Quick Information
- Name of Startup: Pareful
- Year Founded: 2022
- Website: Pareful.com
- Type of company: Digital health app for busy parents
- HQ Location: London
Startup Founders:
- James Levy-Vassie, Founder/ CEO,
- Martin Warzecha, Co-founder/ CTO,
- Dr Johanna Lindemann, MA, PhD, DCPsych, Head of Content,
Startup one-liner:
Digital health designed for busy, stressed parents
Problem the startup solves:
Did you know that over 7 million parents in just the UK alone will face some sort of mental health challenge and a staggering 1 in 10 fathers will experience post-natal depression?
Issues range from sleep deprivation, burnout and anxiety to relationship dissatisfaction, loneliness and loss of identity. I experienced some of these challenges myself.
So called solutions such as therapy are expensive and time consuming, two luxuries that most parents do not have. It is also very difficult to find the right therapists, which is also a costly process.
Perinatal mental health problems carry a total economic and social long-term cost to society of £8 billion for each one-year cohort of births in the UK.
Expert support should be accessible for all parents.
Progress and Current Status:
+ Self-funded/ working full time with no salary – Jan 22
+ Finding & convincing leading phycology & therapy therapy expert to join as Chief Content Officer – Feb 22 + Finding & convincing highly experienced CTO/ Tech advisor to join as Co-Founder – Feb 22
+ Personally built holding website & all technical tracking, set up social media and grown to 2200 parent followers – Ongoing
+£24k spent on social, X10 blogs personally written – Ongoing
+ Identified Wonderful Agency as our tech partner & Favoured as our App funnel partner – Apr 22
+ 200+ organic beta sign-ups (without any paid outreach) – Nov 22
+ 10 face-to-face customer research interviews conducted & over 100 online customer questionnaires completed – Oct 22
+ Developing initial audio content for testing in-house and 40/130 x 10 mins episodes already written for app release – Ongoing + Negotiating with 5 influencers with 2m+ parent followers – Ongoing
+ Completed Activate Ventures accelerator and shortlisted for angel pitch event in Jan – Dec 22
+ 4 Letters of intent from companies – Dec 22
+ Early discussions with potential partnerships with antenatal companies – Dec 22
+ Applied to the S100 pitch event, initial pitch scheduled for Jan – Dec 22
+ Hired social media manager/ designer starting Jan 12th – Jan 23 + Potential Chairman/ Senior Advisor discussions commenced – Jan 23
What is a Crazy Story about the Startup?:
Pareful was born from my struggles with mental health having recently become a parent. I found myself struggling with what should be the most amazing gift, a newborn baby. I was burdened with a stress that I had no idea how to manage. It affected my confidence, it affected my levels of anxiety and I was under new financial pressure, often resulting in arguments with my wife.
I also realized, I’m not alone, the parents around me are facing the same problems.
And if you’re a parent I’m sure you can relate to some of these problems. There are so called solutions, such as 1-1 therapy, but I had neither the time or money to commit and many parents are in the same situation.
There has to be a more accessible, more affordable and time-effective way to help parents navigate the transition from pregnancy through to the early years of parenthood & beyond, resulting in less mental health challenges, less burnout, better quality sleep & stronger relationships with their children and the people they love.
What is a Company the Startup Looks Up to, and Why?:
We really admire Patagonia, not only from a product perspective but also it’s focus on its purpose. It’s inspiring and refreshing to see such a big company shift from being environmentally aware to really pushing the boundaries of environmental activism.
While Pareful is not on that environmental trajectory, there are synergies with our purpose of improving mental health for parents and future generations. By applying Patagonia’s purpose driven approach to our business, ensures that we never steer away from why we exist.
The Company in Four Years Will Be…
Pareful will be the go-to mental wellbeing platform for parents, providing accessible & affordable expert digitised psychotherapy, psychology and parent-centric meditations, preventing burnout, avoiding feeling overwhelmed, better sleep quality & achieving more balance.
After 4 years
+ Become market leader in parental mental wellbeing & mindfulness
+ Be recognised by all parents in English speaking countries
+ Become GOV and NHS recommended
+ To be a licensed employee health benefit for parents
