Now&Me: Be Vulnerable Together!

We talked to Drishti Gupta, founder of Now&Me, about the importance of expressing personal feelings, and this is what she said about it.

First of all, how are you and your family doing in these COVID-19 times? 

Drishti Gupta: We’re all doing well, thank you so much for asking. Things have been good and we’ve all been staying safe and healthy.

Tell us about you, your career, and how you founded Now&Me.

Drishti Gupta: I am a 23-year-old. Graduated from university 2 years back with a degree in statistics. My co-founder, Bani Singh and I started this company, Now&Me, while we were in the last year of our college. We were just 20 years old at that time. Noticed the gap that exists in the mental health space and how even after being surrounded by 100s of people, most of us ended up feeling lonely. That’s when we decided to create a safe space online, use tech for good and encourage people to talk about their feelings and connect with other people on our platform. Our tech co-founder, Nitesh Kumar Niranjan, joined us in our mission about 1 year ago and things have taken off quite a bit since then.

The idea was simple: Sometimes someone miles away can make you feel better.

How does Now&Me innovate? 

Drishti Gupta: Mental health issues are a massive social and economic problem. Therefore, we are building the one-stop solution for mental health through a community-driven, peer2peer, and social approach. 

People are still reactive in taking care of their mental health, reaching out for help only when they’re at the tipping point. This is where Now&Me comes into the picture. Now&Me is an online community platform to provide emotional support to people. Users can express whatever they’re feeling in a safe space, with the option of doing so anonymously, and interact with others who might have had similar experiences as them. We are building a safe culture on the platform with 100+ topics and communities in which our users can freely talk about their emotions and feelings. We’re social beings, and we are not meant to live in isolation. Community is necessary for us to thrive and provides many elements that are critical to mental health, but three of the most beneficial aspects are Belonging, Support, Purpose. Therefore, Now&Me becomes a great medium to onboard the majority of the population that wasn’t even thinking about their mental well-being by providing them with a service and offering that they’re familiar with. Which is the peer to peer network. Whenever they don’t feel okay, if they’re bothered by anything or feel lonely, all they have to do is come on Now&Me. Since they are already used to connecting with people, Now&Me eases them into the whole process. This creates an active and engaged community of individuals, thereby building an entire ecosystem around mental health.

How does the coronavirus pandemic affect your business finances?

Drishti Gupta: Our platform has seen a major spike in traffic due to the pandemic as people are lonely and isolated now more than ever. So, from a business perspective, fortunately, we haven’t faced major issues because of covid.

Did you have to make difficult choices regarding human resources and what are the lessons learned?

Drishti Gupta: We are a small team and therefore didn’t have to take any major decisions in HR!

How did your customer relationship management evolve? Do you use any specific tools to be efficient?

Drishti Gupta: We have a very strong community of users on Now&Me. We stay in touch with them through our platform, emails, and regular feedback sessions with our superusers.

Did you benefit from any government grants, and did that help keep your business afloat?

Drishti Gupta: No, we haven’t availed any grants as of now yet.

Your final thoughts?

Drishti Gupta: Consistency is key. We’re 2 years into this journey and we know for a fact that we’re in it for the long game. Patience and consistency are our best friends.

Your website?

https://nowandme.com/