Secret’s founder returns with anti-loneliness app Ikaria

This is a totally fair question. I appreciate you giving me the benefit of the doubt.

When I designed and built Secret, it was based on an early community of people who were sharing things we'd never see on Facebook or anywhere else. I was touched by the vulnerable stories and conversations people were having. People would come to me and tell me Secret changed their life in positive ways. This is why I continued to work on it and believed that it was possible for it to do good in the world.

Ever since I left Secret, those moments always stuck with me. And even to this day people reach out and tell me they miss Secret; what I hear is that people still have a need to share vulnerably. That's why I decided to lick my wounds and get back to work.

Last August I hit a peak of loneliness after moving to LA, and using Instagram all the time. I felt like shit, like I wasn't enough, and I was really hard on myself and self critical. This led me to an emotional rock bottom. It wasn't until then that I demanded self love from myself and built myself back up emotionally, and it was that process that inspired me to help other who might feel like I did at that difficult point last August.

Personally, some of my values are:

— People are inherently good. I believe everyone has a story and their own challenges, and if they can feel heard, they can feel accepted and become a healthy and thriving individual.

— Strangers are just friends waiting to happen. We can be quick to judge other people, but we should always bias to listening and to asking questions to better understand where people are coming from.

— It starts with self love. If you can't accept yourself, how can you ever truly know how to accept anyone else? Usually when we reject others, it's because we reject something about ourselves. I learned this lesson the hard way, and hope to bring more self compassion to others.

— It takes a village. Pursuing any mission in life is greater than any one person. When I built Secret, initially it was mostly my idea and I designed it myself. I think that's the exception to the rule. With what we're building now, we've received so much support that all I can do is empower and enable people to do what they love to bring this mission to life.

— Leave it better than you found it. Whatever situation you're in, do what you can to make a little better.

— Joy waits on the other side of fear. Often the things we are afraid of are gateways to self-discovery and fulfilling our potential.

I could go on, but these are just some that come to mind now. You can read about the values of our company on our website at http://ikaria.co

This all started with a very simple question: Do we fundamentally believe that technology can help us create more meaningful relationships and increase our social wellness?

If we believe the answer is yes, then we absolutely must do everything in our power and ability to try to find the answer. That's why we decided to build Ikaria.

We are not ignorant to the value of real, in-person communication and interaction, and we're not trying to replace it. We've done deep research on the psychology of relationships and loneliness, and the mental health impact of it. The problem exists with or without social media, although numerous studies have shown the problem can be exacerbated by social media.

Since we cannot avoid technology, we must reclaim it and give people spaces where they can form healthy habits and healthy relationships with their phones and each other. Very much like the fitness industry was born from a junk food epidemic, it's time for a shake-up in junk social nutrition.

Our goal is to bring healthy relational practices to the forefront. Very much like Calm and Headspace have done for mindfulness and mental health, we would like to do for social health. From what we've seen, the behaviors we learn in a digital space are transferable into the physical world.

We are working directly with experts and mental health professionals to help inform our product decisions and include them from the very beginning. This is bigger than any one person or idea, and we believe it's going to take a village.

So far, in our closed beta, people are reporting feeling closer to everyone in their groups, increased levels of happiness, and a positive relationship with the app. (i.e. "This is the only app where I allow notifications other than text")

For me, personally, it's brought me much closer to my parents and I keep in touch with them more than I ever have. I'd love for more people to have that experience.

We welcome criticism and support equally, thank you to everyone who has shown interest and has shared their views.