Founder stories
Rootd $1.2M ARR October 2024; MRR $83K May 2025. Bootstrapped and profitable.
Mobile app for panic attack and anxiety relief with guided exercises and support tools.
How Ania acquired customers
Tools used to build Rootd
Ania started having panic attacks in her final year of university. She built the app she wished existed.
Rootd started from personal experience. Like many, I went through life thinking that anxiety and panic attacks wouldn't happen to me. But when my first panic attack came out of nowhere during my final year of University, I realized my misconceptions were wrong.
Far away from home, on student loans, and with no family doctor, I couldn't find or afford the support I needed. My instinct was to reach for my phone to find an app that could help me process what was happening, but couldn't find anything useful.
For version one, I turned my notebook sketches into wireframes using Photoshop. Then I found a student developer and worked with him to publish an app to the App Store and Google Play, which I launched on World Mental Health Day.
This first version had way less features than today, but it had Rootd's core components of stigma-breaking design and accessibility. The big red panic attack button was front and center.
My key focuses at the start were focusing on the niche of "panic attack relief" in the app's keywords and App Store Optimization efforts. I responded to every single review and started conversations with users as much as possible.
Rootd is now scientifically validated, won multiple awards, used by over 2 million users in over 150 countries, and has tens of thousands of 5-star reviews. All with zero employees.
You don't need to code to build a successful app - find the right partners
Personal experience with a problem creates authentic product-market fit
App Store Optimization drives sustainable organic growth
Responding to every review builds community and improves retention
See what it covers before you sign up: the pattern worth copying, the channel to test, and the risk to avoid when you adapt this story.
$100K ARR
SEO / Content
Action checklist
See what it covers first. Create an account only if you choose to unlock.
Inspired by Ania's journey? Generate a business idea in the Health & Wellness space using AI and real founder data.
Ania achieved 3 milestones on the path to $100K ARR
$10,000
$1,000,000
The journey, decisions, and context behind this milestone
See the complete breakdown: launch strategy, validation methods, startup costs, expert analysis, replication playbook, and more actionable insights.
Upgrade to PremiumInstant access to all founder journeys
Founders with similar journeys or strategies
My journey took me from being a Paris waiter to an $80,000/month solopreneur over seven years of persistence. After 17 failed projects, I found succes...
After selling my previous AI company Headlime for seven figures, I took time off in 2021. I was growing increasingly bored when an idea struck me: why...
I built Storemapper while traveling as a digital nomad. It started as a simple store locator widget and grew into a stable micro-SaaS business. The...
Get more founder journeys like this delivered to your inbox every week.