Launch HN: Indy (YC S21) – A support app designed for ADHD brains (shimmer.care)
We started Shimmer in 2022 after my adult ADHD diagnosis, and have shipped several iterations of ADHD support since then (1:1 coaching, web tools, body doubling, and AI-assisted coaching).
Across these launches and 80k coaching sessions, we kept running into the same constraint: “knowing what to do” is rarely the problem for people with ADHD. The harder problem is actually doing it consistently over time, especially when attention, motivation, and emotional state fluctuate.
That maps to a useful distinction that is explored in the literature (e.g. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4589250/): “cool” executive function (future-oriented planning, direction, values) vs. “hot” executive function (in-the-moment emotion, urgency, impulse, overwhelm). Most tools lean hard into managing the latter. Productivity apps push execution, general chatbots give advice, but neither reliably supports the interaction between hot + cold EF across weeks and months.
So we built Indy, an AI support system designed to support both. Here’s an overview of how it works:
Guided future mapping: users are guided to create a structured map of meaningful past experiences, current priorities, and upcoming future moments. This becomes the foundation for personalization so that everything that they do in the app helps move them closer to these goals
Daily + weekly check-ins: users engage in short, low-friction chat flows to set their priorities for the day (most popular use case is brain dumping priorities then having Indy help sort through them). The system does not assume consistency or linear progress, and adapts prompts based on prior behavior rather than enforcing a fixed routine.
Longitudinal insights: over time, Indy surfaces patterns across inputs so users can see trends in effort, focus, and blockers. This helps counter the common ADHD experiences of 1) forgetting what works / doesn’t work, and 2) feeling like “nothing changed”
Problem-solving when stuck: when users report feeling blocked, Indy uses structured, behavior-change-informed prompts to help identify what is actually getting in the way (e.g. energy, clarity, emotional load, environment) and narrow toward a concrete next step
Progress that includes effort: Indy tracks wins, effort, and insights separately, and helps users draw out positive ways that members showed up (e.g. effort, mindset) even on days where no objective outcome was achieved
Why use AI to do this? and why now? Two main reasons: (1) Affordability: Although continuous human support would mostly be better than a tech solution, that level of availability is too expensive for most people. Even weekly coaching (our core product) is still too expensive for many people. A tech solution allows some support rather than none. (2) Personalization: AI makes it possible to build systems that maintain continuity, personalize over time, and respond to context without relying on rigid templates or requiring constant human presence.
The main challenge we’ve experienced using AI for Indy is preventing it from collapsing into generic advice, productivity pressure, or over-automation/reliance. Instead, we’ve focused on using AI as scaffolding and capacity-building: something that supports reflection, problem solving, and accountability, while keeping agency with the user and clear boundaries around non-medical use.
Indy is free to try: Is this yet another US-based startup that totally misunderstands that GDPR is not about blocking "cookies" but instead that it is about not telling Google that someone just visited an ADHD-related website? I'm dumbfounded by the ignorance every single time. Why do people spend effort on cookie banners and stuff when they simply include every tracking script on first load of the website? I'm not advocating that you need to be GDPR compliant if you are US-based and dgaf about EU customers. But if you do these shenanigans with cookie banner then at least do them correctly. And even for non-EU customers it is extremely rude to share visits to a health related website with so many third party companies that clearly build tracking profiles and utilize them to extract as much money from you as possible. Basic collection your data. This isn’t for me (because I’ve already built a system that works), but this looks like something that would be very useful. For the target user who does feel stuck and hasn’t successfully built their system, this looks like a phenomenal product. I appreciate the emphasis on self-reflection and perhaps the implied focus on continuous improvement. Over the last few years I implemented a weekly self-review + planning practice (think solo agile retrospective), and my life has been on a steady trajectory of improvement since. Edit: commenting on the product concept, not the company, pricing, or concerning tracking practices. I also have to say something about the "for those who feel stuck... indy will be your compass" reads incredibly fucking dystopian to me. I can't say for certain that this is caused by my ADHD or not, but I have a "sensitivity" to dark patterns. That is to say, dark patterns bug me more than they probably should. Hiding the pricing until after signup is a dark pattern. It's a clear case of the company optimizing for their interests over mine and they are therefore unworthy of my trust (or so my brain tells me). After all, what other user-hostile design decisions are they going to make? What ends up happening is that my brain puts its guard up, and keeps it up. It's constantly on the lookout for more subtle tricks and corner cutting. Furthermore, I'm offended that they think I'm that stupid (but that's probably the developer in me and not my ADHD). The