Thread by @justinkan

I struggled with alcohol addiction for over 20 years, among other destructive habits.

Today I launched my app @kinhabits, based on the learnings that saved my life.

Founders need to build better habits, not just better products. Here's why:

[A thread]

I started drinking because I felt an incredible amount of guilt about my failing startup, Exec.

Alcohol made me feel like Superman in social situations, but it also helped me numb the pain when I was alone.

Suppressing my emotions with drinking became an abusive relationship - I was addicted to the delayed pain.

That cycle is not easily broken, but it can be done by breaking old habits and building healthier ones.

I learned how to hack habits with help from @JamesClear’s book Atomic Habits. He breaks it down into a science:

Rule #1: don't rely on motivation. It's a finite resource and unpredictable for long-term change.

Design your environment with great intention.

When I wanted to quit drinking, I told everyone so that I couldn't back out. I engineered my reality by priming my environment.

Drinking became a hostile choice.

You should focus on creating a system instead of a one time goal.

Use accountability to maintain consistency.

@kinhabits is a social habit tracker. It's me productizing my sobriety journey.

It is very personal. I built this for myself and friends who's been struggling with addiction.

We use this to help each other out. We've been beta-testing for over a year...

... and it's working. The results we see convinced us to bring this to the world.

We went live on @producthunt today, go check out and drop an upvote to help us get to #1:

producthunt.com/posts/kin-habi…

My co-founders @amittm, @OmarJalalzada, @damienkan and I are giving everyone who RTs this thread a 50% discount on all Kin courses for the rest of this year.

DM me your phone number after RT and we'll set you up.

Here's to having better habits 🙏

New website: kinhabits.com