UnSquirrel — The Investment Case

01 — The problem

The tools exist.
They just don't work.

Every major productivity platform claims accessibility. None was built with neurodivergent users as the primary design constraint. Notion, Todoist, Forest, Speechify, RescueTime — these are the tools our users are actively fleeing. Not because they're bad products. Because they were designed for a different kind of brain.

Tool	How it creates friction	Impact on neurodivergent users	What UnSquirrel does instead
Notion	Infinite blank canvas — total freedom, zero structure	Hours of setup hyperfocus → beautiful system → abandonment	Three pre-built environments, ready on day one
Todoist	Red "overdue" labels, guilt-coded task management	Shame spirals, anxiety, app avoidance	Missed tasks roll forward silently — no red, no blame
Forest	Kills your virtual tree if you leave the app	Punishment mechanics trigger emotional dysregulation	No streak-breaking, no punish states, ever
RescueTime	Tracks and scores "unproductive" time	Surveillance anxiety, performance shame, tool abandonment	No productivity scores — personal trends only, never judged
Speechify	Single-function TTS — not integrated into a cognitive system	Useful feature, not a platform — leaves core problems unsolved	AI simplification built into every environment as a foundation

The structural problem

These tools cannot be patched. Each was architecturally designed around neurotypical assumptions. Neurodivergent accommodations added later are cosmetic — they do not change the underlying interaction model. The only way to fix this is to build from scratch.

02 — The product

Built differently.
By design, not by patch.

UnSquirrel gives neurodivergent adults three completely separate cognitive environments — Career, Life, and Student — each with its own AI tools, its own encrypted space, and its own interaction model. Nothing crosses between them without explicit permission. Each environment works on day one, with zero setup required.

The core design principle

Friction is not a tradeoff to manage — it is a failure condition to eliminate. Every interaction, every default, every notification is designed with the assumption that the user's executive function is already under pressure. If a feature adds friction, it gets redesigned.

The seven non-negotiable principles

Zero-friction capture

One tap. One field. No required metadata. ADHD brains have a narrow window before an idea disappears — the interface must be faster than that window.

Structure without setup

Users land in a working environment on day one. No onboarding wizard. No blank canvas. The system works before a single preference is set.

Shame-free failure states

Missed tasks roll forward silently. No red labels, no streaks, no productivity scores. Missed is data — not failure.

Always-visible priority surface

What matters today is visible without navigation. Deadlines are spatial, not text. The interface acts as external working memory.

Energy-aware scheduling

Not all hours are equal for neurodivergent brains. The system learns energy patterns and surfaces tasks that match the user's current capacity.

Sensory-first defaults

Calm by default. No animations, no sounds, no badges unless opted in. Dark mode from first launch. High-stimulation elements are always opt-in.

Privacy as architecture — not a settings screen

Data lives on-device by default. Three encrypted walls keep Career, Life, and Student data completely separate. No behavioural data sold. No ad networks. No surveillance. This is structural — it cannot be switched off because it was never switched on.

Phase 1 — Five features, chosen with precision

Phase 1 launches five features — each chosen because it directly eliminates a daily, measurable pain point. Nothing is added until these are right.

Feature 1

AI Text Simplification

Paste any text — email, contract, medical letter, legal document. Simplified instantly to the reading level chosen. Original always preserved. Reading exhaustion, reduced.

Feature 2

Visual Deadline Dashboard

Colour-coded urgency that shows what needs attention — now, soon, or later — at a glance. Spatial time, not abstract dates. Uses both colour and shape for every kind of vision.

Feature 3

Document Locker with Expiry Alerts

Secure on-device storage for critical documents. System watches expiry dates and alerts before anything lapses. IDs, insurance, leases, medical records — nothing slips.

Feature 4

Wellbeing Journal

Simple sliders. Voice or typed notes. Completely private — never visible to employers. Patterns emerge over time to help users understand themselves and plan their days.

