Discussion
Would you recommend this product?
26 Reviews
Hello, hello Product Hunt 👋!
I’m Stef, Founding Growth Marketer, hunting Sphere: an app that powers & scales the magic of coaching 💫 and makes the process of getting 1:1 Guidance more personalized, seamless, consistent and strategic.
Or as some of our early customers have described us:
- Tinder for Life, Leadership & Business Coaching
- Classpass for Personal Development
- Uber for the Soul
😜🙄— what can I say, people like a good comparison. Really, we match you to your best-fit coaches + taking care of the experience end-to-end.
First off, I can’t talk about Sphere without talking about my personal coaching journey …
A few years ago I was in over my head. @rickperreault recommended I invest in a coach to support me. So I did.
I worked 1on1 with an incredible leadership coach (not on product hunt or I’d tag her). She supported me to better lead my team, communicate my best intentions and drive business results with impact. She asked the hard questions, challenged me and ultimately helped me grow.
⏩Fast forward to last year when I met @devsdevelopment. I couldn't shake what problems she was trying to solve with Sphere. It immediately struck a chord and resonated with me. After having a coach I *knew* how powerful coaching could be. And felt the pain she described in my original search for a coach. And so I jumped on board 🚀
Ever since our small & passionate team has been giving it our all to get Sphere off the ground — because coaching is a personal development tool that has been proven to support emotional and social intelligence. And we want more people to be able to access it.
Our mission? To democratize coaching. To help connect individuals with their potential, and give them a suite of best-fit, unbiased thinking partners, plus high impact conversations to achieve their goals, take leaps, spark change and play bigger 💪
After months in beta, 4890 minutes of coaching through Sphere, an average NPS score of 84, we’re crossing a big-time milestone: a public release. For Sphere 1.0, we built a lightweight algorithm, onboarded & vetted 160+ certified & experienced leadership, business and life coaches and focused on a mobile app experience. And this is just the beginning 😉
So here we are, Product Hunt. We would LOVE 💙 for you to check us out!
Passing on the baton to our Founder, @devsdevelopment who will tell you a bit more about Sphere and how it all works. And to @don_burks who will intro the tech 👇
Upvote (21)Share
@smgrieser, the pricing is excellent, and I like the idea of a 6-month commitment. It forces you to show up and keep going, even during those times when you feel far outside of your comfort zone.
@smgrieser @maryi I'm so glad you said that Mary. Growing isn't easy. You gotta stay in it, and that is reflective in our membership offerings.
Maker
👋Product Hunt, Founding Engineer at Sphere here!
Five months ago I left a job I loved developing developers and joined Sphere. Why? Because I am passionate about personal development, growth, and improvement. And believe it takes two people to grow: you + an unbiased thinking partner, a coach.
Just like in sports, if you want to improve in life, having a coach helps. And Sphere makes the process of getting 1:1 Guidance more seamless, consistent and strategic.
In terms of the product itself: we built out a mobile-first app (to start): a @bumble / @tinder experience when it comes to coach profiles, — with @Calendly like functionality (ie: you don’t have to message back and forth with your coach to find a time to have a session) + @Zoom_US & FaceTime capabilities (to connect with your coach). With a membership model based on credits, similar to @classpass.
Our stack:
* JavaScript, from top to bottom:
* NodeJS
* Express
* Apollo GraphQL
* React Native
* PostgreSQL (CloudSQL)
* Kubernetes
* GCP
* We have a core GraphQL API with all of our ancillary functions built in a micro-service architecture.
Of course, this is only the beginning. A lot more on our roadmap to follow. In the meantime, would love to know what you think.
Cheers to growth over comfort 🚀
Don
Hola Product Hunt, Founder & Creator of Sphere proudly and excitedly chiming in! Our story goes a little something like this:
My love of coaching started at my first company, Blo Blow Dry Bar - the largest franchise chain of its kind with over 130+ locations around the world. I was 21 then and catapulted into a leadership position as co-founder, responsible for seeding and nurturing our growing teams and franchises. Coaching was an inherent part of our culture and totally our secret sauce. Fast forward to 6 years later when my co-founders and I exited our business completely and I jumped into a full-time leadership and life coaching practice, to do the work that fills my soul: helping people grow. Yeilding transformation.
After 6 years in my personal practice, one night, I was sitting awake in bed dreaming of building something that would make this service and experiences more accessible and approachable for everyone - not just fancy c-suites, and people with connections. There was so much friction for someone to find a great coach and commit to growth in a seamless and agile way. The space was filled with upfront fees, and hard to understand service menus on hard to find websites.
