By Kristoffer Hanberg Clemmensen [email protected] | Photo: Kristoffer Hanberg Clemmensen. This article was originally published in Erhverv+
Lea and Solveig develop groundbreaking app: Dreaming of tackling one of the biggest problems in every workplace
With the app, Lea Bech and Solveig Lawaetz will offer continuous feedback, advice and exercises to employees in companies. The aim is to prevent the increasing number of stress-related sick leave in Danish workplaces.
Aarhus: More and more people are taking sick leave due to stress, and according to the Danish Stress Association, almost half a million Danes experience serious symptoms every day.
That’s far, far too many, according to 33-year-old Lea Bech and 26-year-old Solveig Lawaetz, both of whom have experienced stress either personally or among relatives.
Therefore, they have decided to take matters into their own hands – with their company, Ivital, they want to ensure that a large number of Danes in the future avoid being dragged into what can seem like an abysmal hole.
They will do this with the app they are currently developing, which is expected to be launched in the second quarter of 2024. Lea Bech and Solveig Lawaetz say that they are currently about halfway through the development of the app, which is initially intended for businesses.
The young entrepreneurial couple met while studying psychomotor therapy and after just a few semesters, they realized there was a unique business opportunity.
During our bachelor’s degree, we worked on preventing stress in companies. In this connection, we looked at what other solutions there were. Even then, we saw a need that we wanted to meet,” says Solveig Lawaetz and continues:
We think it’s really smart to meet this need with an app, because this way the users always have help at their fingertips. It’s flexible and we can reach a wider audience and help many more people. It’s important that users feel welcomed because it can be very lonely and shameful to discover that you have stress.
Serious turn
According to the young entrepreneurs, the app will function as a daily tool that, through exercises, feedback and various measurements, will continuously help users to become aware of how far or close they are from becoming stressed.
I think most of us have experienced stress symptoms to some degree, but it can be difficult to know when it’s bad enough to take action. When is it something you can handle yourself and when is it something you need to communicate to management?
When taking these monthly measurements, the user is placed on a staircase model and depending on where you are placed, the app tells you whether it recommends you to book a meeting with your manager or the HR department.
Because if you get one step too far down, you suddenly can’t control it anymore. Tunnel vision sets in, and then it’s really hard to do anything,” says Solveig Lawaetz, who has experienced the consequences of stress in close relatives.
For Lea Bech, she experienced this first-hand with a prolonged stressful situation. She found herself crying on the floor in the fetal position and it was a long time before she was able to carry out a “normal everyday life” again.
Today, she wishes someone or something had warned her before her life took a serious turn, and that’s exactly what the app aims to do.
It’s important to understand that stress itself doesn’t have to be harmful as long as it is managed with a healthy balance. Through our app, you are supported in maintaining that balance through monthly and continuous feedback on stress and body awareness, which forms the basis for individualized tools aimed at preventing stress,” says Lea Bech.
Holistic approach
Although the focus on stress prevention in Danish companies has grown in recent years, the two entrepreneurs believe that there are major shortcomings.
According to Lea Bech and Solveig Lawaetz, many companies focus more on how to handle the situation once sick leave has become a reality. At the same time, they feel that prevention as well as treatment is too compartmentalized.
Often treatment is split, with physical exercises typically targeting pain management and psychological sessions focusing on tackling mental challenges. However, we see an inevitable connection between body, mind and social aspects, which is why our stress prevention platform addresses a holistic approach, says Lea Bech.
The French philosopher René Descartes is known for the following quote: ‘I think, therefore I am.’ The quote illustrates the traditional Western division between body and mind. Instead, we would prefer it to be something like: I experience, ergo I am. The experience is influenced by both body and mind,” adds Solveig Lawaetz.
The owners of Ivital are convinced that the creation of their app can help to further connect body and mind in the treatment and prevention of stress, initially in the Danish labor market. But if all goes according to plan, the app will also expand beyond the Danish borders in the future.
The dream is that we come out with a valuable product that can make a difference for a lot of people and companies. We want to expand beyond national borders, and in the long term we would also like to expand the use of the app to other sectors. This could be at educational institutions, job centers and all sorts of other places where there is a real need for stress prevention,” says Solveig Lawaetz.
33% of all companies are crying out for workers. One in four people in the labor market have such high levels of stress on a daily basis that they are at risk of taking sick leave. If we look at students, it’s two out of three, and for job seekers, almost half are at risk of taking sick leave.
Those coming in to be fresh, new workers are already stressed, and those looking for jobs are just as stressed. We have set out to change the approach and understanding of how to prevent stress. This is alpha and omega if we are to get rid of the stress curve,” adds Lea Bech.
Investor on board
As part of the work to develop the app, Ivital has been in contact with several Danish companies who have expressed an interest in using the finished product, and one of those companies, Little Giants from Odense, chose to invest an amount in the company, which at the time was valued at just over DKK 2 million.
“It was very affirming to find out that it’s not just us who see great potential in this business idea and us as entrepreneurs. And the fact that it was someone who has started a business and made it successful – that gave us a rush, Solveig Lawaetz remembers.
For the app to become a reality, more money is nevertheless needed, which is why the entrepreneurs are currently seeking funding from various foundations. In order not to take too much focus away from the development of the app itself, the entrepreneurs have hired a fundraiser, and although “the coffers are almost empty”, Lea Bech and Solveig Lawaetz have a strong belief that it will all work out in the end.
It will all work out in the end. I’m sure of it,” smiles Lea Bech.