Feature 5 — Last

Pulse Log

Private work journal inside Career Brain. Context capture, focus and energy tracking across the working day — entirely separate from personal life, always owned by the user.

Phases 2–7

Professional depth, personal wellness, education, community, enterprise, research

Each phase is fully designed. Each builds on what Phase 1 users tell us. No phase is announced as active until it is funded and in development.

03 — The AI companion

Meet Hazel.
Not a chatbot — a co-pilot.

Every environment in UnSquirrel is powered by Hazel, an AI companion built to carry the cognitive load neurodivergent adults are usually forced to carry alone. Hazel doesn't wait to be asked — she notices, prepares, and drafts, turning the moments that normally trigger a spiral into a single, calm next step.

✉️ Career

Before sending an email

"Tell me what you want to say. I'll handle the professional wording, tone, and structure — you just review and send."

🏥 Life

Before a doctor's visit

"Your appointment is Thursday. I've prepared what to tell Dr. Patel based on your journal — and a list of questions to ask."

📞 Life

After a difficult call

"Dictate what they said while it's fresh. I'll simplify it, add it to your Truth Log, and draft the follow-up — all in one step."

🧠 Career

When everything feels stuck

"I can see three things are overdue. Let's focus on just one. Which feels most urgent? I'll help you start."

04 — The roadmap

Phase 1 ships a complete product.
Phases 2–4 unlock the full vision.

Every phase is already designed. Nothing is announced as active until it is funded and in development — so the roadmap grows in step with real Phase 1 users, not ahead of them.

Phase 1 — Now

Career Brain + Life Brain

The MVP: Career Brain's core toolkit, Life Brain's Health Hub and Village Bridge, the Truth Log, Context Recall, and Hazel across both — launching on iOS and Android, App Store and Google Play.

Phase 2

Depth & professional verticals

Call Assistant, Community Hub + Pulse Log, and premium vertical add-ons — Property Management, Web Design & Agency, Legal & Paralegal, and Healthcare Worker — priced above the base Business tier.

Phase 3

Student Brain

Full Student Brain launch: Syllabus Manager, Textbook Simplifier, Writing Coach, and Study Group Hub — delivered through university partnerships.

Phase 4

Enterprise & scale

Health Vault (HIPAA), an enterprise / HR dashboard, research data partnerships, API & white-label licensing, and the Cognitive Wellness Engine — the Series A milestone.

How the model expands

Career vertical add-ons are premium upgrades built in Phase 2, priced above the base Business tier, with enterprise vertical contracts following. Each phase compounds the last — the same architecture, widened to new users and new revenue.

05 — Market opportunity

A market hiding
in plain sight.

Over 20% of adults are neurodivergent. Two-thirds are underemployed — not because of ability, but because of tools. The assistive technology market is growing at 8% annually and will reach $9.7 billion by 2032. No integrated, neurodivergent-first platform exists at any price point.

780M

People with dyslexia worldwide

1 in 10 people globally. The most common neurodivergent profile — and the most underserved by existing tools.

40M+

US adults affected by ADHD

Many undiagnosed. Many who have tried every productivity tool and abandoned every one.

$4.5T

Untapped economic potential

The value locked inside neurodivergent minds the world keeps dismissing through inadequate tools.

$9.7B

Assistive tech market by 2032

Growing at 8% annually. No category-defining platform for neurodivergent adults yet exists.

The employment crisis

85% of autistic adults are unemployed (Deloitte). Two-thirds of neurodivergent people are skilled yet under- or unemployed. People with disabilities are employed at half the rate of others — 38% vs 74.5% (BLS 2026). And ADA lawsuits cost employers $31K+ per case — all preventable with the right tools.

"I got tired of adapting to tools that weren't built for my brain. So I built something that adapts to me — and to every mind like mine."

— Sandra Burden, Founder & CEO, UnSquirrel Technology LLC

06 — Business model

Simple SaaS.
No hardware. No lock-in.

Accessible pricing that scales from an individual to an enterprise. Subscriptions are monthly, with 20% off annually — and the combined plan includes 600 AI credits a month plus every future add-on.

