It started at 3 AM.
There is a specific kind of manic optimism that hits you in the middle of the night. It feels like clarity, but usually, it’s just adrenaline. In that haze, I bought a domain Warmhearts. The name just felt right.
I decided I was going to build a privacy-focused app to help people journal and heal. Immediately, I retreated to the place where I feel safe: the code.
I didn't think about human psychology. I thought about the stack. I obsessed over end-to-end encryption, zero analytics, and absolute privacy. I was building a technical fortress. But deep down, I had to admit a hard truth: I am a good engineer, but when it comes to the complex reality of mental health, I know absolutely nothing.
I reached out to Aparna, a friend who actually understands this space. I pitched her the idea, and she agreed to help.
We were lost. I know how to run an engineering sprint. But I didn't know jackshit about taking a raw idea and turning it into a product from scratch.
Purely by luck, I landed on a Lenny Rachitsky podcast about the "Foundation Sprint." It was a completely different game than I was used to, but it was the only map we had, so we followed it.
I found a Foundation sprint template on a Miro board, ported it over to FigJam so we could collaborate, and we just... tried. We set up a Google Workspace, synced twice a week, and stared at that digital whiteboard.
We didn't even get to the fun part of visualizing user flows. We started talking to therapists and experts early, and the feedback was a punch in the gut.
The grand plan we had in our heads? It wasn't going to work. Not without millions of dollars and a massive team.
We didn't have millions. We had nights and weekends.
I work a demanding full-time job at a YC company. Aparna is deep in her PhD prep. Ananya, who joined us later to help steer the ship, is in the same boat. We are just three people with overflowing plates, trying to squeeze a dream into the margins of our lives.
When that first idea failed, we could have quit. But we kept digging. We stripped away the features and the noise to find the specific pain point that silently erodes love. We pivoted.
After weeks of discussion, we identified one thing:
The "Invisible Load" between partners.
It is the weight in a relationship that is never discussed. It is the mental burden that stays hidden, piling up quietly, doing heavy damage in the long run. It seems trivial in the moment, but it destroys relationships over time.
Reaching this clarity gave us the fuel to keep going and laid the foundation for Warmhearts.
P.S. We are building Warmhearts in public. If you want to track our progress, you can subscribe to our newsletter.