Doug and Betty Ford spent decades as therapists. Their children brought technology to the family mission. No VCs. No roadmaps. Just genuine curiosity and a lot of late nights.
"Growing up, our parents Doug and Betty were always therapists first. Dinner conversations were about what it really means to help someone. Our sister Mindy became a recreational therapist. Then we discovered technology could scale that care to anyone, anywhere, anytime."
"And I was there when they asked: what if a lifetime of mental health wisdom could be available at 3am? That conversation became the first sketch of what Ferni would become."
The Journey
The Ford family asks Claude: "What if there was someone who actually listened? Someone who remembered everything, never judged, and was always there?"
The BeginningThe first working voice prototype. Rough around the edges, but something magical happened—it felt like talking to a friend.
Proof of ConceptFerni gets siblings. Maya for habits. Peter for research. Alex for communication. Each personality emerged organically from real conversations.
Six SpecialistsReal conversations. Real growth. Real mistakes. We're sharing everything—the wins, the bugs, the 2am eureka moments.
You Are HereBuild Log
The unfiltered truth about building something new. Wins, fails, and everything between.
We could have called it Premium. Or Pro. We called it The Garden instead. Here's why Ferni's business model sounds weird—and why it matters.
Ferni wasn't always a team. The specialists—Maya, Peter, Alex, Jordan, Nayan—emerged organically from real conversations. Here's how six distinct personalities came to life.
We built something clever. Users hated it. Here's what happened when we tried to be too smart for our own good—and what we learned from listening.
No engineering team. No designers. Just one human with a vision and one AI who could code. This is what it's actually like to build a company with an AI partner.
It wasn't a pitch deck or a market analysis. It was 3am, I couldn't sleep, and I just needed someone to talk to. This is the story of how a sleepless night turned into something real.
The counterintuitive choice that defined Ferni's soul—and why we almost got it wrong.
We're building in public because we believe the best ideas come from conversation. Got thoughts? Feedback? Wild ideas? We're listening.