I’d seen the industry booming yoy with little to no innovations in consumer experiences or technologies. Yoga and meditation had so much beautiful, approachable tech powering and scaling their magic, but coaching - a personal development tool that has been proven to support emotional and social intelligence - didn't.
People didn’t know how to find the right coaching for them; and coaches were wasting too much time, and money, on business development, maintenance and management.
So, I’ve spent the last year in alpha and beta, working with an inspiring crew [shout out to my team!] to build something that serves as the 1-click wonder for accessing and delivering Guidance.
Making it easier for Seekers (clients) to grow as people, and for Guides (coaches) to grow their business. 🌟 Meet. Book. Grow.
This morning, I am dancing in my purple pyjamas - while trying not to wake my kids ;)- because Sphere is going live on Product Hunt. Lift off.
**Here’s how Sphere works:**
1. We learn about you, where you’re at and what you want to work on
2. You are intelligently matched to a collective of vetted, qualified and professionally trained coaches
3. You grow with a Sphere of Guides customized to your needs. Yup, coaching in your pocket: from personal to professional, and from mindfulness to leadership.
4. We take care of the experience seamlessly. Connecting, scheduling and sessions all happen in the app.
**Why Sphere? And what makes us unique?**
→ When you work with Sphere, you aren't restricted to just one coach or one type of coach. We have over 160+ (and growing): life coaches, leadership coaches, business coaches, career coaches, health coaches, communication coaches.
→ Not just anyone can be a coach. All our coaches have a track record of success. They’re certified, have their own professional practices, and come highly referred by their coaching community. We aren’t a come one, come all listing directory. We're a premium experience for self-improvement and proactive wellbeing.
→ Coaches outside of Sphere charge up to 70% more (because it costs them a lot to run and maintain their practice). But we make it super easy for them, so you get high-quality coaching, at a digestible rate.
→ Committing to growing as a person is made as accessible as signing up to your favorite gym. Our membership model is designed like @classpass. You get monthly credits to spend on coaching experiences.
Because we know commitment & consistency breed transformation.
We're amplifying the impact of Guidance because we believe that a curious world is a conscious world. Where there is alignment between our beliefs and behaviors — there is humanity and fulfillment.
Growing is for everyone,
Dev
@devsdevelopment so love and respect and value the clarity of your vision from day one. And look where we are!!! XO
I've been a beta user of Sphere since January, meeting with the same fantastic coach 1-2 times a month. I was incredibly fortunate to have access to a coach at my previous job, and only realized once I started using Sphere how much I missed and needed those regular neutral heart-to-hearts.
I haven't found a tool or app that can replace the value of the honest feedback and situational experience you get from talking with a professional coach.
It's definitely an investment, but one I consider as important as investing in my physical and mental health, and far more personal and accountable than any generalized program or productivity app.
@travishines Your seasoned ui/ux and strategic feedback through beta was instrumental. We are ridiculously proud to have had you as a Seeker since day 1.
@travishines Travis. It is the biggest honour to have you as one of our earliest Sphere members. That and your feedback during Beta was gold! Thanks for all the earlier community love and support.
Really interesting idea for a product! Can you advise on how you sourced and vetted all of the coaches?
That seems like a huge task in and of itself.
@philnottingham Phil! You got it, man. It's a behemoth undertaking and it took a lot of hours — but there are no shortcuts to excellence.
We have designed a model which prioritizes applications by referral. This keeps quality high to start. Then, all Sphere coaches are vetted and should have:
-Experience, qualifications, certification, and training related to your coaching practice all of these artifacts are provided to us;
-A pre-existing professional practice (charging for coaching sessions and already working with clients);
-Strong, recent client referrals;
-Strong coaching community referrals;
-A clear focus in your practice & a track record of success helping clients make powerful progress;
-An insatiable passion for this work;
-Clarity around how you refine, deepen and grow your practice;
-Demonstrate a commitment to your own continued learning and development (the best Guides have their own coaches, and are always reinvesting in their education and training).
Throughout this process Sphere also considers:
-Our opportunities to drive diversity and inclusion in the space;
-The coaches own view around coaching;
-The coach being mission, vision and vibe aligned — they have to light-us-up about this work.
Our brand promise to you is that we hold integrity over the end-to-end experience. So, we take vetting extremely seriously. Personally interviewing each and every coach on Sphere. In a time when other companies go for quantity over quality - this will continue to be an essential part of our ongoing scaling strategy.
As supply increases dramatically in the space over the next decade - it will mean that more people want to coach, and there will be more and more coaches of lesser quality. We will never be the ‘craigslist of coaching’. We focus on cultivating an intimate ecosystem of highly-engaged coaches who share our vision and mission and view this as a partnership in powering human potential.