landing page piqued my interest but then let me down. Hard. Not because $40 a month (as reported by another user here) is too much, but because I find dark patterns to be morally repugnant. [0] https://edgefoundation.org/the-fairness-imperative-adhd-and-... P.S. I struggled to write this as its first thing in the morning and I haven't even had coffee. That Edge Foundation website isn't a good resource. It's SEO filler content for them to feed their coaching sales funnel. The actual study it linked is more informative. They surveyed a group of kids about their reaction to different scenarios of injustice and also ADHD traits. They found a positive correlation between ADHD and sensitivity to injustice from the victim perspective, but substantially lower sensitivity to injustice from the perpetrator perspective. Given that this study was purely in 10-19 year olds (mostly children) and the opposite results for victim and perpetrator injustice, I suspect it's just measuring emotional maturity among the kids. The study also noticed a high correlation with angry and anxious responses, which further supports the correlation to emotional and interpersonal maturity. I know this is probably not something that a tech tool will fix on its own, but do you mind sharing your config and how you converged to something that worked? I think technological systems for managing ADHD are targeted mainly towards J-type personalities (Myers-Briggs). As a hard P-type, I generally perceive Systems as detrimental to my well-being. A take which of course is riddled with both fallacies and exceptions (so don't hold me too harshly to it). What's holding me back from checking out any sort of recommandation is the fear of commitment. Everything eventually becomes one (or more) of the following: - A joyous commitment
- A meaningfull commitment
- A stressfull commitment Having a kitten is joyous. Having a 17 year old cat is all of the above. Systems—good, usefull and fascinating as they may be—generally tend to fit in the 'stressfull' category. Especially those who encroach toward a hobby/hyper-fixation during the honeymoon period. (The one system I still use on a day-to-day basis is a calendar. Because I have to. It's not joyous, but it's meaningfull.) I suspect that the ADHD audience on HN would skew towards people who have already developed coping mechanisms and systems (and some people seem to have very high intellectual horsepower), so you might not find the best market fit or feedback here. I think I am past the point where this may have been a fit for me, but earlier in my life it may have been very useful. Edit: Can you explain what "clear boundaries around non-medical use" means? I think Indy has a lot of good intentions, but I am highly suspicious of its efficacy. Personally, I have always been somewhat opposed of using applications on distracting and addicting devices in order to help with executive function issues. It's all too easy to open my phone to use one application and then seemingly end up on a completely different application mere minutes later. Do you all have any analytics to share? I am curious how many people download Indy vs. how many people actually use it on a consistent basis. I can absolutely seem myself downloading such an application, attempting to set it up, and either stopping halfway through or never opening the app again. > what other AI tools you’ve tried for ADHD None. I do not believe LLMs in their current state can meaningfully help any neurodevelopmental nor mental health disorders. Until LLMs acquire the ability to force me to do a particular task or provide enough consequences for not doing a particular task, then I see them as no different than overcomplicated Todo lists for ADHD. Though, I do believe LLMs remove a lot of friction in getting started on certain types of work. Most importantly, I already have to be motivated in the first place in order to use LLMs to remove friction on whatever task I am attempting to complete. I personally believe a lot of productivity apps, especially for ADHD, are just distraction traps that provide the user with an illusory sense of productivity, when in reality, the user is actually just procrastinating further. Perhaps this is merely a projection on my part, but I think a lot of people have convinced themselves that various apps will yield better organization and that better organization will yield better habits. But why do people want better habits? My first inclination is that people believe if something becomes a habit, then it will become effortless and one will not have to rely on motivation or willpower anymore. However, the irony is that it takes consistent and direct effort to even build a habit. Once a habit is built, the consistent effort never stops, but rather, one just adapts to the amount of effort required. The older I become, the more I convinced that there really are no shortcuts in life. I used Shimmer in 2022. The app had poor UX and frequent bugs, and the core offering (weekly Google Meet sessions with a “coach”) felt like generic self-help and not personalized coaching. The promised between-session support mostly consisted of DM'd article links, even after I raised that concern directly. The sessions themselves often felt unprofessional, with background noise, unstable connections, and poor audio quality. The coach WFM'd on their couch during call. Given the price (hundreds of dollars per month at the time), the gap between what was marketed and what was delivered was significant. Hopefully the new product addresses these issues, but I’d encourage people evaluating it to look at Shimmer’s prior execution and customer feedback, not just the announcement. One needs to spend less time on devices. Go analogue. Pen and paper.
