Hi Indie Hackers! I’m James, building Therappai — an AI-powered mental health app with live video therapy
Hey everyone, I’m James.
For the last decade, I co-founded and scaled Whip Around, a SaaS company that went from a small startup to a global platform. It was an incredible journey — but behind the scenes, I’ve lived with anxiety and mental health struggles my whole life.
Through building a high-pressure startup, I realized how hard it is to access therapy when you actually need it. Sessions were expensive, waiting lists were long, and support never seemed to align with the moments I needed it most.
That frustration inspired me to build Therappai, an AI-powered mental health platform. Our goal is to make support accessible, affordable, and available 24/7. Key features include:
Live AI video therapy sessions
24/7 AI chat therapy
Crisis Buddy alerts for safety
Daily mood tracking, journaling, and CBT/DBT exercises
I don’t believe AI will replace therapists, but I do believe it can bridge the gap for millions of people who currently have little or no access to care.
We’re getting ready to launch soon, and I’ll be sharing the journey here — wins, mistakes, and lessons learned along the way.
👉 My first question for the community: If you’ve launched a consumer-facing app, what worked best for you to get your first 100 users?
Excited to be here and learn from you all!
– James
I launched a legal risk analysis app - KYA _ Know Your Agreement
It has maybe 10 users right now...was launched a week back. Don't know how to get to a 100
Hey, congrats on getting KYA live 🎉 Even those first 10 users are a big milestone — it means people are willing to try what you’ve built.
We’re actually still pre-launch with therappai, so I know the mix of excitement and “how do I get to 100 users?” feeling. From what I’ve seen others do, the early wins usually come from super-focused outreach — DM’ing your target audience, showing them the value in one sentence, and then asking for feedback instead of just a sign-up. Those conversations often turn into your first real users.
Rooting for you — keep sharing updates, would love to hear how you break through that 100-user mark 🚀
Hey James — really cool to see what you’re building with Therappai. I like that you’re not trying to “replace” therapy but instead bridge the access gap. That framing feels important.
On your question about getting the first 100 users for a consumer app:
Start narrow — Instead of “mental health for everyone,” pick a very specific audience who feels the pain most acutely (e.g. startup founders, college students, shift workers). It’s easier to break through when you’re speaking directly to a group.
Go where they hang out — Communities like Reddit (e.g. r/Anxiety, r/Depression, r/Entrepreneur), Discord groups, and even LinkedIn can work well if you provide value before pitching.
Personal outreach — Those first users often come from manual work: DM’ing friends, peers, coworkers, or people in your extended network. If you can have 1:1 conversations, you’ll not only gain users but also feedback.
Build in public — You’re already doing this by sharing here. Posting progress updates, challenges, and learnings on Twitter/LinkedIn/Indie Hackers can attract early adopters who like being part of the journey.
Incentives for early adopters — Beta testers often respond well to things like lifetime discounts, “founding member” badges, or extra perks for feedback.
If you can line up 10–20 people who are really engaged, word of mouth and testimonials can help you scale to 100 faster than you’d think.
Excited to follow your progress 🚀
This is gold — thank you 🙏 I really like how you broke it down into practical steps. The “start narrow” piece especially hits home. It’s tempting to want to serve everyone, but I know focusing on a group that feels the pain most acutely is where real traction comes from.
I’ve started some personal outreach already, but I can see how layering in communities like Reddit/Discord with a “value first” approach, plus building in public, can compound quickly. And I love the idea of making those first adopters feel like true founding members with perks and recognition.
Really appreciate you taking the time to share this — super actionable and motivating. Excited to put these into practice 🚀
YOU ARE MOST WELCOME
Nice job James , I am very impressed after saw your post
Thank you so much 🙏 Really appreciate the kind words and support — it means a lot as I keep building this out! 🚀
James, this is a powerful and necessary mission. Your founder story of building this out of your own struggles is incredibly compelling and immediately builds trust.
My marketing brain lit up reading this, and I agree with your assessment—the core challenge isn't just the technology, but the psychological adoption. It feels very similar to the early days of chatbots, where the biggest hurdle was making people feel comfortable.
Regarding your question about getting the first 100 users: I haven't launched a consumer app, but my strategic thought is that your first users are the key to solving that trust problem.
They aren't just your first 100 users; they are your founding storytellers.
Getting a handful of powerful, vulnerable testimonials from them about how Therappai genuinely helped them in a moment of need feels like it would be the most powerful growth engine you could build. Their stories will be the social proof that helps the next 1,000 users cross that trust gap.
Really excited to follow your journey. This is an important product.
