Hanselminutes Podcast by Scott Hanselman

The Hanselminutes podcast

Fresh Tech Talk from Fresh Faces
Focus Friend by Hank Green is #1 in the App Store with Bria Sullivan

Focus Friend by Hank Green is #1 in the App Store with Bria Sullivan

Show #1011 Aug 21 2025 Podcast Player with Transcript Help edit or fix transcripts here!

In this episode, Scott sits down with Bria Sullivan, developer and founder of Honey B Games, to unpack the viral success of Focus Friend—the cozy productivity app that dethroned ChatGPT at the top of the App Store. Co-created with Hank Green, Focus Friend gamifies focus with a sock-knitting bean companion, offering users a whimsical yet effective way to reclaim their attention. Bria shares the app’s origin story, the design philosophy behind its ADHD-friendly features, and how iteration and storytelling shaped its meteoric rise. It’s a conversation about building with empathy, designing for delight, and what it means to make tech that gives people their time back.

This episode sponsored by

Please subscribe! We're on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Twitter, or download the MP3. Share on Twitter and Facebook. Also, see our survey!

Edit and improve my show's PodScribe.ai transcripts here!

📺 Watch Scott's TEDx talk: "Tech Promised Everything. Did it deliver?"

Learning to Code with AI and Steve Klabnik 1009

Learning to Code with AI and Steve Klabnik

 How is AlmaLinux OS is community-driven? with benny Vasquez 1008

How is AlmaLinux OS is community-driven? with benny Vasquez

 Breaking Barriers in Tech with Brenda Darden Wilkerson 1007

Breaking Barriers in Tech with Brenda Darden Wilkerson

 The Art of Assembly: Exploring Low-Level Mastery with Randall Hyde 1006

The Art of Assembly: Exploring Low-Level Mastery with Randall Hyde

 APIs as the Execution Layer of AI with Postman's Rodric Rabbah 1005

APIs as the Execution Layer of AI with Postman's Rodric Rabbah

 Saving State while Still Growing with Temporal's Preeti Somal 1004

Saving State while Still Growing with Temporal's Preeti Somal

 SKY ENGINE AI's Dr. Malc Souter on AI-Generated Training Data 1003

SKY ENGINE AI's Dr. Malc Souter on AI-Generated Training Data

 Dave Barry is the Class Clown: The Memoirs of a Professional Wiseass 1002

Dave Barry is the Class Clown: The Memoirs of a Professional Wiseass

 Startup Mindsets with Earl Valencia 1001

Startup Mindsets with Earl Valencia

 AI and visualizing multidimensional vectors with Pamela Fox 1000

AI and visualizing multidimensional vectors with Pamela Fox

 AI Code Reviews with CodeRabbit's Howon Lee 999

AI Code Reviews with CodeRabbit's Howon Lee

 Azure AI Foundry (from BUILD 2025) with Yina Arenas 998

Azure AI Foundry (from BUILD 2025) with Yina Arenas

 Is AI what Robotics needs? with Jasmine Lawrence Campbell 997

Is AI what Robotics needs? with Jasmine Lawrence Campbell

 Is Vibe Coding Real? with James Montemagno 996

Is Vibe Coding Real? with James Montemagno

 Making SNES ROMS with C# and Matthew Shapiro's DotnetSnes 995

Making SNES ROMS with C# and Matthew Shapiro's DotnetSnes

 Neverending support for open source with Hayden Barnes 994

Neverending support for open source with Hayden Barnes

 Hundreds more episodes over here...