Editor's note: In our 2023 Startups to Watch feature, the Silicon Valley Business Journal and San Francisco Business Times present startups and founders doing unique things in the Bay Area. Sunnyside is one of 15 we profiled this year — to read more about our mission and the other startups we're featuring, click here.
Traditional solutions to problematic alcohol consumption are rarely nuanced: Total abstinence or your life will be ruined. Cutback Coach Inc., which does business as Sunnyside, is taking a different tack by encouraging drinkers to drink less, not quit altogether. Its app uses a mix of social psychology and gamified notifications and progression reports to keep people in the sweet spot of one or two drinks per night in what the company calls “mindful drinking.” Only in California could boozing be incorporated into the wellness industry, you might think, but Sunnyside has garnered a fair bit of media attention as feature writers look for new angles on how to tackle the nation’s collective drinking problem with innovative solutions.
- Founded: 2020
- Founders: Nick Allen, CEO; Ian Andersen, chief growth officer
- What it does: Develops a drink tracking app and membership community to promote "mindful drinking"
- HQ: San Francisco
- Employees: 11
- Total funding: $6 million
How different is the company you have today compared with the company you first envisioned? Sunnyside’s founding insight remains true today. We believed then, and are seeing now, that there’s a massive population of people who aren’t interested in or open to sobriety, yet who could nonetheless benefit from drinking a little less. Until now there haven’t been options for this group, meaning that most opted for flaky personal systems or did nothing, leaving a high leverage opportunity to improve their overall wellness on the table.
What was the “aha” moment behind your startup? Nick grew up in a household with two parents in recovery from alcoholism and who have been sober for most of his life. Thanks to his parents’ lived experience, he’s always been hyper aware of his own drinking patterns, and his risk factors when it comes to problematic dependency. For Nick, quitting drinking entirely has never felt like the right fit, but he has had times where drinking less felt like an important step toward improved overall health. After searching out an app-based solution to help him cut back and be more mindful about his consumption, and finding only apps purpose built and branded to help the “problem drinker” get sober, he decided to build a solution more in-line with his goals around balance vs. all-or-nothing sobriety.
Who are your customers? The 47% of adults who say they want to cut back on alcohol, representing over 100 million people in just the U.S.
How do you plan to scale? We’re finding many ways to reach consumers who both drink and are conscious of their health.