Wow, thank you 🙏 I couldn’t agree more — the technology is one part of the puzzle, but building trust is the real challenge. I love how you framed those first 100 users as “founding storytellers.” That really resonates.
It’s exactly what I want to do — create something that not only supports people but also inspires them to share their real experiences, in their own words. Those vulnerable stories are so much more powerful than anything I could ever write in marketing copy.
Appreciate you sharing this perspective — it’s motivating and grounding at the same time. Excited to keep building and hopefully earn the kind of stories that can help others cross that trust gap 🚀
I believe someone is building the same thing for company employees 🤔
That’s a great point to raise 🙂 And you’re not alone—there are several companies building AI-powered mental health solutions specifically for employees and workplace wellness programs:
Kyan Health: Offers a language-tailored, end-to-end mental health platform for employees, complete with AI-driven consultation, proactive risk-prediction, resilience training, multilingual support, and GDPR-grade security.
Yuna AI: Provides 24/7 AI mental health coaching for employees, designed to be evidence-informed, HIPAA-protected, and SOC-2 secure.
Spring Health: Uses AI for matching employees to the right mental health care quickly, with on-demand self-care tools and personalized treatment pathways.
Other workplace-focused mental health platforms include Modern Health, which offers personalized care pathways at scale, incorporating self-assessment, coaching, and therapy options.
That said, what sets Therappai apart is its deep focus on individual accessibility and affordability—especially for those without employer-provided benefits. While many corporate-focused solutions are structured around enterprise contracts and HR frameworks, Therappai is built to meet users wherever they are—24/7, low-cost, and grounding each interaction in evidence-based therapeutic techniques.
That being said, I’ve already been approached by companies looking to subsidize therappai for their employees which will be possible of course with coupon codes but it will be very private and hands off from a privacy stand point so employers will not know which employees use it.
Really inspiring, James 🙌 The way you turned your own challenges into a product that can help others is powerful. Accessibility + affordability in mental health is such an important mission. Rooting for you!
Thank you so much 🙏 That really means a lot. Accessibility and affordability are exactly the reasons I started building therappai, so it feels good to know the mission resonates. Grateful for the support — it keeps me motivated to keep pushing forward 🚀
This is inspiring, James. I love how you turned such a personal struggle into a product that can help so many people. The accessibility and 24/7 aspect of TherapAI feels like a true game-changer in mental health support. I’m building in the health/fitness space myself (AI-driven injury-aware fitness coaching) and I can see so many parallels in how AI can bridge gaps where human support is limited or unavailable. Wishing you the best with launch — excited to follow your journey!”
Thank you so much 🙏 That really means a lot. I love hearing about what you’re building too — injury-aware fitness coaching with AI is such a smart application. It’s amazing how similar the challenges are across mental health and fitness: access, affordability, and getting the right support at the right time.
I think we’re only scratching the surface of how AI can fill these gaps and complement human expertise. Excited to see your journey as well — sounds like we’re both chasing the same mission from different angles 🚀
Hi James, I think this idea is brilliant! As a Brit, we are often put on year long waiting lists for therapy and often private therapy or apps like betterhelp are expensive. I sometimes use ChatGPT for my own therapy practice so having a therapy app with ai built in is a great idea - Id love to add my details if you have a signup.
Thanks so much 🙏 I really appreciate that. And yes — I hear you on the waiting lists in the UK, it’s such a tough situation. A big part of why I started therappai was exactly that: making support more accessible and affordable, especially for people who can’t wait months or pay premium prices.
We do have a signup list — I’d love to add you in! You can join at therappai dot com, and I’ll also make sure you’re kept in the loop for early access.
Excited to have you onboard and hear your feedback when you try it 🚀
Ive signed up to the waiting list. Thank you again ☺️
Very cool idea, James. While I am not entirely sold on the AI therapy, I think the latter part of daily checkup and mental health exercises appeal to me the most. How are you making sure the application is scientifically-backed and not giving out appeasements like was the popular complaint with GPT 4o?
Anyways, congrats on the launch!
Really appreciate the kind words 🙏 And I totally get your hesitation — therapy (AI or not) is something that needs a solid scientific foundation, not just “feel good” answers.
We’re taking a few steps to make sure therappai is credible and not just surface-level:
Evidence-based frameworks: The exercises and conversations are grounded in CBT, DBT, and other established therapeutic techniques, not random AI outputs.
Clinical oversight: We’ve been consulting with licensed professionals to guide how content is structured and to review features before release.
Guardrails for AI: Instead of letting the model improvise, we use structured prompts, reinforcement, and a safety layer to keep responses aligned with therapeutic best practices.
Continuous testing: We’re running small user studies and collecting feedback with clinicians in the loop to refine responses and catch anything that drifts toward “appeasement.”
