One person in Oslo. That’s the whole company.
Mune isn’t a wellness startup. It’s a tool I wrote because I needed it, and then kept writing because a few other people did too.
I built Mune because the apps I tried either wanted me to log my mood on a scale of one to five, or wanted me to pay a subscription to talk to a chatbot that called me buddy. Neither is what happens at 2 AM when you can’t sleep and you don’t want to wake anyone up.
What helped me was writing. Not journaling in the hashtag-journaling sense. Opening a blank file and putting down what was actually in my head. The AI part came later, and only because a specific kind of question, asked at the right time, made me notice things I was avoiding.
So the product is narrow on purpose. It’s a page. It asks one question. It doesn’t remember yesterday unless you tell it to. It can’t be a friend, so it doesn’t pretend.
The privacy model isn’t marketing. It’s the only way this works. If I could read what you write, I would be a liability the moment someone subpoenaed me. So I made it impossible. The keys are on your device. The server holds ciphertext. I hold nothing.
If Mune helps you, tell me. If it doesn’t, tell me that too. fredrik@mune.so. I read every message myself.
— Fredrik
I live in Oslo. That is the simplest reason. The harder reason is that Norway has strong privacy law and strong personal-data protection. For a tool that holds the things you would not say out loud, that is a useful place to be domiciled. I am not going to oversell this. Most of the protection is the cryptography. The jurisdiction is the second line.
Pre-alpha. The closed alpha is fifty to one hundred users I am hand-recruiting from the waitlist. Things will break. Decisions will be reversed. The product will not look exactly like it does today by the time it ships. If you want to be part of the small group that uses it before everyone else does, the form is on the home page.
One person. No investors. No plans to hire.
The page is short because the team is short. That’s a feature.
Fredrik Haugen
Writes the code, answers the email, maintains the encryption library. Previously built developer tools at a company you’ve heard of. Now builds one thing for a small number of people.
Six rules I won’t break.
No streaks, no nudges.
The product never tries to re-engage you. Coming back is your choice, not a notification’s.
No persona.
The AI has no name, no avatar, no pretend personality. It’s a tool, and it’s honest about being one.
No training data.
Your words don’t improve a model, ours or anyone else’s. Ever.
No dark patterns.
Unsubscribe in one click. Export in one click. Delete in one click. The exits are always where you left them.
No medical claims.
Mune is not therapy and will not pretend to be. If you need care, it says so and steps back.
No investors steering.
The business is small on purpose. A paid tier funds it. Nothing about the product is optimized for growth metrics.
Write to me.
Feedback, questions, or press. The same address. I answer within a few days.