$20/mo

Life — entry point

Life Brain: Wellbeing Journal, Health Hub, Family Care (up to 5), Email Assistant, Doctor Prep, and Village Bridge.

$35/mo

Life + Student — academic bundle

Everything in Life, plus Student Brain: Syllabus Manager, Textbook Simplifier, Writing Coach, and Study Group Hub.

$40/mo

Life + Career — most popular ★

Life Brain plus the full Career Brain: Simplify, Truth Log, Email Assistant, Context Recall, Burnout Meter, and Document Locker.

$60/mo

All Three — full platform

Career, Life, and Student Brain, 600 AI credits/month, priority support, and all future add-ons. Best value.

Conservative projections — individual subscribers only

Enterprise and vertical contracts represent significant additional upside beyond the figures below.

Month 6	$8,750 MRR	$105K ARR
Month 12	$28,500 MRR	$342K ARR
Month 24	$105,000 MRR	$1.26M ARR

07 — Competitive moat

Four advantages
no competitor can copy.

🧠

Founder authority no one else has

Sandra Burden is dyslexic. A caregiver who managed her husband's complex CF treatment at home. A property management professional. Someone navigating her own cognitive decline. Every feature solves a problem she has personally lived. No competitor founder can say the same — and authenticity in this community is not optional.
🏗️

Architecture that cannot be replicated by patching

UnSquirrel's three-brain, privacy-first architecture with encrypted walls between environments is a structural decision — not a feature toggle. Existing tools cannot add this. They would have to rebuild from scratch, which means starting where UnSquirrel already is.
🤝

Community trust as a network effect

Neurodivergent communities are highly vocal, tightly networked, and deeply loyal to tools built by people who understand them. UnSquirrel's lived-experience foundation creates word-of-mouth potential that no amount of marketing spend can manufacture.
📋

Full specification, ready to build

UnSquirrel has a complete product requirements document built around neurodivergent-first design principles — with acceptance criteria, friction testing protocols, and a definition of done tied to real user outcomes. The vision is not a pitch deck. It is a buildable product.

08 — Traction & go-to-market

The audience exists.
The community is ready.

Nebraska Legislature · Resolution LR153

The Nebraska Legislature formally honored founder Sandra Burden's mother, Yolanda Peck, for her lifelong dedication to helping overlooked communities navigate a world not built for them — the same mission that drives UnSquirrel.

📋

Active waitlist

A growing waitlist across unsquirrel.com and the GoFundMe community.
💚

GoFundMe live

Community-funded and active, validating demand with real backers.
🎓

SUNY Business Development Program

Enrolled member, with warm introductions into the network.
💡

InnovateHER network

Active member running ongoing validation conversations.
🤝

Engineering partner engaged

AllianceTek is engaged as the development partner, with scope confirmed and ready to build the MVP.
🏆

Founder recognized

Featured by Influential Women — the authentic authority this community trusts.

Go-to-market

Neurodivergent communities on Reddit, Facebook, and Discord; warm introductions through SUNY and InnovateHER; paid social targeting neurodivergent adults 25–45; founder-led content no competitor can replicate; and word of mouth from a product that solves a real daily problem.

09 — The vision

How UnSquirrel changes
the world for every brain.

💼

Workplace equity

Neurodivergent professionals perform at full potential — without disclosure, without masking, without exhaustion. The accommodation that doesn't require a diagnosis.
🏥

Healthcare navigation

No more missed insurance deadlines or misunderstood medical letters. Every person gets the same quality of care as someone who finds paperwork easy.
👨‍👩‍👧

Caregiver support

The invisible burden on neurodivergent caregivers is lifted. Village Bridge means they don't carry it alone — and the people they care for don't fall through the cracks.
📚

Educational access

The 62% dropout rate for students with reading difficulties drops. Student Brain gives every learner the support their school should have provided.
🏢

Corporate transformation

Employers stop losing neurodivergent talent to burnout. The Cognitive Wellness Engine gives HR the data to support teams before crisis hits.
🌍

$4.5T unlocked

When 780 million people can work, learn, and navigate life without cognitive overload, the economic and social transformation is staggering. UnSquirrel is the infrastructure.

