Pre-Seed · Mental Health Tech

Real-time nervous system
regulation.

Ascend detects when you're in crisis and delivers an immediate visual intervention — before you have to think about it. No technique to remember. No steps to follow. Just breathe in the picture.

View Funding Ask See the Science
Early Validation — Facebook Organic
Total Organic Views 416
Interaction Rate 7.2%
Industry Benchmark 1–2%
Engagement vs. Benchmark 3.6× higher
Top Performing Pattern Spiral / Vortex
Ad Spend $0
The Primary Anchor Card

Experience the mechanism directly.

Look at this card for 30 seconds. Notice what happens to your breathing. This is the spiral/vortex pattern that generated 42% higher engagement than all other formats in organic testing.

Ascend Primary Anchor Card
Peripheral Drift

The spiral creates perceived motion in a static image. Captures attention without cognitive effort — critical when executive function is impaired during anxiety.

Bilateral Stimulation

The orbs scattered across both sides force natural left-right eye movement — replicating the bilateral stimulation mechanism used in EMDR therapy.

Color Temperature Shift

Warm orange transitions to cool teal — guiding the nervous system from sympathetic activation toward parasympathetic regulation. The gradient does the work.

The Problem

Every existing solution fails at the
moment it's needed most.

During acute anxiety, executive function is impaired. Apps that require navigation, memory, or cognitive effort become useless precisely when they're needed. The market has built solutions for the calm version of anxious people — not the panicking one.

Meditation Apps (Calm, Headspace)

Require users to remember to open them during crisis. Treat all anxiety the same. The "just breathe" instruction is dismissive when someone is actually panicking.

Therapy Apps (BetterHelp, Talkspace)

No support between sessions — the gap where people struggle most. Cannot detect when someone is in crisis. Digitised scheduling, not reimagined support.

Traditional Therapy

Highly effective but limited to 50 minutes per week. Not available at 2am, during meetings, or other crisis moments. Expensive and often inaccessible.

Wellness Apps

Built for people who are already calm enough to engage with content. Assume baseline regulatory capacity. Fail entirely in acute states.

The gap nobody has filled

There is no tool that detects when someone is experiencing acute stress, delivers immediate passive intervention requiring zero cognitive load, and works at a physiological level — not just cognitive reframing. Ascend fills that gap.

The Technology

Research-informed visual
intervention.

Ascend cards are not decorative imagery. They are static visual compositions with inherent properties that create measurable physiological response — grounded in documented visual neuroscience.

01

Peripheral Drift Illusion

Specific geometric patterns with high contrast and luminance gradients create the perception of motion in static images. Captures and guides attention without cognitive effort.

02

Fractal Resonance

Spirals and branching patterns match the fractal structure of human neural networks. Research shows fractal patterns reduce cortisol and create measurable parasympathetic response.

03

Visual-Respiratory Entrainment

Rhythmic visual patterns naturally synchronise breathing and heart rate. Eye movement patterns directly influence breath patterns — slower tracking equals slower breathing.

04

Color Temperature Regulation

Cool blues and purples signal safety to the nervous system. Warm tones activate alertness for freeze states. Color gradients guide the nervous system between arousal states.

05

Bilateral Stimulation

Scattered visual elements force natural left-right eye movement. Creates bilateral stimulation comparable to techniques used in EMDR therapy — without therapeutic guidance.

06

Soft-Edge Gradient Effect

No hard edges reduces visual stress and eye muscle tension. Eye muscle relaxation directly activates the vagus nerve. Brain registers "no threat present" when visual field is soft.

The Experience

Intervention in under 2 seconds.

When biometric sensors detect a stress spike, the system acts before the user has to think about it.

Step 01

Detection

Apple Watch or compatible wearable detects HRV spike indicating acute stress onset.

Step 02

Alert

Watch delivers gentle pulse. Phone notification: two words only — "Your anchor."

Step 03

Intervention

Fullscreen card appears immediately. No menus, no UI chrome, zero taps required.

Step 04

Regulation

90 seconds of visual breathing entrainment. Simple check-in. Session logged.

Traction

Early signal. Zero spend.

