I built OpenUp because social media made me feel more alone
The honest founder story: where OpenUp came from, what I got wrong and what I am trying to build.
By Thanusayan Balachandran ·
My name is Thanusayan
I am Thanusayan Balachandran, a Sri Lankan founder living in the UK. I moved countries, studied business and tried to build a new life while staying connected to the old one. My phone was always busy. Social media was always full. I still had days when I felt completely disconnected.
What bothered me was not only loneliness. It was the pressure to hide it. Most platforms made it easier to show a good life than to say that the real one felt difficult.
The first idea was simple
I wanted a place where somebody could say, ‘Today was bad,’ without thinking about whether the post would perform. No popularity contest. No pressure to look successful. Just a chance to be honest and meet a kind response.
That idea became OpenUp. I built the early version without a big team, investment or endless budget. There were late nights, broken features and moments when I had no idea whether the next fix would create another problem.
Building from pain does not make every decision correct
Personal experience can show you a problem, but it does not make you an expert on everybody else's life. I cannot assume that what helped me will help every user. OpenUp needs evidence, professional input, community feedback and the humility to change.
I have also learned that a caring idea can still create technical, privacy and moderation risks. Good intentions do not secure data or keep a community safe. Those things require real work.
Why kindness became the centre
At first, OpenUp could have looked like another social app with softer colours. That was not enough. The product needed a different incentive. If likes and followers teach people to chase attention, OpenUp needed to make support visible.
The Kindness Score came from that question. A person earns Kindness when somebody marks their supportive comment as helpful. It is not perfect, but it points the platform towards the behaviour we want more of.
What I do not want to claim
OpenUp will not end loneliness. No honest founder can promise that. Loneliness is connected to relationships, health, money, work, housing, discrimination, grief and many other parts of life that an app cannot control.
What we can do is make one moment easier: the moment somebody decides whether to keep everything inside or tell the truth somewhere.
This should become your story too
I do not want the Blog to contain only my voice. If OpenUp helped you, disappointed you, connected you with somebody or made you think differently, share that experience. Honest criticism is useful too.
Join the community at openupzone.com and tell your story in your own words. The platform only becomes real when the people using it shape what it means.