Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

271–280 of 337 posts

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

#271

Post by skinkestek »

sebisaacsinflow wrote: post #81
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…

Thanks for highlighting this - we're trying to figure out what the best model is for our community. A lot of other apps follow a similar model, we allow people to cancel anytime and have refunded everyone that has forgotten to cancel. Some people also like having the subscription because it is a pay per use model rather than putting everyone under the same one-off bundle. We're working on extending the free trial / m…

Generally supportive of you guys but want to pick even more.

> A lot of other apps follow a similar model, we allow people to cancel anytime and have refunded everyone that has forgotten to cancel.

Many ADHD people also forget or are too embarrassed to do that.

Life hack that works for some: at least on iOS and in my region one can subscribe, immediately unsubscribe and continue to use a product during its free trial period without risking getting trapped.

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

#272

Post by austincheney »

chrsig wrote: post #237
austincheney wrote: post #186

I am supremely interested in this business idea. ADHD is an incredibly large population and frequently disadvantaged in ways they and others are incapable of seeing. As a point of comparison I have a son with severe dyslexia and another with severe ADHD. My son with dyslexia was completely illiterate until almost the 4th grade and now he is almost making a 4.0 in high school with ease. ADHD is by far the greater chal…

> I am supremely interested in this business idea. ADHD is an incredibly large population and frequently disadvantaged in ways they and others are incapable of seeing. This reads....shitty. "I'm interested in business ideas for large frequently disadvantaged populations"... I mean...are you interested in ways to make money off cancer patients, too? Stuff like this app needs to be part of a diverse treatment plan, not…

> I mean...are you interested in ways to make money off cancer patients, too?

If it actually helps treat cancer at a reasonable expense then absolutely. Medicine comes at a cost.

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

#273

Post by chrsig »

austincheney wrote: post #272
chrsig wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I am supremely interested in this business idea. ADHD is an incredibly large population and frequently disadvantaged in ways they and others are incapable of seeing. This reads....shitty. "I'm interested in business ideas for large frequently disadvantaged populations"... I mean...are you interested in ways to make money off cancer patients, too? Stuff like this app needs to be part of a diverse treatment plan, not…

> I mean...are you interested in ways to make money off cancer patients, too? If it actually helps treat cancer at a reasonable expense then absolutely. Medicine comes at a cost.

profit motive and reasonable expenses are diametrically opposed.

I sincerely hope you never find yourself bankrupted due to some condition outside your control.

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

#274

Post by vineyardmike »

sebisaacsinflow wrote: post #84
WhiteDawn wrote: post #74

As someone with ADHD, I’ve stayed away from this product because it is a subscription service. I will sign up for subscription services fully well intentioned and then proceed to not use the service and forget to cancel it in time. I know myself well enough now to stay away from any product offering a subscription. There is no real “managing” it, it’s just a fact of life for me and something I live around. An app tar…

Thanks for the feedback. We're working on some potential solutions to this and in the meantime we refund everybody who requests one.

> Thanks for the feedback. We're working on some potential solutions to this and in the meantime we refund everybody who requests one.

A proper solution is to not charge in the meantime. I know its an aggressive stance, but the dissonance with the exploit and pricing model is strong. You should feel wrong exploiting people claiming you'll fix it later.

Wanna get paid? Find a way to do that without exploit. You'll find a potential solution a lot faster if the money stops rolling in until you do.

Either way, this is a terrible sign for your focus and compassion as business that toes the line with claiming to be a therapy or treatment for a medical condition. How can anyone believe you truly do the right thing and care? I don't think apps care about me, but an app like this that presents itself as an alternative to therapy I expect to be an exception.

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

#275

Post by vineyardmike »

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…

I would encourage everyone who feels strongly about this to feel empowered to use the App Store reporting system, or the Better Business Bureau complaint system to report exploit and manipulation by business.

https://www.bbb.org/file-a-complaint

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

#276

Post by mkr-hn »

sebisaacsinflow wrote: post #142
skeletron wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks, it's good to know that you're considering alternatives. As you have a number of people with ADHD working on your app, I would be curious to know if any of them raised concerns about these specifics of your subscription model, during planning and development of the app?

As well as input from the team, we did a lot of user interviews and testing during development and this wasn't flagged as a concern (a lot of people were used to the model from other apps) but clearly this is something we need to work on.