The best tool that I have found is the Bullet Journal Method. It takes time, effort, and there is a learning curve. The ROI is higher than from any app. No other tool has impacted my life and productivity more. That said, I have found some tertiary apps to be helpful, though my BuJo is my compass. Endel for time boxing/Pomodoro, and sleep.
Headspace for guided meditation. No, it doesn’t have to be aesthetic, with pretty lettering and doodles (as seen in social media). I strongly disagree. While that approach may work for you, it did not work for me. I do not believe there is a one size fits all approach in this regard. My limitation is far more on the executive side than it is with distractibility or addiction, my devices present no sigificant negative impact in that regard. > One needs to spend less time on devices. Go analogue. Pen and paper. The best tool that I have found is the Bullet Journal Method. That may be true for you, but device usage itself is not a problem for me. I spent significant time attempting bullet journaling and found it ineffective, it increased cognitive overhead and time spent managing the system rather than executing tasks. Additionally, handwriting based systems are not well suited to me due to motor limitations from an incomplete spinal cord injury. I use a single Kanban board in Trello to manage my entire life. It works precisely because it is digital. Always accessible, frictionless, and available wherever I am. For me, that constant availability is essential. > The ROI is higher than from any app. For you, perhaps. For me, adopting a Kanban based digital system was life changing. As you suggested of your own system, no other tool has had a greater positive impact on my organisation or productivity than Trello. The only thing which has had even remotely the same level of impact is medication. For Trello itself (kanban) I think the reason it worked when nothing else did is due to its visual/spacial nature, combined with WIP limits and low friction capture. But it didnt truly click until I could have it with me at all times. Whenever I notice I've gotten distracted or drifted, no matter where I am I know i'm one "click" away effectively from re-orienting myself on what I was supposed to be doing and what matters. (2) Relying on, and committing to, an app like this has high requirements of diligence for efficacy; in an age of extractive apps, users might doubt even promising apps, and be less prone to adopt or maintain. So there's a yawning participation gap. Relying on AI for the interactivity/liveness to maintain participation could work, but actually then puts a lot of quality pressure on the AI. The first off tone could prompt escape. How do you scale QA for that? So, I'd think this needs to be coupled with social factors: testimonials and community building. Efficacy testimonials would distinguish this from other self-management apps. Allowing users to gift others the app would spread the word. Providing users an in-app way to share feedback could help with QA, particularly if it was validated by others' responses. e.g., "I don't like this phrasing. It sounds like x." reply: "yeah, others agree so we're working on that" or "we'll look into it" Maybe only people who participate diligently get the ability to gift the app to others (but I would steer clear of obvious incentives/kickbacks). I think the killer feature would be dedication to reporting actual feedback. Admit that it won't work for everyone, require feedback on whether it's working, and post that feedback to all users. Then work on improving it, either by fixing the app or selecting users better. That would given people confidence and mitigate the loneliness. Users should feel that they're not only helping themselves, but helping others like them. To me that commitment to others often gets me over a momentary lack of commitment to my larger self. This is hard to find and not always possible. The reason it works is that it triggers the "empathy brain," which transfers the importance of the person to the importance of the task. Having an invested person always at your command is impossible, and an AI robot simply doesn't trigger that same empathy. It costs three cents per interaction. It is a robot. It isn't important, no matter how advanced it is. There is something fascinating yet defeating about how the ADHD brain craves human connection. Just as loneliness can’t be solved by an app, ADHD cannot be "app-ed" out. I have found that these systems can lighten the cognitive load, but that is their limit. I have a vibed chief-of-staff personal system. It knows everything and it neatly mapped out my state and day. I even know the first simple task I need to do because a prompt organized it for me on another page. Yet, I would still rather write this comment here. You already know this at some level, too. The landing page sucks. In my first impression my eyes immediately darted to the animated graphics/webms. The text reads like it was written by AI with the sentences in triplets everywhere. Immediately my trust for this site (which was finicky at first) has already gone down. If you can't sustain my attention in the banner, what makes me think you can sustain my attention for the app? Be direct - show me what your app does at a glance. My attention is very scarce and very expensive, don't waste it on vague niceties or depend on me to trust you on what you say other people are saying about your app. I feel like you're trying to cheat me out of own autonomy when you're selling me something (even if it's free, my time = money) that I have no idea what it does until I get to the FAQ. My 2c - put the FAQ in the very top, with the questions "Is this just another AI chatbot?" and "How does Indy fit with ADHD coaching or other support?" in order with minimized distractions. This tells me what your product is and what it isn't at face value. I don't have a diagnosis, but I can say that choosing what to do very often seems like the stumbling block for me.39 comments
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