AI, ADHD & Accountability with Sharon Pope, Co-founder of Shelpful
In this episode, I talk tech, accountability and ADHD management with Sharon Pope, co-founder of Shelpful. Sharon's service, which I use myself, supports people with ADHD in managing daily tasks and self-care routines through a blend of AI and human interaction.
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Summary
In this episode of the "Adulting with ADHD" podcast, host Sarah S. interviews Sharon Pope, co-founder of Shelpful, a startup that provides AI-powered and human accountability support for habit-building and self-care. Sharon shares her journey from startup veteran to entrepreneur, driven by personal struggles with self-care and a late ADHD diagnosis. The conversation explores how Shelpful was designed to help people—especially those with ADHD—overcome the unique challenges of managing daily tasks and self-care by pairing users with either an AI task manager, a human accountability coach, or both. Sharon discusses the importance of external support, the benefits of combining technology with human empathy, and how Shelpful’s approach is rooted in behavioral science and real-world feedback from its neurodivergent community. The episode also highlights success stories, the value of small, achievable goals, and how Shelpful continues to evolve based on user input.
In this episode
"If I'm doing something for somebody else or if somebody else cares about this, I'm much more likely to do it. And that was always the rule for me with my ADHD. The me stuff didn't happen because no one cared about it other than me. And having that system and that kind of backbone in the AI, which is honestly shockingly warm and supportive...there's something that lights up in the ADHD brain with this service."
Sharon Pope’s background in startups and her personal journey to founding Shelpful
How Shelpful was inspired by Sharon’s experiences as a working mom and her late ADHD diagnosis
The evolution of Shelpful from a human accountability service to including AI-powered habit support
Why external accountability is especially helpful for people with ADHD
The unique benefits of combining AI and human coaches for motivation and follow-through
How Shelpful uses behavioral science and user feedback to improve its offerings
The importance of small, achievable goals and celebrating progress
Success stories from neurodivergent users, including the impact on self-esteem and daily routines
How listeners can try Shelpful and connect with the team for support and habit tips
Transcript
[Sarah S.]
Today I have with me Sharon Pope, co-founder of Shelpful. Welcome to the show, Sharon.
[Sharon Pope]
Thanks so much, Sarah for having me.
[Sarah S.]
Can you tell the audience a little bit about you and how you got into this line of work?
[Sharon Pope]
Oh, sure, yeah. I'm a career startup person. So I for my whole career have worked at mainly tech startups and usually in marketing, PR or product. And that's what I had been doing right up until I started my own startup Shelpful. I was I just had my second kid and had gone back from maternity leave and was just encountering all the stuff of the the new mom, but also the working mom who was putting it all in for work and all in for the kids and I just was completely not on my own list and had that feeling of just frustration and self-judgment and like, why can't I, why can I take care of everyone else and not me? Why can I have a successful career and don't feel like personally successful because I can't book a dentist appointment. Like those feelings and that that was the personal struggle that led me into Shelpful. And obviously with the startup background, I I had the benefit of learning that, hey, you know what? If it's crystal in your head and there's something that you think would help you, then maybe it would help someone else and you should just start. And so that's what I did. I started Shelpful with my friend Lydia after a COVID six foot away conversation in the beginning of 2021 and we were like, let's just do it. Let's just make something and let's launch it next week. And we did and we had sign ups immediately in our first product which was essentially just pairing you with a real human accountability buddy, which was us at first to text with and keep you on top of the things that are falling off of your list, especially the you stuff. Drinking water, exercising, remembering to eat, any of that self care stuff was our top focus.
[Sarah S.]
That's a good segue into the other question I had was given your recent health challenges and the shift towards AI tech with human interaction. How do you see Shelpful evolving to better serve people with ADHD?
