Faino

A mental state critically affects an individual's ability to ensure the safety of themselves and others, keep working, and make careful decisions.

For millions, such as civilians in war zones, refugees, and parents of newborns in intensive care units, coping with acute stress is not an optional luxury; it’s urgent and vital.

Unfortunately, there are not enough specialists to treat everyone who encounters highly stressful events. 

Although effective self-help methods exist, it is difficult for individuals to choose and perform them, especially under stress.

Faino is the chatbot on Telegram that helps cope with acute stress, anxiety, and emotion in 3 minutes.

Faino selects the self-help techniques according to the stress level, helps perform them, and accompanies individuals until the stress level decreases.

It has been developed in collaboration with an international team of crisis psychologists. Exercises are based on a scientifically proven cognitive-behavioral therapy approach and aligned with WHO recommendations. It is available in six languages, including English, Hebrew, Russian, and Ukrainian. 

Faino does not replace live communication with a mental health specialist, and it does not deal with the causes of psychological problems. The goal is to help "right here and right now" when talking to a specialist is not an option or in between sessions.

The chatbot: https://t.me/faino_psy_bot

The official website: https://faino.help 

Stress is a natural body reaction, regardless of gender, age, or willpower. We are all different, but on a biological level, we react to stress in a very similar way.

Faino started as a volunteer initiative designed to aid people in crisis situations. However, our product has unexpectedly expanded its reach, finding widespread use in everyday life scenarios well beyond its initial target audience.

Originally, we wanted to help everyone affected by war, including people in war zones, refugees, volunteers, and those who are physically safe but are experiencing stress that affects their ability to function normally.

Soon after the launch, thanks to word of mouth, Faino became in use for people who suffer from the loss or illness of loved ones, domestic violence, addictions, gender discrimination, etc.

Since then, we have received multiple user reviews, which prove our product is sought-after and efficient far beyond crises. Faino helps people pull themselves together before exams, interviews, or public speaking, not lose their temper during work discussions or domestic arguments, cope with procrastination, and sleep better after a difficult day. Thus, we decided to create a commercial version of Faino, maintaining the core functionality free for everyone in need.

Meanwhile, Faino supports anyone who needs it: people of all nationalities and beliefs.

There is a quote from Faino cofounder and lead psychologist, to illustrate our proximity to the communities:

"In my "normal life", I am a child and family psychologist.  I also work with people who are facing crisis situations: the unexpected death of a loved one, being admitted to intensive care, the birth of a child with congenital diseases, and more. Many people know about my experience, and that I can be there for them in the most harrowing moments. 

In the very first hours of the war, I was flooded with calls from people I knew. I also posted my contact information on social media, so that everyone who needed support could call. But it wasn't enough. 

I spent days working around the clock with those who called, doing whatever I could to help. A huge thank you to my colleagues - numerous psychologists from various countries who also willingly helped people without charging a fee. That was admirable. But it wasn't enough either.

My soul ached, especially for those who needed moral support right now but could not receive it because of their physical location. Many of these people were either in cities that were under fire, in a bomb shelter, or at the train station waiting to be evacuated. 

A few days later, my husband asked if there were any recurring patterns, exercises, or phrases that I was using. We discussed that crisis psychological support has very clear goals and that there are not that many methods to achieve them. The idea of creating an app or a bot instantly came up.

Unfortunately, we cannot eliminate war and trauma, and it is impossible to live a life without stress. But we want people to receive support, and to make it easier for them to navigate through their most difficult moments so that they can come out of them as mentally healthy as possible.

Our initial product, the Faino bot, is a free psychological support chatbot on Telegram designed for people in challenging situations.

Reach:
- Faino helped 67,700+ individuals
- 50 - 150 users per day, with peaks up to several thousand during crisis events, such as terrorist attacks or war escalations
- The product is available in five languages

Effectiveness:
- 76% of users reported immediate stress relief after completion of exercises. 
- Multiple positive reviews from users and mental health experts
- CustDev shows the wide range of scenarios in which individuals use Faino in crisis and everyday life situations

Marketing:
- Zero cost on PR and marketing. Psychologists, psychotherapists, social workers, crisis line workers, volunteer organizations, media, and influencers recommend Faino for free.

As a social enterprise, we aim to develop commercial products while delivering the core stress relief functionality free of charge to as many people in need as possible. 

There are five core areas where MIT Solve can help us:

1. Partnerships. Stress negatively impacts most spheres of human life, from business to education and health to volunteer work. We believe our free product can be effectively integrated into the workflows of various social impact-focused organizations, such as shelters, volunteering initiatives, crisis lines, hospitals, educational institutions, etc. It's essential to support both teams and the individuals they serve in coping with stress and building resilience. 

2. Media exposure. Interaction with media and influencers is an essential part of our work, as the psychoeducation and destigmatisation of stress and mental self-care are the keys to scaling the reach of Faino, especially in countries where most people don't have access to regular mental health support.   

3. Impact measurement. We received profound support from the mental health professional community. We had an opportunity to ensure that this kind of support positively impacts the reach and trust of our users. We are sure it's essential to further develop this trust by conducting research and showing data to illustrate its effectiveness and impact. 

4. Networking. Developing every new localization is a complicated process involving tens of mental health professionals, UI and QA specialists, and translators considering the specifics of a culture and a language. We are constantly developing our multinational volunteer network as we plan to build Arabic, Hindi, and many other versions.

5. Legal services. As various legislations in different countries regulate mental support initiatives, we need to partner with a proper legal advice provider and employ the best practices of our peers worldwide.

- Faino helps quickly. Three minutes and a user is good to go. No training is needed

- Users don't need to install the app, so there is no delay between the moment they get acquainted with the solution and the moment they start using it

- As the niche solution, we implement features necessary for multiple real-life user scenarios

A user review:

"My mom was hospitalized. I was sitting near the intensive care unit. And this process of waiting for someone to tell me what was happening with her... It was very scary at the moment. I was completely alone, and my heart was racing. I remembered about Faino. And by answering the questions, I was able to support myself. The exercises offered to me, at that moment, it was like someone was actually telling me what to do. It really supported me. On a 10-point scale, I calmed down from a 10 to a 6 and was able to at least breathe normally, stop shaking, and wait for the doctors' answer."

Core team:
- CEO, cofounder (full-time, since March 2022)
- Lead psychologist, cofounder (part-time, since March 2022) 
- Lead developer (part-time, since February 2023)
- Lead illustrator (contractor, since March 2022)

Volunteers:
- An international team of 20+ volunteers
- Group of 250+ people for the alpha testing
- Group of 30+ mental health experts for the expert testing

Faino has been in operation since March 2022. We incorporated at the beginning of 2024 when we decided to employ a social enterprise model. 

As Faino aims to help people of all nationalities, beliefs, and genders, diversity and inclusiveness are the core values of our organization.

We are developing the commercial version of Faino, maintaining the core functionality free of charge for everyone in need.

We are going to apply for governmental grants and attract venture funding to develop commercial versions of our products and prove our marketing hypothesis. 

After that, we will use the subscription-based model in the b2c segment.