Purpose becomes Passion when it's Personal
Much is written about contemporary society’s normalized conversation about mental health. Emanating from sources as diverse as social media, gaming, societal loneliness, insular neighborhoods, politics, religion, and more, the thieves of mental wellness layer atop each other, unaware of limit or capacity. Today’s story eschews telling a company’s history to that of one creating it in the state.
Those thinking about wellness are discovering myriad ways to manage through. Some seek professional intervention for support while others engage in reflective interventions to illuminate a way to wellness. This is a story where one family’s work is leading to an approach as implemented by a startup in our enterpreneurial community.
This story is slightly different for another reason. I am the steward of a group called Plains Angels, one of several angel investor networks in the state whose members seek startups whose message resonates with their investment priorities. Although I am not an investor in the company, our group does have an active investment in BRIGHTN, the subject of this story.
A bit of back story
Jeff Johnston of Cedar Rapids was a wealth advisor with a robust career in finance. His practice employed nine individuals who collectively helped people manage nearly $800MM in wealth. His family comprised of his wife and three boys, and life was on a steady and comfortable trajectory until tragedy struck.
On the morning of October 4, 2016, Jeff received a phone call no parent imagines receiving. A child’s body is considered the greatest weight borne by a parent in Hindu culture and Jeff would bear such a weight that morning. His son had just succumbed to a drug overdose in a hotel room. He was a mere three weeks from the arrival of a daughter.
The family continued to work through grief and trauma even as they picked up the pieces of life with their granddaughter. Jeff’s wife bore that trauma differently, and lost her own life a mere five years later. Jeff’s own perseverance wearing thin, he recalls that his family almost buried him in this period of grief.
His life’s purpose, however, was yet to be revealed. He wanted to become a better, not bitter, man and wondered if there was something beyond wealth advisory for his life’s purpose. A passion had taken hold in him in these years to make the world better through improved mental health. He now recalls how the phrase below became his mantra
Purpose becomes Passion when it is Personal
He sold his wealth advisory business, the podcast and TV show and dedicated his remaining life to improving mental health for others. The name for his new company came from Brighton, the daughter of the son he lost-he removed the ‘o’ to create BRIGHTN, both honoring her and protecting her privacy.
Introducing BRIGHTN
Accustomed to helping clients create a financial plan for life, Jeff directed energy toward mental wellness planning via an app. With a significant population of GenZ individuals reporting mental wellness challenges, he instinctively knew that a comprehensive planning application could improve adherence to medical treatments and focused his energy on such an app.
BRIGHTN, the company and app, are a subscription service distributed directly, through health plans, schools, and therapists. It prompts its young members to see the optimism of the day and to find beauty and connection to the world. It seeks to know and track the user’s mood, encourages journaling within the application, and works to shift the user toward a growth-driven mindset.
Guided by a team of clinical advisors and mental health professionals, the small team launched the app in the summer of 2025. They engaged Portland Trail Blazers and Sacramento Kings’ players Kris and Keegan Murray, respectively, to provide motivation as ambassadors in the program and began seeking early users and group contracts.
Nearly 25 million words had been journaled by users by the end of July 2025 (by contrast, there are only about 650 words in this story at this point). Nearly 20% of the app’s users persisting their use past 30-days, more than double the rate of persistence of comparative therapies. A recent pilot study showed improvement in sleep, lower anxiety and depression, and three times more social connection than the control group.
Reaching Users
They have expanded their reach to insurance and pharmacy groups and added generative AI to the journal for better and more intelligent conversation. The user can engage with the app in a chat much like other LLM experiences via ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot and more except that these conversations are kept private and do not inform the underlying LLMs with the journaled content.
The app does not provide medical advice or pharmaceuticals, relying instead on the user’s medical professionals to provide those services. The company’s recent partnership with Des Moines-based OpenLoop further highlights their ability to provide access to care yet remain further upstream with prevention.
Gamification is the name given to an approach to increasing engagement. Where social media engages through addictive doomscrolling, apps (Duolingo prompts anyone?) have deployed game principles to bring users back and Brightn is bringing app-specific gamification to keep users engaged. By integrating financial well-being with mental health, the app also brings front and center an instigator of challenges to mental well-being for the GenZ cohort.
What’s next
Brightn’s history is still being written so I’ll replace my usual retrospective with a prospective view. Startups such as Certintell, Integrated Telehealth Partners (ITP) and OpenLoop are actively delivering medically-inspired products to audiences in Iowa and beyond. ITP has already experienced an exit acquisition and Openloop is whispered about as one of the rare unicorn startups from Iowa.
BRIGHTN has generously offered interested readers a trial via the link below. The link will direct you to the download pages if you’re reading this on your phone or to their website if from the desk
I am honored to be a member of the Iowa Writers Collaborative, a cohort of writers, photographers, poets, artists and musicians who contribute their entrepreneurship and creativity to a global audience. A visit the Iowa Writers Collaborative promises to be enriching
Tej, thank you for sharing the Brigtn story. It never fails to hit me in the heart. Regardless of the technology, the intention is meeting a dire need. Appreciate you highlighting it.
Great story, thanks for sharing