[Sharon Pope]
Yeah, it's so interesting. So that founding story that me being frustrated about why I couldn't get anything done for myself. I really just thought that was a me problem my whole life. And so this is me at 37 at that point and was I we we launched it as I said, we launched the first version of Shelpful on some Facebook groups that you know, just posted it. Hey guys, please try this. People signing up in the comments of their sign up were saying, this is perfect for me because I have ADHD or because of my ADHD, I also forget to do this and that. And they were just describing my life exactly just right in front of my face. So I was I I had this very kind of Hollywood flashback moment of, oh, okay. Yeah, I have ADHD. I made this whole service to help me and it really it was it's the service then and today, we over index highly with the neurodivergent community and I have since been diagnosed with ADHD. I'm I'm now a very big advocate for for ADHDers and just especially those who I relate with especially getting diagnosed so late in life and having been told multiple times in my life by doctors that I didn't have it because I was too successful or too good at school or things like that. And so my everything kind of crystallized with the founding of Shelpful. My own users basically diagnosed me. Obviously the doctors had their part later. And now we do have as you said an AI service that we've added on since we started. So we you can when you sign up, you can choose an AI task manager or a human accountability coach or both. And how does this speak to the ADHD community? It really is that for me, it's the answer that I needed, which is that if I'm doing something for somebody else or if somebody else cares about this, I'm much more likely to do it. And that was always the rule for me with my ADHD. The me stuff didn't happen because no one cared about it other than me. And having that that system and that that kind of backbone in the AI, which is honestly shockingly warm and supportive. Our AI is very. It is. I can attest to that. Right. But also if you have the human add-on, you have a person who's, hey, you haven't said about your flossing. Have you been flossing? Should we restructure this habit? Someone else cares about whether you floss, which is honestly a very warm feeling that I am not the only person who cares about my gum health. Somebody else does. So I think that there's something that lights up in the ADHD brain with this with our service and it's been such an honor for me to be able to help others that that have the similar struggle that I do....
[Sarah S.]
That is so true. I'm having these images of like humanoids following you around the house, making sure you floss your teeth.
[Sharon Pope]
That's the future, isn't it?
[Sarah S.]
It really is.
[Sharon Pope]
I feel like that it really it is this for ADHDers, I think we judge ourselves a lot for the for not being able to do the little things. Yeah, flossing is one example. But there's so many examples and even just being able to make a phone call. it should be an easy phone call and would be an easy phone call for a neurotypical person, but we get into this shame cycle. And so I think there's something freeing about being able to first of all recognize that, you know what, it's not easy for everyone and I'm not everyone's the same and this is hard for me and I can ask for help.
[Sarah S.]
Yeah. Back to Shelpful, Shelpful pairs people with a a real human buddy to help them stay motivated. From your perspective, what are the unique benefits of this human element, especially for those with ADHD?
[Sharon Pope]
Yeah. Our current most popular product is the AI standalone service. That's what most people sign up for initially, which is you and your AI task manager texting back and forth, right? Your task, your AI will remind you to do certain habits. It'll follow up with you and it you can brain dump your to-dos and it'll keep them nice on a list. And that is that's our most popular product right now, but our second most popular product is the ability to add a human coach into your chat. So it's like a three-way chat where you have the AI. I think of it as like the AI is the heartbeat and then your human accountability coach is the soul. And you have a kickoff call with them and we use this kickoff calls to really just try to understand more more context and we know that tech just can't be bolted on and just fix everything. Just because an AI texts you to do something doesn't mean you're going to do it. If that were the case then gosh, I guess my job would be done. But what what really helps I think for for folks is sometimes that human element because we we are we intelligently know that a bot isn't a real person and they don't really aren't really affected if we don't do something, but our human coach is really invested in the success. And by success, yeah, maybe long-term goals of some exercise goal or some work or career objective, but also even just the little things of, hey, did you were you able to tidy one dish last night, right? Like setting those low bar goals because we know from research that the smaller you can make the habit, the more achievable you can make it, the better you can stick with it consistently.
[Sarah S.]
100% and I I definitely agree with that. So you've had a significant career advising startups and leading marketing efforts. How have these experiences informed the strategies you've implemented at Shelpful? especially for people with ADHD.
