Today, we’d like to introduce you to Richard White.
Richard, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Business ideas and life changes often arise during difficult times. For me, it came during a series of unproductive marriage counseling sessions, where I struggled to grasp the essence of my partner’s feelings. It took numerous sessions of hearing the same thing before I could finally acknowledge my ineptitude in understanding emotions, both hers and mine.
I was reminded that I struggled to express love during significant occasions like anniversaries and birthdays. Admittedly, I struggled to not only remember important dates but to pick thoughtful gifts that reflected how I felt. I looked everywhere, and it turned out that no such service was available. I started designing an event reminder application that would curate gifts that the recipient was sure to love. But how in the world would I know what somebody wants? Often, I don’t even know what I want for my birthday or other special events.
This first took me down a path of major inner reflection. As I studied love languages, personality traits, self-help books, and spiritual books, I learned where negative emotions came from. I can put it simply by saying all suffering comes from the illusion of separation. This has profoundly affected my view of the world and how I can let go of beliefs and habits that create separation from my loved ones and myself. I also gained compassion around why people feel disconnected from each other over simple things like not knowing one another’s love language or preferences.
I then realized that I could create a collaborative application where my circle of loved ones could help each other know the best way to show them love on their special occasions. All the while learning more about each other and fostering a stronger connection. Thus began my journey towards creating Share, an app designed to foster connections and streamline the process of commemorating special moments.
Despite encountering numerous hurdles, including financial setbacks and technical challenges, my team and I persisted, fueled by our unwavering commitment to our vision. Today, I’m thrilled to announce the launch of Share, the beginning of what I believe will be an impactful service for humanity.
With Share, users can:
-Create and share wishlists, ensuring that gifts are thoughtful and personalized.
-Seamlessly organize events, from baby showers to birthdays, with the option to attach curated gift lists and reminders.
-Receive tailored gift recommendations based on user preferences
But this is just the beginning. We are committed to continually improving Share and welcome your feedback and suggestions to improve the app. Join us on this journey by downloading Share for free from the app store, you can find the link at our website at shareapp.ai. Be sure to follow us on social media to become part of the Share community.
Together, let’s uncover more love and understanding in our relationships, one thoughtful gesture at a time.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It is really difficult to start a business. Especially when it comes to an idea that has not been done before. Aside from several years of ideation and business modeling, the challenge to build the business has been the most difficult. In our case, the build is software. During Covid, some of our developers were Ukrainian and had to stop work on our front end of the application due to the war that was literally in their backyard.
On the other side, one of our local vendors in charge of our backend became extremely ill and depressed during the Covid lockdown and abandoned our project entirely. Eventually, we had to throw away everything we had paid for and had to start over from scratch! Fortunately, we could find local technical partners who believed in our vision and helped us build everything again with some revitalized perspective and vision. We are now embarking on the journey of getting our app into consumer hands to make enhancements based on their feedback.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
The first startup I was involved with was Lovesac. I was 18 years old and worked as the first retail employee at the Gateway Mall. I watched my cousin and brother borrow every penny they could to their name to open the first store. Despite the highs and lows, it gave me a real taste and interest in entrepreneurship.
In college my dad and I started a dog wash and grooming shop in Millcreek that is going on 15 years now. I loved being part of the community and seeing all the wonderful dogs each day. I worked in finance during the 2008 recession and worked for a few different software sales jobs during my 30s.
I am an avid learner of many topics, but I am most interested in the one common customer every business has human nature. Socrates taught that “all men choose the good”, he elaborated that the issue was discerning the “true good” from the “false good”. This principle has helped me have compassion for others and myself, as I know we are all essentially doing what we perceive to be in our best interest at the time.
It is by the fruits of our actions that we learn whether or not we were able to choose the “true good”. This and all other businesses I intend to be involved in will be geared toward decreasing ignorance and alleviating suffering for as many people as possible. Share is an endeavor that increases understanding and empowers customers to foster stronger connections.
What do you like and dislike about the city?
I love the entrepreneurial spirit of this wonderful city, the communal nature, and the general safety I enjoyed growing up. Almost every weekend I take my son skiing in our beautiful mountains and I simply marvel at what a magnificently beautiful place we live in. I enjoy mountain biking, hiking, camping, and crawling around Moab. I have made incredible friends in Utah’s local rugby community and met thousands of wonderful people in the pet community. At the same time, I owned a dog wash and grooming business in Millcreek.
I appreciate how Utah is a business-friendly State, and there is a sentiment from locals to continually put Utah on the map. As with many things, I believe we often take things for granted. Utah has been an incredible place to live, raise my son, and start a business. I hope we can preserve everything that has made this state such a wonderful place.
Contact Info:
- Website: shareapp.ai
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shareapp.ai/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100070554035643
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/shareappai/about/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShareAppAI
