Gratiu
Co-founder & Chief Happiness Officer
Gratiu is a platform inspired by the latest research on the benefits of a Positive Mental Attitude. Gratiu is aware that we need better options for connection. Connection to ourselves, to each other, and to the world.
Over the course of my time with gratiu my role expanded from front-end developer to co-founder. I worked collaboratively in design, research, culture, marketing, presenting, web design as well as continued to do front-end development on our Ionic Framework / Firebase application.
Background
Catalyst and CEO Tina Houser had already put a great deal of work into Gratiu before I ever came onto the team.
Tina had researched, had a logo made, and already begun development with an overseas team when she met Aaron Gabriel – a talented full-stack developer who saw her vision.
Tina asked Aaron to build a team that would share a passion for Gratiu’s positive mission. Aaron invited his friend Mira Grace as lead designer, and myself as front-end developer.
The four of us envisioned a new Gratiu from the ground up.
Though we were all relatively (or totally) new to the mobile app industry, we accomplished a lot together. We took a lot of care with our team dynamic, and always created through of collaboration, coworking, and consensus.
Research
One of the first ideas we were excited about was a gamification through the ‘Color Journey‘ which would take the user from red to purple as they completed lessons and shared posts about gratitude and mindfulness, with each color having its own distinct theme.
We didn’t want to limit ourselves to a particular belief system for this journey, and found it profound to notice the common story between many separate systems – Maslov’s hierarchy of needs, David Hawkings, color theory, elemental theory, and the Chakras were all influences in developing our own system for Gratiu.
We knew to make the experience effective, we’d need to draw from current research regarding effective positive wellbeing interventions – particularly ones we could replicate with ease through our application.
We focused on three main areas – gratitude, generosity, and journaling. Much of this can be found in our Research Library.
Frontend UI Development
Gratiu was my bridge to mobile app development – I may not have considered it possible were it not for Aaron Gabriel. He convinced me my web development skills were enough to develop on the Ionic framework and though there was a learning curve, they were. I used primarily Angular & SCSS to assist AG in building Gratiu.
As a small team we were able to ideate, collaborate, and iterate closely. We tried a number of work flows to experiment with what worked for us. AG would often have the backend and a placeholder frontend built and handed to me for touchup, which helped me acclimate to the code.
There were times AG would have his code completed and hand me arrays, variables, or endpoints to work with and I would start from there.
We found the most success when I delivered a complete front-end to AG and said, ‘make it work!’. This allowed me to iterate with the designer, then maximize the developer’s time while adding to everyone’s sense of accomplishment.
Design
Logo Collab
Gratiu already had a logo when our team came onto the project, but as we got to know the new gratiu we were building together, we decided a new logo would better illustrate our vision.
Tina introduced us to the universal sign for gratitude which was present in the original logo. We knew we wanted to include an element of the Color Journey, so in the midst of a meeting I quickly recreated the symbol in Adobe Illustrator and added a spectrum in the negative space.
I shared various concepts/placements and sent the file over to Mira Grace, who created the final logo.
UI/UX Collab
Mira Grace facilitated much of the team discussion and created sketches of the UI based on Tina’s requests and our team discussions.
At the start of working together, I often took those sketches and discussions into Illustrator (or later Adobe XD) to collaborate on. As Mira grew confidence the software she started to really take ownership of the app and branding design process, though always in her signature collaborative style.
Through this invitation to collaborate I would still sometimes make examples to illustrate ideas or suggestions, but for the most part I was able to focus on front-end development, the website, our pitch deck, and a little marketing.
Web Design / Development
When it came time to build Gratiu a homepage, it was exciting to translate our efforts and aspirations into a clear story.
I was tasked to build the site including copy, design, development, and populating the research library. I worked closely with Mira Grace to ensure the design felt ‘Gratiu’ enough – by this point we had a consistent design language to work with.
Gratiu is the first site I’ve willingly decided to build through a visual editor. Having just discovered Elementor through another freelance project, I was pretty impressed with the speed, creativity, and flexibility the platform offered.
Pitch Deck
With design and development well underway, we began putting together a pitch deck seeking angel investment for our budding platform.
We created the deck to take viewers on their own mini ‘Color Journey’ throughout the presentation. Mira Grace and I traded off design ideas as Tina joined in to brainstorm and guide.
We created many iterations before landing on this final version of the deck. The four of us then pitched to incubators and investors alike.
Results
Our team successfully launched and iterated upon an MVP of our product.
We saw many loyal users who found meaningful results from utilizing the application. We felt that we had proven our product-market-fit through their testimony. We pitched to many investors and incubators.
Unfortunately, Gratiu hadn’t found substantial outside investment by the time Tina got the spark for Press Play, and so Gratiu lost momentum and the team chose to put the project on active hiatus – Aaron Gabriel and Tina Houser keep the platform running for our remaining loyal users.
Aaron Gabriel
Caitlin is a motivated and inspiring creative, with the capacity to hold a vision clearly and help drive movement towards that vision. She maintains a diverse skill set, including aspects of design, code, communication, and much more, that makes her a vital participant and leader on any team. Working with her was a true gift and I look forward to seeing what more she will create in this world.
Subscribers
Through word of mouth and organic marketing efforts, we amassed a total of X mailing list subscribers leading up to our launch.
Total Users
Through word of mouth and organic marketing efforts, we amassed a total of X users as of X months after launching the web app.
Daily Users
We found a small, loyal community of active users who reported improved wellbeing. To this day, we still have users posting in their self-sphere.
Reflection
Positives
- Learned new things – I find what we accomplished as relative newcomers to the scene to be fairly impressive. I personally enjoyed the challenge of learning Angular, Ionic, and diving into starting a business from the ground up.
- Made an impact – Though we never “made it big”, it matters to me that the users we did touch found a greater connection to themselves and increased gratitude for their lives. It sounds cliché, but that kind of impact on just 1 person meant a lot to all of us.
- Positive Work Culture – As I admittedly shared with friends and family when talking about my experience, “Actually working with hippies is really nice!” And it was. We came to the project with a shared intention and mission, each with keys to the puzzle and tools for remaining present in collaboration. It was a treat to be introduced to a mindful business culture that prioritizes each other’s humanity and commits to trust and authenticity.
- Lasting connections – Due to all the above and more, our team has remained good friends and continues to dream in Gratiu from time to time. I consider it a success that we traveled through the tech startup experience from beginning to supposed end still as friends.
Possibilities
- More Metrics & Marketing – I think we ultimately turned to our pitch too soon, before devising and executing a basic sales/organic marketing strategy. We had some, but not all systems in place to gather metrics on our users, and our plans to gain users relied on investment dollars we didn’t yet have.
In the future I think I’ll be more vocal about basing the timeline of our raise based on what user metrics we already have to share. - Launch Faster – In the future I think we’d work towards launching and testing in more rapid succession.
We spent a lot of time laying the groundwork for our culture, vision, and psychology research to guide the product, and delivered a fairly complex MVP all at once.
Revisiting this, I would keep the core vision statement but begin to rely on data from our community for decision-making. - UI/UX Reflections – I would simplify, thin and brighten the app, and develop a dark mode. I’m interested in using sound and haptics throughout the app to provide tactile positive feedback. I would incorporate short-form gratitude video and sourcing color journey content from industry leaders guiding users into their daily practices.