A new iOS social wellness app called Exist wants to help middle-aged consumers connect and build meaningful communities with one another as they navigate their lives and the stresses that come with it.
The app describes itself as the edgier cousin of Calm or Headspace, and its main feature is social journaling. The idea behind the app’s social and community-driven journaling is to help people heal together, rather than alone. Exist also features a daily mood tracker, audio exercises, guided meditations, and more.
The app was founded by iOS developer Jason Jardim, who previously founded a startup called Lounge, and Alicia Waldner, who is the founder a marketing agency called ADventure Marketing.
The co-founders didn’t meet at a networking event, a job, or their alma maters. They met on a date. The two remained friendly and got to talking about ideas for a mental health app — a topic they were both passionate about, Waldner said in an interview with TechCrunch.
Waldner had attended a series of group mental wellness experiences, and had heard from people who were looking to have these sorts of community-based experiences at home. Jardim and Waldner set out to create an app that would encompass this community-building idea.
While Exist was originally meant to target Gen Z users, the premise ended up resonating with middle-aged users, as the average age of users who signed up for the app was 40. The duo then decided to focus and center the app around this older group.
Exist features a TikTok-like feed that allows users to swipe through a mix of videos and text posts featuring people’s public journals and their responses to daily prompts. Users can share comments on these posts to share similar experiences or offer support and advice.
“The biggest feature that makes us different is the community side,” Waldner said. “Headspace and Calm proved that there’s this audio-based market, but people still feel very alone in those experiences and in real life, people meditate and then they journal, but that’s a solo experience. And what we did was make that a social experience. So instead of journaling all your thoughts and feelings at home and putting it underneath your bed at night, you’re sharing it with the world, and people are commenting back.”
Exist also features an AI-powered question feature that prompts users to expand on their journals and explore more of their thoughts and feelings. Waldner says the feature is meant to help people get to the bottom of their issues and allow them to think deeper about something.
The community and social journaling aspects of Exist are free. If users want access to guided audios and meditations, they need to sign up for the app’s $5.99 monthly subscription.
In terms of the future, the startup wants to continue leaning into the human connection aspect of Exist and look for way to improve it. Exist also wants to add additional features around logging your sleeping habits and emotions, along with more personalized prompts for journals.
