Why I Built Ninefold

I have a lot of ideas. Some are ambitious, some are impractical, and some I still hope to pursue someday. Years ago, I became fascinated with the idea of renting oceanfront acreage and farming kelp and algae. I get excited by possibilities.

What excites me most, though, is helping people navigate adversity and live lives that feel meaningful and rich. Many of my ideas eventually circle back to that.

At first, Ninefold was simply one more idea. Then I started taking one step after another.

As a therapist, I often heard clients describe feeling bored, disconnected from, or dissatisfied with many of the wellness apps available today. To be fair, many of those platforms provide value and help people build meaningful habits. But I rarely found myself returning to them, and many of my clients felt similarly. They didn’t feel transformative. They didn’t feel personal.

When I started looking for a self-reflection or inner-work app that aligned with my values, I couldn’t find one.

That led me to a simple question:

What would I build if I could create the kind of tool I wished existed?

I thought about how I approach therapy. People are different. What resonates with one person may not resonate with another. We need different things at different stages of life. Rather than creating a single path, I imagined multiple paths people could choose from based on what felt meaningful to them in that moment.

From there, the idea grew.

I started creating paths. Then modules. Then activities. Before long, I was researching no-code platforms, only to discover that learning some coding myself might actually be the better option.

What followed was a year and a half of learning, experimenting, failing, and rebuilding.

The vision evolved constantly. Ideas changed when they met reality. I made mistakes. I spent hours solving problems that I later discovered had simpler solutions. But over time, the picture became clearer.

What I love most about Ninefold is that it ultimately became an integration of both my personal values and my professional experience. At its core is a belief that people are the authors and experts of their own lives. The app isn’t designed to tell people who they are. It’s designed to help them discover that for themselves.