Ryan Brown and the team at Cactus have always had an interest in mental health and wellbeing and have long sought an avenue to explore that.
The team of former Craftsy employees began working on Kinecho in August 2018, developing a service that captures and preserves family memories through audio recordings.
They were looking to service an older audience through technology and landed a $450,000 funding round earlier this year to further that mission.
After struggling to gain traction on Kinecho’s intended use, Brown said the team noticed an interesting trend among its users.
“A lot of them were using the products to share and ask each other questions and record their own stories,” he said.
So the Denver-based Kinecho team pivoted, turning its gaze to a product that focuses on mindfulness and self-discovery. In May, they launched Cactus.
Cactus helps users focus on the positive elements of their lives, prompting them each morning with questions like: "what is the most fun you’ve ever had with a family member?" or "what is your comfort food?"
From there, users journal their thoughts through text, audio and photos and the company securely stores them for reflection in the future.
Currently, Cactus operates on a web app, and plans to launch a mobile application in the near future.
Brown said most of the previous team is still involved in the new venture and investors are fully supportive of the mission.
While it can be a difficult decision to pivot from a product you’ve developed, Brown said the team didn’t hesitate much on the move to Cactus.
“To be honest, the decision wasn’t super hard and ever since we made the decision it has pulled us into it and we are working harder than we ever were before,” he said.
In recent years, mindfulness apps have landed impressive funding rounds, highlighted by Headspace's $37 million Series B in 2017. The Santa Monica-based company teaches meditation techniques via a mobile application and has been backed by celebrities such as Jessica Alba, Ryan Seacrest and Jared Leto.
On the local scene, Toronto brainwave-sensing hardware company Interaxon put down roots in Colorado following the acquisition of local startup Meditation Studio, an app that offers over 400 original guided meditations and courses.
With the growing market, Cactus currently isn’t charging for its mindfulness service and Brown said they’ll have to examine that structure in the future. For now, the company is offering a mindfulness exercise that provides an alternative to meditation.
“Cactus is about finding a happier healthier mindset through these prompts,” Brown said.