You might want to look into ways to identify cases where people are used to something but not happy about it in your research process. So many things that shouldn't be normal are considered so and tolerated by people who don't do well with it to the point they don't think about it unless someone asks the right question.

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

#277

Post by bravura »

playpause wrote: post #41
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.

To echo the other comments here, you are describing ADHD, not its opposite. ADHD doesn’t mean you can’t hyperfocus, far from it. It means you find it much harder than a normal person to directly control, through pure will, what to focus on and how widely/narrowly. So at times you’re highly distractible and struggle to focus on things (sometimes even when you know they’re vitally important, like listening to the quest…

"As a rough analogy, ADHD is to focus as bipolar disorder is to mood."

Could you elaborate?

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

#278

Post by vineyardmike »

mysterydip wrote: post #82
beaconstudios wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you might want to try Notion or Evernote something like that; externalised memory is generally served by note-taking apps. Roam is also good, if you don't like organising your notes hierarchically. Remembering to use it is not an issue of memory, but of habituation; there are decent habit-tracking apps like habitica to help with that. Of course, the first habit you'll want to build is the habit of using a habit track…

My phone says I have 219 notes, many of which are pages long. I need a better way to organize them, especially when I need to add something. Large flat files of text get difficult to use. Maybe the apps you mentioned address that in some way, I'll have to look.

I actually do this and think its the best option. The app that is always there is best. Especially if its simple. I just use iOS notes, and they show up on my mac. Easy, always there, and fast to load.

I just dump everything into its own note, then write some keywords to search for. Lots of small notes. Searching text is easy and fast on modern tech, so forget organizations that are inflexible and will need to change, just use text search for everything and put every thought into its own note.

Have an upcoming flight? Throw the entire email into a note ( i attach the email file, not contents), then write "trip SFO NYC november 2021 delta thanksgiving" and i can just search "SFO november" or "delta thanksgiving" and find the flight details.

I even keep a note called "addresses" so any service i give my address to i know about. Very helpful when moving (i do a lot) and tracking what accounts need to be updated.

I found the important thing was not to bother cleaning up notes, or tracking old ones or doing anything complex. Just let them exist, and when i get bored (eg. on flight) i may go through and clean old ones.

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

#279

Post by JohnBooty »

what_is_orcas wrote: post #234
JohnBooty wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the folks on this thread seem to be objecting to the opt-out nature of their subscription service. I agree with them. On the other hand, you seem to be objecting to the very nature of money being charged for this app or any other healthcare service? It's gross, and I do not love this aspect of capitalism. I agree with you to that extent. But -- again, without ditching capitalism entirely -- what's the alterna…

You're right, I take a more aggressive stance on this sort of thing than others might. I'm also known to say "if you can't afford to pay your workers a living wage you can't afford to do business" of many retail/service environments. "But I need to make money, too" isn't an excuse. It wants to be, but it is not. I would agree that the biggest offender is the predatory model, but I would say that the way to do this _c…

   "But I need to make money, too" isn't an excuse. It 
   wants to be, but it is not.
There's another way to phrase that.

   "But I would like to buy food, clothing, and pay my rent" 
   isn't an excuse. It wants to be, but it is not.
People need food and places to live. The vast majority of people on Earth aren't fortunate enough to have a year or two worth of savings to tide them over while they work on some dream project that

I would say your incentives don't align. By effectively restricting the privilege of app/product creation to those people that have a strong economic cushion, you're effectively excluding most of the people on Earth, particularly those that not already wealthy and particularly those with people besides themselves to care for.

    "if you can't afford to pay your workers a living wage 
    you can't afford to do business" of many retail/service 
    environments.
But app creators should just do it for free? Until the money maaaaybe rolls in? Most business/apps/etc fail.

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

#280

Post by MrRiddle »

sebisaacsinflow wrote: post #81
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…

Thanks for highlighting this - we're trying to figure out what the best model is for our community. A lot of other apps follow a similar model, we allow people to cancel anytime and have refunded everyone that has forgotten to cancel. Some people also like having the subscription because it is a pay per use model rather than putting everyone under the same one-off bundle. We're working on extending the free trial / m…

Charging for monthly instead of yearly after trial ends is something you can push to production in half an hour. Don't try to weasel out in front of technical audience. Liar.
Post reply on HN