Although 64 percent of Americans report being happy in their relationships, according to a 2018 report about love and happiness, the divorce rate still hovers between 40 and 50 percent, and the rate goes up for subsequent marriages. However, unlike other areas of life, such as finances and physical health, it is often difficult to “monitor” the health of one’s relationship and address problems as they arise.
After seeing some therapists to help him with his own relationship, LifeCouple CEO Sean Rones realised there was no one-size-fits-all approach to improve a romance.
“Going to quite a few therapists over the years, I started to see that, maybe at times, certain ways that the therapist was approaching our challenges weren’t exactly working for us as a couple, let alone weren’t working for me as a male going into therapy,” LifeCouple CEO Sean Rones told KVUE.
He believed that technology could be used to address relationship challenges in a way to appeal to men, respect women and be LGBTQ-friendly.
“It’s not a replacement to therapy but it’s a complement to it,” he told TechCrunch. “I don’t think this can 100 percent solve your problem but it can give you the tools to solve your problems.”
The app asks users a few questions to measure their relationship health in four areas: intimacy, trust, communication and conflict. Once the users’ romantic partner downloads the app and completes the exercises, the couple can look at each other’s results and get an idea of what the other thinks about the relationship.
“Then, the app intelligently starts to know the areas that they can potentially look at as far as growth,” Rones explained.
LifeCouple offers several programmes and features to help couples improve their relationships in a natural, fun way. From expert content and resources to tools to help improve communication, quality time and behaviour, the app aims to help couples create goals and track them over time.
“What we’re trying to do is create something that can help — even if it’s just 10 couples that stay together,” Rones said.
LifeCouple is currently free, but the company is working on its pricing model. Over 2,500 users in the United States signed up within two months of the app’s soft launch. The app launched in public beta at TechCrunch Disrupt SF Startup Battlefield in October 2019 and plans to fully launch in January 2020.
