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Launch HN: Inflow (YC S21) – Self-help app for people with ADHD

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Launch HN: Inflow (YC S21) – Self-help app for people with ADHD

#61

Post by krono »

Hey, fellow invalid here. I will be checking out the app, but am unlikely to convert to a paid subscription due to my treatment already being covered.

One thing I find very off-putting, is the rose-coloured, almost "success guaranteed"-like image your website and app store page sketches.

This product is no wishing-well that your customerpatients can simply throw money at and magically feel better. For this to ever have any meaningful and lasting effect, they will have to put in some serious effort. This requirement should be very clearly communicated I feel.

Long-term dedication and commitment to a plan with uncertain results is not exactly what ADHD brains are known to excel at ;)

Edit: I also share the others' thoughts about your billing model not being very ADHD-friendly.

All-in-all, considering your listed expertise in this field, this is very concerning and not a good look at all.

Re: Launch HN: Inflow (YC S21) – Self-help app for people with ADHD

#62

Post by throwanem »

skeletron wrote: post #48
throwanem wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Billing an entire annual subscription up front, as opposed to monthly, seems especially questionable. What if the therapy doesn't work? What if it's so badly implemented that it can't work? You're still out a hundred bucks just the same, and that's just in the first year. edit: There is also a monthly subscription option, in the Apple app store at least. It's $22 a month - so over twice as much as the annual. This do…

I just downloaded the Android app to check, and it's a similar ratio as you describe for the Apple app store: £19.99 per month if paid monthly, but £7.17 per month (as £85.99 per year) if paid annually. And on my phone at least, the monthly payment option is also hidden behind a scroll down action: https://i.imgur.com/rV0bMTH.jpg , with the yearly subscription already selected by default. It would seem they're pushin…

It's really remarkable.

I'm not too proud to admit that I spent a long time not really taking ADD/ADHD all that seriously. That was before I fell in love with someone who has ADD. Seeing on a daily basis the effect it has on him, and the extent to which, even with effective treatment, it remains a serious obstacle in terms of executive function and followthrough even for things he plainly cares a lot about - to say nothing of subscription fees, which even people without these disorders find easy enough to forget that tools for managing them constitute an entire genre in their own right...

Well, I'm really looking forward to seeing what the founders have to say for themselves here, if anything, and wondering what reasons they could give me not to warn my boyfriend off their product in the strongest of terms.

Re: Launch HN: Inflow (YC S21) – Self-help app for people with ADHD

#63

Post by d4mi3n »

colinplamondon wrote: post #56
d4mi3n wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem isn’t the cost, it’s the way folks with ADHD are being charged. The whole point here is to help folks who are having trouble remembering to do things. Regardless of the economics, the optics here make this seem like exploitation. Making this opt-in avoids a dark pattern. Folks with ADHD are often impulsive and strike while the iron is hot—if this has value people will opt-in.

Why are we holding this new startup to a standard we don't hold anyone else? 6 months from now when they have their economics figured out, cool, they can run that test. Generally, giving users a toggle to get reminded when a trial is about to run out will INCREASE conversion rates. That depends on the business, and is part of a pretty standard set of experiments you run post-launch. With your comments you're part HN…

You’re missing my point—it’s a bad look regardless of the economics.

You can have a great business model, you can have a good product, but if you can’t operate without alienating the people you want to sell to you’re probably dead in the water.

Re: Launch HN: Inflow (YC S21) – Self-help app for people with ADHD

#65

Post by msluyter »

mysterydip wrote: post #3

One thing I've wanted in an app is some kind of organized quick way to do "where did i put that?" and "did I try this food option before and did I like it or not?" My main concern with any app is remembering to use it. I have a dozen or so alarms, and todo lists, and I still forget to check them. Beyond some push notification, what ways can your app help me remember to use it to make it a habit?

Re: "where did I put that" -- I got a set of Apple airtags recently and they've been a godsend. I also have an apple watch, so via the watch I can find my phone, and via the phone I can find my wallet/keys/etc... They're awesome.

Re: reminders, one thing I've noticed with any sort of reminder system based on alerts/notifications, is that while they work for a while, eventually my brain just starts ignoring the alerts. I honestly have no great solutions for that. This applies to any sort of organizational system I've tried, actually.

