Y Combinator alum Shimmer, which presents a training platform for adults, has raised $2.2 million in a seed funding spherical led by Worklife Ventures and Seed to B. The platform goals to assist adults with ADHD sort out challenges by way of personalised 1:1 video teaching, productiveness instruments and science-backed studying modules. Shimmer matches customers to an ADHD coach who helps them meet objectives, keep a optimistic strategy to alter and enhance productiveness,
The startup was based in 2021 by CEO Christal Wang, a neurodiverse entrepreneur who dropped out of Berkeley-Haas’ MBA/MPH program to start out Shimmer, and CTO Vikram Sreedhar, a Stanford graduate who beforehand based a non-profit referred to as Make A Distinction (M.A.D.)
Wang advised TechCrunch that when she was identified with ADHD, she lastly had an evidence for her conduct after many years of being advised she was “too much.” After her diagnoses, her physiatrist gave her a prescription for Adderall.
“As someone who was raised in Asian culture where medication is usually not the first line of defense, and sometimes even frowned upon, I naturally began hunting for behavioral solutions,” Wang stated. “When I found ADHD coaching as a concept, it seemed too good to be true. It was proven to be effective, the top experts in the space recommended it as a part of mixed treatment, and I strongly resonated with its premise. Yet, it really was too good to be true. It was extremely expensive.”
Wang says the ADHD teaching choices that she got here throughout price round $300 an hour and have been exhausting to navigate, and that her psychiatrist couldn’t advocate a particular coach for her.
Wang and Sreedhar then got down to create an ADHD teaching platform that solved these points. The duo wished to supply customers entry to ADHD teaching classes at a lower cost level than what Wang got here throughout when she was first on the lookout for classes for herself.
The most well-liked Shimmer package deal provides customers 30-min teaching classes per week for $230 per 30 days. The platform additionally presents weekly 15-minute or 45-minute teaching classes for $140 or $345 per 30 days, respectively.
Picture Credit: Shimmer
When customers first join Shimmer they’re requested to reply a sequence of questions on their ADHD background, particular challenges and preferences they’ve for his or her coach. They’re then matched with considered one of Shimmer’s 30+ ADHD coaches. Customers then get entry to a mixture of video, textual content and visible assets and workout routines. After finishing the preliminary workout routines, customers meet with their coach. Then, every week customers meet with their coach to maneuver nearer to their objectives.
All through the week, customers have to finish a sequence of actions, starting from new meditation experiments to reworked morning routines.
Most of Shimmer’s customers are between the ages of 20 and 50. Among the most typical struggles that folks work via on the platform are time administration, emotion resilience and regulation, self acceptance and self esteem, behavior and routine formation, procrastination, motivation and common productiveness.
Since its launch a little bit over a yr in the past in October 2022, Shimmer coaches have held over 15,000 teaching classes. The platform is obtainable on iOS, Android and the online.
As for the brand new funding, Shimmer plans to make use of it to work with supplier, payor, and employer companions to scale back the out-of-pocket price for members to entry ADHD teaching. As well as, the startup will leverage AI to make coaches extra environment friendly with out sacrificing authenticity.
The startup’s seed funding included participation from Aglaé Ventures, Koa Labs, and Gaingels. The most recent funding spherical brings Shimmer’s complete funding to $3.5 million.
When it comes to the longer term, Shimmer needs to facilitate all types of neuro-types of their private improvement journey. Though Shimmer began out with ADHD providers, the startup has already begun serving to customers with Autism. The corporate’s objective is to quickly serve numerous intersecting communities with teaching and different private improvement experiences and instruments.
“From a technology standpoint, we’ll be continuing to invest in using technology to scale and improve the parts of personal development and coaching where real humans are better at, while automating tedious, repetitive tasks,” Wang stated. “We see a near future where all neurodiverse folks are using Shimmer, seamlessly integrated into their lives, to reach their goals.”
Shimmer plans to proceed to coach the broader neighborhood on find out how to create extra inclusive areas and help their neurodiverse colleagues and family members. The startup’s future roadmap consists of company coaching, neighborhood help and extra.