That said, I don’t believe AI therapy should ever be a replacement for professional care — it’s a supplement. The daily check-ins and exercises are a big part of that: they keep people engaged with their mental health in between (or in absence of) therapy sessions.
Thanks again for the congrats — this launch is just the start, and we’re serious about building something safe and meaningful, not just novel.
Love what you’re building, James — making therapy more accessible is such a huge mission 👏 Curious, since you’ve experienced both startup pressure and personal struggles, how do you plan to balance building Therappai while taking care of your own mental health this time around?
Thanks so much 🙏 That’s honestly one of the biggest lessons I’ve taken into building therappai this time. When I was scaling my last startup, I poured everything into the company and neglected my own mental health until it really caught up with me.
Now, I’m trying to build differently. A few things I’m doing:
Boundaries: I set hard cut-off times and don’t push myself into the “always on” mode that so many founders fall into.
Support system: I’ve got a therapist and people around me who I check in with regularly — I want to practice the same care I’m building into the product.
Pacing: Instead of sprinting nonstop, I’m aiming for consistency. I’d rather move steadily and sustainably than burn out again.
Using the product myself: I actually use therappai as part of my own routine, which keeps me close to the problem while also holding me accountable.
I don’t think balance is ever perfect, but this time I’m a lot more intentional about protecting my mental health while building something that helps others with theirs.
Hey James, this is an awesome venture, how is the development going? I love the idea of a world where everyone has mental health support walking around in their pocket.
Thanks for the support! It’s going well, launches on the AppStore’s in November. I’m hoping to get at least 100 people interested to test it. You can register for the waitlist on our website if you’re interested.
Why I’m Building Crisis Buddy in therappai
Startups push you to your limits. When I was building Whip Around, my cofounder Tim Boyle had an uncanny ability to step in when I was heading toward burnout. He knew my triggers. He knew when to shield me and when to just sit beside me until the storm passed.
My wife and partner, Jade, has been the same. She gets me in ways I sometimes don’t get myself. She’s recognized the moments when I’ve been in crisis — even when I couldn’t or didn’t want to.
The truth is, not everyone has a Tim or a Jade. And even when you do, they can’t always be there. Sometimes you’re alone. Sometimes you don’t want to burden the people you love. Sometimes you don’t even recognize what’s happening until you’ve already spiraled.
That’s why I’m building Crisis Buddy as a core module inside therappai.
Crisis Buddy doesn’t wait for you to raise your hand. It’s designed to pick up on subtle shifts — the language you use in journaling, changes in your daily check-ins, or your mood tracking patterns — and step in early. It can ground you with calming exercises, offer immediate support, and if things get serious, prompt you to connect with a friend, family member, or professional.
It’s not about replacing the people in your life. It’s about giving you a safety net when no one else is around. It’s about having a “Tim” or a “Jade” in your pocket, 24/7.
For me, this is personal. I’ve lived it. I know the difference it makes when someone notices you’re not okay. And I believe AI can help more people feel seen, supported, and safe in those moments.
Crisis Buddy is my way of trying to give that gift to others.
👉 Have you ever had someone step in and recognize you were struggling before you even realized it yourself? How would it feel to have that kind of safety net built into a tool you carry with you every day?
Nice work and important mission. As far as I know you might bump into regulatory issues if you claim to treat issues or provide therapy. How do you get around this?
Also very interested in how much work you’re offloading to the AI model for something like CBT, ChatGPT?
Also what do you mean by growth plans? Sounds very interesting.
How long have you been building this?
Best of luck.
Thanks for the thoughtful questions! Really appreciate it 🙏
On regulatory issues: we’re very careful with language. We don’t claim to “treat” conditions or replace licensed therapy. Instead, we position Therappai as a support tool — AI-guided sessions, mental health education, coping techniques, and always with clear disclaimers. For higher-risk needs, we encourage escalation to human therapists.
On AI + CBT: right now we use the model for structured CBT-style exercises (thought records, reframing, journaling prompts). The AI handles scaffolding and guidance, but we design the flows, safeguards, and escalation pathways. So it’s not a free-form “ChatGPT therapy chat,” it’s more of a guided program wrapped around the AI.
On growth plans: short term we’re focused on early adopters and niche communities (founders, remote workers). Longer term, we’re planning B2B — making Therappai available to companies who want to support employee wellbeing. That’s where the scalability of AI really matters.
We’ve been building for just a few months, but drawing on years of lived experience with mental health and startup stress. Early traction is encouraging, and we’re moving fast but responsibly.
Excited to share more as we go — thanks for the encouragement! 🚀
This is awesome
Thanks!
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