Re: Launch HN: Inflow (YC S21) – Self-help app for people with ADHD

#66

Post by throwanem »

rubylark wrote: post #60
what_is_orcas wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, reading the description, it's hard not to get a little concerned: "a start up that's going to try to make money off of folks with ADHD" isn't a great starting place. I think this is sort of a broader start-up problem. Some things shouldn't be monetized (period, but for the sake of the audience, I'll add: at least not as aggressively as is required for a start-up).

Here's a counter argument: "a company making money off of folks with ____" describes the entirety of the Biomed industry. Every medical device is sold with the intention of helping people with medical issues, but they can't be free. The cost of development and production has to be covered by somebody (be that by the government, medical insurance, or private party). If it wasn't, the company making the device wouldn't…

That industry is also regulated and monitored to ensure that the interventions coming out of it are generally safe and effective. Is the same true here?

Re: Launch HN: Inflow (YC S21) – Self-help app for people with ADHD

#67

Post by beaconstudios »

101008 wrote: post #43
skeletron wrote: post #22

Many of the reviews of the Android app are quite critical of the trial and payment model, for example: > CAUTION: After the free trial period (7 days), they will charge for an annual subscription ($102.95 US). This is OPT OUT, not opt in. In other reviews they say they will offer a refund (I will update when/if I get one) but for an app for people with executive function issues, an opt out format seems shady. Either…

This is so shady and I "could" understand it coming from a random startup... but by a startup backed by YC? And that it gets it own Launch HN thread (while others startups had to do it in the batch posts?). This is no the first time in the last months that something like this happened, unfortunately.

why do you think YCombinator isn't willing to exploit people? They're a VC accelerator, of course they are. Just because the profit motive doesn't always lead to immoral behaviour, doesn't mean that profit-motivated people aren't going to pursue immoral behaviour if it's profitable.

Re: Launch HN: Inflow (YC S21) – Self-help app for people with ADHD

#68

Post by PragmaticPulp »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #2

I wish you luck! I have the opposite issue. I'm ... what do you call it? neurodiverse (at one time, I was an "aspie"), and I can actually get locked into a fugue, so strong, that hours go by like minutes. In the aggregate, it has worked out OK. I'm a damn good programmer (but a total nerd). I do have family that have suffered from ADHD, and hope that your app may be helpful.

I strongly suggest that you engage with some professionals for this issue, not an app targeted at a single diagnosis.

Issues like you describe are difficult to self-diagnose and impossible for others to diagnose over the internet. You could have an ADHD-like etiology, maladaptive daydreaming, or you could have a seizure disorder. Undiagnosed seizure disorders can be particularly draining but are often easily treated.

Be wary of internet comments pushing you to a specific diagnosis, particularly ADHD. HN commenters frequently over-diagnose ADHD from comments about vague symptoms. Leave it to professionals who can evaluate you in person.

Re: Launch HN: Inflow (YC S21) – Self-help app for people with ADHD

#69

Post by tonyarkles »

symlinkk wrote: post #52

Does therapy actually work? I’ve always been under the impression that it was mostly placebo, and that only medication produces meaningful results. Happy to be proven wrong though

During my diagnosis I discussed both pharmaceutical and therapy options with my psychiatrist. His take, which is definitely subject to his own biases, was "lots of my patients choose to do both therapy and pharmaceuticals, but after starting the drugs they kind of lose interest in the therapy part of things because the drugs work so well for most patients. Not all. Some have benefited tremendously from therapy."

Re: Launch HN: Inflow (YC S21) – Self-help app for people with ADHD

#70

Post by boopmaster »

delecti wrote: post #36
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #2

I wish you luck! I have the opposite issue. I'm ... what do you call it? neurodiverse (at one time, I was an "aspie"), and I can actually get locked into a fugue, so strong, that hours go by like minutes. In the aggregate, it has worked out OK. I'm a damn good programmer (but a total nerd). I do have family that have suffered from ADHD, and hope that your app may be helpful.

"Neurodiverse" is an umbrella term that covers a handful of things, including both ADHD and Autism Spectrum Disorder. What used to be Asperger's is now just one point along the autism spectrum. So you'd still be classified as neurodiverse if you had ADHD instead of being somewhere under the sub-umbrella ASD.

I won’t argue with you about this, as I’m tied up arguing about it already with my inner aspie.
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