Founder Profile: Honesti
Tags: Founder Stories, Entrepreneurship, New York, University Of Michigan, Asian American

Can you give us some quick background about yourself?

“Hey guys 👋🏼 I’m Steph, a senior pursuing a dual degree in Industrial and Operations Engineering (IOE) and Business at UMich. As a first-generation student growing up in a low-income family, I always strived for stability despite inherently being a creative person. For this reason, I considered and ventured into about almost every discipline, and entrepreneurship was definitely far from my comfort zone. But what I loved most about any work experience, whether it was managing two trendy ice cream shops in high school or improving the processes within Microsoft Cloud, was considering the needs of all stakeholders to create and *execute* on value. I soon realized through my conversations with my peers and professionals that a career in Product Management would combine all my interests, which prompted me to help found MProduct. During one of our MProduct guest speaker events, a Michigan alumni reiterated the importance of starting something, anything from zero to one. As a risk-averse person, I wanted to overcome my personal mental barrier of shipping the “perfect” product by working on a problem I was passionate about with some friends. This idea turned into a pitch deck, to a built-out MVP, to an investment. Reflecting back, I cannot be more grateful for taking the initiative to solve a real problem college students face as it opened up new experiences (mostly fun, yet challenging problems) that have fostered my own growth. I am a big proponent of actively striving to achieve everyone’s own definition of a “perfect” work-life balance, so outside of my professional interests, I enjoy eating good food, decorating (interior designing/painting), any outdoor workout activities, and fashion.”

Can you give us the Honesti elevator pitch?

“There are many mental health platforms, but many provide professional services that are neither scalable nor effective at colleges. Students go through unique struggles that vary from college to college and fail to seek support because of the stigma around mental health or the lack of time and prioritization.

Honesti is a one-stop-shop wellness platform that allows students to join anonymous support groups within their school, chat anonymously with peer listeners who attend their school, immediately access personalized resources, and keep track of progress from both the student and college counseling side. Colleges have access to insights that will drive solutions to better serve their students.”

What inspired you guys to build Honesti?

“As an Asian-American with uneducated immigrant parents, I was never taught to discuss feelings, let alone ask for help. During my freshman year, I faced a lot of financial hardships trying to support myself through college all while feeling like an imposter pursuing two male-dominated degrees (engineering and business) with my lack of foundational knowledge and resources. I was too afraid to ask for help for fear of looking dumb in front of my peers and often burdened myself with my challenges. As the semesters passed by, I realized that there were students in similar situations that I wished I had somehow connected with to not only feel less alone but also share resources.

More generally speaking, mental health is a growing issue on college campuses with more and more students requesting services every year. A shocking 80% of students reported feeling daily anxiety feelings. Despite all this, there is no platform to provide immediate relief to students, and it common for students to wait 6 to10 weeks for an appointment with university specialists. Currently, 40% of students do no seek help from current university resources. Through my personal and general sentiment from speaking with my peers, it was clear that there is a huge issue on college campuses that few resources are addressing.”

Can you tell us a little bit about your team?

“I currently run the product side of things from iterating on the product sketches on Figma to managing a team of UMSI grad students this semester for user experience feedback. I collaborate frequently with the other cofounders, CEO Ben Hilkert and CTO Rodney Shibu, to discuss higher-level goals/strategies. I mainly work with Rodney to prioritize the feature build out capabilities based on our engineering resources and the Engineering Team to test/finalize functionality and UX. Rodney consistently manages 3–5 undergraduate coders who a building out the app in ReactNative. Ben manages a small team of business analysts to do anything from cash flows to sales calls with university counseling centers.”

What are some recent milestones Honesti has hit?

Honesti recently placed first in the A2 Social Impact Entrepreneurship $20K Fund.

Started partnership with UMSI Design Clinic for semester-long user experience feedback.

Built and continuously iterating on MVP.

$10K funding from the Zell Entrepreneurs Program.

What’s on the roadmap for the year ahead?

“Honesti is currently looking to better understand student needs through our partnership with UMSI Design Clinic to access the success of our community feature. In the future, I hope to create a designated Product Team to help manage product specs and lead user interviews. The Engineering Team is building out the MVP for the peer listening feature and web platform to be used by the college administration. We hope to do a soft launch at the end of the year as we prep for a Winter 2021 pilot. Honesti is still, however, working on solidifying these pilot programs with colleges so the pilot timeline is subject to change.”

Alright, so what’s the big picture? Where do you see Honesti in the future?

“Honesti’s mission is to ensure that no student ever feels alone. We want to empower students by connecting them with students facing similar struggles and eliminating the barriers of having an open conversation through anonymity. We want to be the go-to platform for students in any college/university to seek help immediately from students who understand what they’re going through.”

How are you looking to grow your team? Can you answer the following questions regarding the type of additions you are looking to make?

Devs or Designers?

“Both! Although we already a team of developers, Honesti is always looking for more quality coders. Honesti especially needs more advanced coders with either prior experience with ReactNative or grit for solving problems.

I have zero professional design experience and would love for a UI expert to provide feedback on our interface. It would also be cool to have graphic designers make the whole experience more welcoming as a wellness platform.”

Specific Skills?

Devs: ReactNative, Firebase

Designers: Figma or really any design software

Qualities of New Members?