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March 22, 2017

Innovation Fund 2017: Emile

The 2017 Innovation Fund, our annual crowdfunding competition, has officially launched! You can find all of the Innovation Fund participants here. Read on for the story of Emile, the app that helps you become a morning person, created by Charlie Molthrop ’14 and Nazli Danis ’14.
This post was originally published by Charlie Molthrop on the Emile Blog.
 
Almost a year ago, Naz and I joined the VFA accelerator in Philadelphia with Emile, a chatbot that uses text messages to help you accomplish personal goals. After several iterations, Emile still helps you accomplish personal goals, but we do it in a single targeted way: We help you become a morning person.
Already sold? You can support us on Indiegogo and get a year of Emile here.
“I’m skeptical. Please explain with an excessive amount of gifs,” you say? We thought you’d never ask!

Why is it that whenever we set out to have a day like this:

It ends up like this:

It seems like we always have way too much to do every day.

And most of it is far from gratifying.

As the day goes on, the tasks just seem to mount.

So by the time you get home from work you’re basically like:

Leaving little time or energy for “me time.”

If only you could wake up earlier.

You could have your me time in the morning!

Not gonna happen?

Well, what If I told you…

There was a totally new way to fix your sleep habits for the better…

It’s called Emile.

(pronounced eh-MEEL)

And it’s already helped a lot of people take back their mornings.

Emile is an automated sleep coach that helps you shift your sleep schedule earlier.

With goals, check-ins, reminders (and gifs!):

Here’s how the Emile habit loop works:

Support our Indiegogo campaign today to get a full year of Emile! So you can finally be a morning person.

And treat yourself to the morning “me time” you deserve!


We’ve exchanged more than 50,000 messages with our beta testers to understand how Emile can make new habits stick. Our next chapter is to launch Emile as a subscription product that helps even more people take back their mornings. We want to thank the VFA community and our beta testers for all the support so far, and we look forward helping even more people treat themselves to the sleep and me-time they deserve!

Posted in: Fellows, Inside VFA

VFA Has Ceased Operations


Since its first cohort in 2012, Venture For America (VFA) has championed entrepreneurship, innovation, and economic growth across the nation. As of August 6, 2024, VFA has ceased its operations. While this marks the end of an era, it also provides an opportunity to reflect on the extraordinary accomplishments and lasting impact that we have achieved together.

Please click here to read the full update.

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