[Sharon Pope]
Oh yeah, that's a really good question. I I'm so fortunate to have been able to number one, witness some amazing startup founders and working directly for them. Like my one of my bosses is was Sam Altman. I worked at his first startup. He's now the CEO of Open AI. And so like I was good a good example to watch after. And then I worked at Y Combinator, which is essentially like the Harvard for startups. It's a startup accelerator. So they funded companies like Airbnb, Stripe, Dropbox and all those founders of those companies would come they came to Y Combinator would speak to the batches of founders. So I just I was had this master class of startups in my history. Now, I will say a lot harder to start your own. I think that as an ADHDer, I the hard things have seemed easier for me and the easier things seem hard for me sometimes, right? It was much easier for me to create the Shelpful site and the initial product. I did it like on this a two-day just insane hyperfocus, made the first version of the product. And the harder part for me was like filling out the incorporation documents. Oh yeah. So I but that's where I think and there are tons of statistics about ADHDers and entrepreneurship that the ADHD works really great with entrepreneurship if you love what you're doing and this is the best job I've ever had. I I've always loved working at startups, but this is this the service that we make at Shelpful is is for me. Like I am our number one customer. I log the most customer complaints. I am I am it's something I need. And so my mission to make it better is serving me, which is helpful because I can understand the problem, but also I know that there are others like me. And I know that because they told me. So I think that just being able to, yes, the biggest lesson from my career as a startup chief marketing officer has been to just start. If there's something that you feel that you need and that at least one other person would need, make it. Build it, start it and that's what I did with Shelpful and I certainly don't regret doing that. Um and it has been a whirlwind since doing that. But you know, if it if even if nobody cares or nobody signs up then you learn something and we still try to do that and implement that at our company every day and we're always telling our members, tell us your ideas, tell us your issues because we want to build something that is immediately helpful to you because as a startup, if we're not just learning directly from our members and building something that they really love, then we're not doing our job. And so I think being able to already come in knowing that from working in startups for my career was helpful that I didn't have to learn it the hard way. It doesn't mean that it doesn't happen for you really do have to come into every day with that viewpoint of my members need to love this and what can I do to make this better for them.
[Sarah S.]
Yeah, totally. Can you share a success story or a particular instance where Shelpful significantly impacted someone with ADHD?
[Sharon Pope]
Oh yeah, we I think that the the biggest our biggest kind of inbound messages, I'd say are from neurodiverse folks and people with ADHD. And I just pulling from my head a couple of examples. With our AI service, I think someone wrote in, she said specifically, I have RSD, which is rejection sensitive sensitive dysphoria. I hope I said that fact check me. RSD, which is really a common comorbidity with ADHD. And she she was like just the way the AI asked me something. It's so different than setting an alarm or all these other things I've tried because it's saying, oh, what type of exercise would you like to do today and and when could you do it? And it's it's opening a conversation with me and it's not just telling me I should be doing something which sends me into a spiral of I'm bad because I'm not already doing it. And so that's I guess one example I think from my inbox this week. But I think, you know, we've had customers that have been with us for a couple years now, you know, since the beginning who have ADHD who really just feel like that their kind of summary to us is that they feel less alone in the small tasks and they're able to activate a little bit of dopamine. I think one of our members with ADHD put it that it's like Jimny Cricket for her when she hears from our human accountability coach. It's feels like this she gets this exciting excited feeling when she hears her phone ping because she it's it that sound is associated with her choosing to take care of herself. And like the service that she of course signed up for in order to take care of herself, but it's a reminder that she did that and why.
[Sarah S.]
That is so awesome and I I love how it's so rooted in biology. It's so neat. Oh wow, that's cool.
[Sharon Pope]
Yeah, I feel like as much as we can as much as we can tap into that dopamine, I think for is the better and I feel like that's and if anybody has any other ideas how we could get the dopamine going for you, I'm all ears.
[Sarah S.]
Yeah. How can our listeners keep in touch with you and see what you're up to these days?
[Sharon Pope]
Yeah, so our website shelpful.com is where you can sign up for a free seven-day trial for any of our services, the AI, the all human or the combo. And so that's a great place to start if you're just curious and want to try it, you should try it and let us know how you like it. And then we we're pretty like habit geeky obsessed with just trying to share any productivity tips and just life hacks because we just are realists and we don't believe in the perfect morning routine. Um so our social media we're super active on Instagram and Tok and it's at Shelpful. um at and then Shelpful spelled h e l p f u l. Um and so we're always sharing just our advice and we're also certified habit coaches, my co-founder Lydia and I. We share the research behind behavioral like the behavioral science that helps you form habits and then our own kind of tech and productivity hacks. So would love to connect with you there.
[Sarah S.]
That is wonderful. Sharon, thank you so much for being on the show and I cannot wait to catch up with you again. This is really exciting stuff that you're working on.
[Sharon Pope]
Thank you so much for having me and I would love to connect anytime.
[Sarah S.]
All right, take care.
[Sharon Pope]
Thanks Sarah.