10 — The raise

$100,000 pre-seed.
One phase at a time.

UnSquirrel is seeking $100,000 in pre-seed funding to complete Phase 1 development and achieve market launch. The specification is complete. The engineering partner is engaged. The community is growing. The only thing between UnSquirrel and launch is funding.

MVP Development	50%	$50,000
Founder & Team Runway (12 months)	30%	$30,000
Cloud Infrastructure & AI APIs	10%	$10,000
Marketing & Community	6%	$6,000
Legal & IP Protection	4%	$4,000
Total Pre-Seed Round	100%	$100,000

Why now

The neurodivergent market is at an inflection point. Awareness is mainstream. Diagnosis rates are rising. Remote work has exposed how poorly existing tools serve this community. The window to build the category-defining platform — before a well-funded neurotypical-led competitor sees the gap — is open. UnSquirrel is positioned to close it.

"In my twenties, I tested at 148 — two points off genius. A recent test scored me at 126. I notice my own cognitive decline. I'm building UnSquirrel for both versions of myself."

— Sandra Burden, Founder & CEO

11 — Why this exists

In loving memory
of Yolanda Peck.

Yolanda Peck (1952–2021) — microbiologist, Dean's List scholar, multilingual scientist, community advocate, and mother. Honored by the Nebraska Legislature (LR153). And, almost certainly, undiagnosed ADHD.

She remembered everything she read. She hyperfocused for hours. She forgot to eat. She burned out quietly and kept going. She masked so well that no one noticed — and she never got the tools she deserved. It was only after her passing that her daughter Sandra recognized what she had been seeing all along: her mother had been neurodivergent too. She had just been too good at hiding it.

"UnSquirrel exists so the next Yolanda doesn't have to hide."

— Sandra Burden, Founder & CEO

780 million people.
Zero tools built for them.

The tools exist.
They just don't work.

Built differently.
By design, not by patch.

The seven non-negotiable principles

Phase 1 — Five features, chosen with precision

Meet Hazel.
Not a chatbot — a co-pilot.

Phase 1 ships a complete product.
Phases 2–4 unlock the full vision.

A market hiding
in plain sight.

Simple SaaS.
No hardware. No lock-in.

Conservative projections — individual subscribers only

Four advantages
no competitor can copy.

The audience exists.
The community is ready.

How UnSquirrel changes
the world for every brain.

$100,000 pre-seed.
One phase at a time.

In loving memory
of Yolanda Peck.

Let's build a world that works
for every brain.

780 million people. Zero tools built for them.

The tools exist.They just don't work.

Built differently.By design, not by patch.

The seven non-negotiable principles

Phase 1 — Five features, chosen with precision

Meet Hazel.Not a chatbot — a co-pilot.

Phase 1 ships a complete product.Phases 2–4 unlock the full vision.

A market hidingin plain sight.

Simple SaaS.No hardware. No lock-in.

Conservative projections — individual subscribers only

Four advantagesno competitor can copy.

The audience exists.The community is ready.

How UnSquirrel changesthe world for every brain.

$100,000 pre-seed.One phase at a time.

In loving memoryof Yolanda Peck.

Let's build a world that worksfor every brain.

780 million people.
Zero tools built for them.

The tools exist.
They just don't work.

Built differently.
By design, not by patch.

Meet Hazel.
Not a chatbot — a co-pilot.

Phase 1 ships a complete product.
Phases 2–4 unlock the full vision.

A market hiding
in plain sight.

Simple SaaS.
No hardware. No lock-in.

Four advantages
no competitor can copy.

The audience exists.
The community is ready.

How UnSquirrel changes
the world for every brain.

$100,000 pre-seed.
One phase at a time.

In loving memory
of Yolanda Peck.

Let's build a world that works
for every brain.