Organic Facebook testing validated concept interest before any product exists. The visual cards generated 3.6× industry-standard engagement with no paid promotion.

Metric Result Context
Organic Views 416 $0 spend
Interaction Rate 7.2% vs 1–2% benchmark
Engagement Multiple 3.6× Industry standard
Top Card Pattern Spiral 42% higher engagement
Interaction Decay 9.1% Sustained interest
This data represents early concept validation — not product-market fit. It demonstrates genuine audience response to the core visual mechanism before any app exists.

What this tells us

The cards themselves — without any app, any product framing, any call to action — generated organic engagement 3.6× above industry standard.

The visual mechanism works on cold audiences. People stopped, interacted, and returned. The spiral/vortex pattern performed strongest, which directly informs the primary anchor card selection for MVP.

This is the most defensible form of early validation: the core product mechanism showing measurable pull before a dollar of marketing spend.

Roadmap

Three phases. One year.

Data-gated progression. Each phase requires validated metrics before proceeding.

Phase 1 · Months 1–3

Crisis Intervention Validation

  • MVP build — Flutter / Firebase
  • Single anchor card (Lotus)
  • Apple Watch HRV integration
  • 100-user private beta
  • Go/No-Go decision at Month 3
Phase 2 · Months 4–6

Expansion & Depth

  • 4–5 state-specific cards
  • Context-aware card selection
  • Daily Draw feature
  • Enhanced journaling
  • Public launch — Product Hunt
Phase 3 · Months 7–12

Scale & Revenue

  • Freemium gate — $8/month
  • Professional tier — $49/month
  • Corporate wellness partnerships
  • Therapist integration B2B2C
  • Research publication
Business Model

Three revenue streams. One platform.

Freemium individual, professional/clinical, and corporate wellness tiers create diversified, recurring revenue.

Individual
$8
per month · or $66/year
  • Full biometric detection
  • 4–5 state-specific cards
  • Context-aware selection
  • Weekly insights
Professional
$49
per month · therapists & coaches
  • Assign cards to clients
  • Client usage dashboard
  • Full therapeutic card library
  • 10 client licenses included
Corporate
$5
per user / month · 50+ seats
  • Group licensing
  • Wellness platform integration
  • Anonymised stress analytics
  • HR reporting dashboard
Market

Large market. Underserved moment.

The digital mental health market is growing rapidly. Ascend targets the specific crisis intervention gap — the moment every other solution fails.

$6B+
Global mental health app market (2024)
40M+
US adults with anxiety disorders
150M+
Wearable devices in active use globally
Revenue Stream Target (Year 1) ARR Notes
Individual Premium 400 subscribers $38K $8/month × 400
Professional (Therapists) 50 accounts $29K $49/month × 50
Corporate Wellness 10,000 users $600K $5/user/month
Total Year 1 Target — $667K ARR Projected — not guaranteed

Revenue projections are targets based on market comparables and assumed conversion rates. They represent goals for validation, not commitments.

The Ask

Pre-seed round. $150,000.

Funding takes Ascend from validated concept to live product — with rigorous go/no-go gates before each phase of spend.

Raising
$150K
Pre-seed · Equity
Allocation
MVP Development $45,000
User Acquisition (Beta) $30,000
Clinical Pilot $15,000
Operations & Legal $25,000
Founder Salary (4 months) $20,000
Iteration Buffer $15,000

What this funding achieves

Month 1–3
MVP built and live. 100 beta users recruited. Core intervention mechanism validated with real anxiety data.
Month 3
Go/No-Go decision based on hard metrics: 60%+ perceived card efficacy, 70%+ subjective improvement, 50%+ Day 30 retention.
Month 4–6
Public launch. Product Hunt. Therapist seed network of 20 practitioners. State-specific card expansion.
Month 6
Scale decision based on Day 30 retention and conversion data. Series A preparation if metrics support.
Month 7–12
Freemium gate. Corporate wellness partnerships. Therapist B2B2C. Path to $667K ARR target.
Get in Touch

Interested in learning more?

This overview is a summary. Full pitch deck, technical documentation, and development plan available on request.

admytruk@proton.me

Confidential — not for distribution