How we got here

The Mindapples journey started out back in March 2008 with an idle question that I put to my friends Dougald and Anna. I was frustrated at how pathologising the mental health debate seemed to be, particularly in the workplace, and also fearful of the potential damage it can do to people's self-esteem and civil liberties. After some seemingly unrelated chats with my friend Paul about social campaigning and the five-a-day campaign in particular, I found myself saying: "I want to know what the mental health equivalent of five-a-day is." And the idea just stuck. So here we are. But since I'm secretly a historian by nature, I'm going to use this page to keep track of the development of the project so that once we're all rich and famous, you can see how we got here.

Andy Gibson, Head Gardener

March 2008:
The idea emerged from conversations about campaigning, using the web to tackle social issues, and preventative mental health care.

April 2008:
Registered mindapples.org and stayingsane.org, but preferred the former. Idea submitted to Social Innovation Camp. Doesn't win. :-(
4 results for 'mindapples' in Google

May 2008:
I pitched it at the first RSA Networks Exchange and met lots of supportive people offering to help. :-) My friend Tessy suggested I set up a Surveymonkey survey to start things rolling.
The first Mindapples.org site was born, using Wordpress and Surveymonkey.

June 2008:
A few people start talking about us and we rack up our first 100 responses. I have some nice conversations with folks at the Young Foundation, Mental Health Foundation and Mind.

July 2008:
The first round of media interest, including the Nag, i-Genius and some very random radio coverage.
We do our first Mindapples survey internally for a company: the Mental Health Foundation.
250 responses - woo-hoo! To celebrate, Tessy does an amazing job analysing and categorising them all.

August 2008
Tessy and Very Happy Phil get us a few happiness gurus to take the test. I get very stressed out with it all the fame and take a month off.

September 2008:
The lovely Liz Miller writes nice things about us, and some more happiness gurus come through.
Tessy and I start planning for The Future. A bit more sense of organisation, and Organisation, by now.

October 2008:
Featured in the RSA Journal and picked up by various people from that, including Psychologies Magazine
4000 results for 'mindapples' in Google
And we hit 500 responses - way-hay!

November 2008:
Official partnership agreed with Psychologies Start looking for funding and planning for becoming a proper company.
Heleana and Jo join the team, and we start doing more PR outreach work and targetting celebs
We get badges. (This is very, very important.)

December 2008:
Launch the Mindapples blogmeme - share your five, and invite five other bloggers to do the same
750 responses - yippee!

January 2009: Tessy starts collecting the blogmeme results and publishing them on the blog; there are a lot.
850 responses (bit slow over Christmas).
350,000 results for Mindapples in Google!

February 2009:
The delightful Lauren Currie joins the team and we start making interesting things to explain the concept - presentations, videos, images etc.
Coding marvel Tom Ten Thij builds us a basic prototype site in Ruby on Rails, we start working on a proper site design.
Marcia Brophy at the Young Foundation loves the idea and we start talking about how to work with them.

March 2009:
A short lull to focus on 'paying the rent' is followed by a serious drive to hit 1000 responses by Twittering the entire universe.
Tessy and I work out how to explain the project to grownups and start booking meetings with potential funders.
7,000 results for 'mindapples' in Google now - how strange?

April 2009:
Can't remember what we did this month.

May 2009:
Or this month...

June 2009:
Sophie Howarth from the School of Life likes the idea and we start plotting how to sell Mindapples products in their shop.
I get a bit tired and stressed out and take some time off to sleep.

July 2009:
Still asleep...

August 2009:
Channel 4 interview me as a "mental health expert"(!) for their study in isolation, Alone in the Wild.
More sleeping, and some reading too...

September 2009:
Channel 4 turn us down for funding :-(, but they're very nice about it.
Eddy Pinkney at the Student Mental Wealth Project gets in touch about working with us on a student unions campaign.
I meet Tanis Taylor to talk about her book projects (including Change the World for a Fiver) and she joins the Advisory Board.

October 2009:
Neil joins us as Head of Research and does a full analysis of the first 1000 results.
Kate joins us on the campaign side and starts working with Eddy on a student unions campaign for early 2010.
I chat to Alnoor Ladha about how to turn Mindapples into a wider campaign, and with Luke Nicholson about sustainable business models.
The web team (Tom, Ana, Sangeet and me) push on with the site and hold our first Mindapples hack day at the School of Everything offices

November 2009:
I go to South America (yay!) but the team press on without me, making progress on the site and brand development. Kate, Ana, Sangeet and I tie ourselves up in knots with too many design ideas, and we get a bit stuck for a while.

December 2009:
I come back from South America bursting with ideas and plans for making Mindapples BIG, and start writing new pitch documents.
Hege joins the campaign team and we start plotting how to do a Mindapples art exhibiton and campaign coalition.
The Observer publish a day-in-the-life piece about me and Mindapples gets a nice mention and some more attention.
I have a really good meeting with South London and Maudesley NHS Trust, who really get the idea and want to help us.

January 2010
Cassie joins us to help with designing our consultancy services and finding funders.
Hege and I start pitching to people and asking for cash for research, pilots and the core site.

February 2010
Hege and I write lots of funding applications, and I start doing lots of politics to position Mindapples in the big wide world.

March 2010
We secure our first donations from a private donor, which we use to start setting up our basic infrastructure.
We also have our first team away day, and lots of wonderful people commit to helping Mindapples grow.

April 2010
We do lots of business planning and funding application writing, and Hege and I argue a lot about whether we need a vision.

May 2010
Big month this. Mindapples incorporates as a Company Limited By Guarantee - woo-hoo! Andy, Tessy and Hege are the first guarantors, but we agree that the rest of the volunteers, and later the users, will be added once we move to the One Click Orgs platform later in the year.
Unboxed Consulting start building the new website, and Webstars offer us a Facebook app on the cheap.

June 2010
UnLtd make a Better Net Level 1 Award of £5000 to Mindapples, to cover the costs of the site. Whew.
Courvoisier partner with us to create the Big Treat, a pop-up urban health farm filled with healthy treats for your mind and body.

July 2010
We launch our new website, thanks to amazingg work from Unboxed, Sangeet Gyawali and Tom Ten Thij.
We also launch our new website and official summer campaign at an exclusive private party at the Big Treat, 15 July 2010.
The Mindapples Tree makes its first appearance at the Big Treat, and then goes on to star in the Secret Garden Party.
We also run our first paid corporate workshops, for BBC Careerlink, and have a lot of very interesting meetings with partners and potential clients.

August 2010
We all take some time off to recover! Andy probably goes abroad or something. Hege goes to a retreat and finds herself. Tessy gets drunk.