When Yunha Kim wants to unwind, she reaches for Simple Habit, a meditation app she developed after working at an internet start-up. Kim found after working 18-20 hour days, she needed something to help her relax. Like many young professionals, she couldn’t break away from her job and get a little “me time.” After learning about the benefits of meditation, she created Simple Habit. The meditation app has exercises that let you meditate, relax, and generally calm yourself in 5 minutes or less. She hopes the Sharks like her app when she pitches it in the season 9 premier of Shark Tank.
There are several other meditation and relaxation apps on the market, but Simple Habit is getting a lot of attention for its ease of use and design. There are relaxation exercises for many different situations: unwinding after a long day, preparing for a meeting or interview, getting ready to get on a plane, and many more.
Simple Habit is listed on the app store as one of Apple’s “apps we love.”The basic version is free, but premium versions cost $49-$99 per year. Her hope is people who need to relax will use her meditation app as its quicker than finding a quiet spot to meditate. Studies show meditating for even a short time has a calming influence over the body. It helps people clear their minds, focus, even lower their heart rate. She’s hoping a Shark can help her roll out the development and help her market the product.
My Take on the Meditation App
These days, there’s an app for everything and Simple Habit proves that point. I’m glad I don’t have a job that would stress me out to the point that I’d need something like this, but I know a lot of people who do. I believe it has its merits, but isn’t it just one more thing to keep us staring at our phones? As a society, we stare at our phones way too much. It might be just as relaxing to put the damn things down for 5 minutes!
My feelings aside, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of self-improvement apps. Even on Shark Tank, we’ve seen exercise apps – so why not a meditation app. If it de-stresses even one person, it’s a success. People are very hopped up these days and if meditating brings them down to earth, I’m all for it. While I won’t use this, I think a lot of people will and it will do well.
Do Sharks Meditate?
Apps are plentiful in the Shark Tank, but very few get investments. The reason is it’s such a crowded marketplace. There are over thirty (I stopped counting at 30) meditation apps in the app store. While appearing on Shark Tank is a good way of getting through the clutter, there’s still a lot of clutter in this niche. Accolades aside, Kim needs to show HUGE sales to interest a Shark.
The Sharks like technology, but it has to be unique. With a large number of meditation apps, Simple Habit isn’t unique. That’s not to say it’s bad, it very well could be the best of the bunch, but there’s just too much competition for any of the Sharks to bite. I predict no deal for Simple Habit.
