[bumpkinjunkie]

Looks fantastic. What did you use to build this? Any interesting changes/user insights since you posted to HN in July?

I love the low-friction approach to signing up and getting started right away with a cohort. I have a family member battling alcohol addiction, and while I feel the group accountability/support of AA can be helpful, AA often focus too much on the 12-steps with a heavy dose of religion. When my family member entered an in-patient rehab program, one of the "highlights" was the close connections with their intake cohort (phones weren't allowed, so staying connected was up to them - so higher friction to staying in touch for support).

Lockdowns during the pandemic have likely exacerbated conditions that lead to and enable alcohol addiction, with less physical interaction with others to detect warning signs or get access to traditionally "in-person" services.

[mritchie712]

It's just a nodejs app with Postgres and Twilio.

To be completely honest, this is a labor of love and I don't see any ethical way to monetize it so I haven't been marketing it. I'm planning to post it a few more places to try to get an initial core group of users, but it'll need to spread thru word of mouth to stay alive.

Totally agree on AA. I don't see the need to involve religion in order to quit drinking and it's off-putting to many people.

[bumpkinjunkie]

Re: labor of love, according to AA's Form 990 for the year ending 2019[1]

Revenue: $11.3M General Manager salary: $352k 7 other execs making ~$150-200k

There are lots of impact accelerators out there who might fund solutions like this. Saving people's lives comes in different forms and there is a big societal economic benefit created, there could be different ways to capture a fair share of that. Maybe it's solving another problem, like job placement or sober housing, that creates a revenue stream down the road.

[1] https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/13167...

[manuko83]

This is pretty cool, have you thought about also implementing it to help quit smoking? I believe the same cohort approach can be used...would just have to divide into smokers cohorts and drinkers cohorts.