it’s the very principle that we use to help you reclaim your time.