Meet 22-year-old girls who are providing an online platform to people to deal with their mental health problems, physical ailments, and personal and social issues

Launched by Drishti Gupta and Bani Singh, NowandMe, a community-based website, to help people talk about their mental health struggles and find comfort in knowing they are not alone and many other people are facing the same problems. 

 
Drishti and Bani were pursuing Statistics from Lady Shree Ram College, Delhi University, and were in the final year of their college, but we're still clueless about what to do further. Bani and Drishti noticed that how people around them feel that they are alone and think that there is no place where they can truly be themself, didn’t know who to connect during tough situations, they realized they had to do something about it. This was the time when they thought of launching NowandMe.
 
In October 2018, this led two of them to launch NowandMe, a platform that helped millions of people around the world to share their feelings without any hesitation. They also conduct offline sessions and webinars with mental health professionals. 
 
People today don’t have a safe space where people can truly be themselves and can connect with other light-minded people who have been through similar situations or emotions. People generally hesitate to post or share their feelings, their true emotions, or share their problems because of the stigma that exists in the mental health space. They created this platform because they felt that the tech is the best way to connect people from all over the world so that they don’t feel alone in their well-being journey or their mental health journey. “For example, if somebody is going through anxiety or depression they end up feeling like I’m the only one who's going through this, whereas somebody miles away can make you feel better by saying “I’m going through the same or have faced the same situation so don’t ever think you’re lonely” and that moment of reassurance can make all the differences in the world”, says Drishti.

There are a total of 150 tags like a relationship, family issues, work stress, mental health, depression, etc. All sought of feelings and emotions are covered in the platform. There is no character limit like other social media and there’s no fear of getting judged by society. It’s your feelings and no one can have a hold of them. You can post about anything you want and they provide the option of anonymity, so the user just has to come to create an account and start posting whatever they feel like to share with other people. They can also help other people out by replying to their post or by leaving a comment. It is neither a crisis helpline nor a substitute for professional help. The purpose of this forum is to create a supportive space where everyone can interact in a kind, compassionate manner. The platform has been especially helpful in this time of crisis, as people are feeling lonelier than ever during this period. The basic essence of the platform is to tell people that how a person sitting miles away can change the way you feel about your emotions, situations, or your mental health. 
 
Further goals and Challenges
Building a one-step solution for well being and to create a safe space where people can come whenever they are feeling bothered. They want to spend years and years of their life in building something that can help people and save lives. NowandMe is a website currently and they’re looking forward to expanding it in terms of building an app that will come out very soon, in 2020 itself. The app will be a free download app where you will be able to interact with other people. There will be certain features, which will be provided on a premium and paid basis that users will be able to avail of for a better experience.
 
“Discipline, consistency, and coffee are something that wakes me up every morning and makes me work on the same thing every day. Even though it’s not the same thing because starting every day is a new challenge, a new problem has to be solved, and that’s what keeps it exciting because you don’t know what the next day will bring, but you will definitely get to learn. This entire journey has been very fruitful in terms of learning skills in so many fields, which probably I wouldn’t have been able to learn if I was doing a job or my masters. I feel that running a company is something that has given me skills in almost every domain be it marketing, product development, managing people, managing yourself or your emotions, and a lot of things”, says Drishti.
 
So the biggest challenge for them after starting this startup was dealing with their emotions. It was a small team and every day felt like a rollercoaster. What really helped them in facing all these challenges was having each other because at the end of the day you can fix technical glitches, team problems, and everything but you always need a person that holds your hand every time you start questioning yourself and the decision. So having a co-founder that understands you is important. 

On asking for some words of advice for their readers Drishti says, “Just imagine that you’re flying a plane, you’re not a pilot and you can’t let the plane fall. You have to learn how to fly it by flying it. The same is the journey of a startup. Just keep moving forward, be consistent and you learn along the way and try to get a founder who understands you because that’s a great relief. Always remember one thing “people who are consistent always win”.
At the end of the day, they want to keep alive the spirit of learning in them as much as they want to instill it in others.