Andy Puddicombe and Rich Pierson Dish on How They Built Headspace – Hustle Con 2016

TL;DR

Andy Puddicombe learned meditation at age 11 from his mother, later became a Buddhist monk for a decade, then met burnt-out ad exec Rich Pierson in London. They started Headspace by running in-person events for two years before building a meditation app after a stranger suggested a subscription model.

Key insights

• Andy’s initial resistance to a digital product (he didn’t own a mobile phone post-monastery) led the team to run events for two years before making an app, which he says was crucial for understanding
• The "Nike Plus of meditation" was the original brief — making a solitary, historically boring practice social and engaging.
• The founders never started with the goal of building a billion‑dollar company; they believed in the mission first, which removed fear because there was "nothing to lose."