Get to know Clearful
Hi, we're Clearful. We're building a digital journaling tool that empowers people to be the best versions of themselves.
Get started for free →Who we are
Clearful is an award-winning digital journal for personal growth with AI-enhanced reflection and over 400 guided journals for all of life's topics, all available on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Android, and Web.
Our Mission
Our mission is to give people more clarity about their lives and thoughts, to feel more accepting of where they are now, and to discover and take control of where they want to go.
At a glance
Clearful was founded in 2020 by Maria Golikova and Jeffrey Bunn.
With over 2,700 reviews, Clearful has a 4.8 average rating in the app stores.
App Store Editors have featured us in Stories and Collections over 45 times.
Clearful has apps for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Android, and Web with more coming.
People across the globe can download Clearful and starting journaling for free.
Our Library contains over 400 hand-curated journal prompts and templates.
Our journaling community has created over 500 thousand journal entries.
Clearful's members have collectively spent 40k hours journaling in the app.
Our Founder Story
We spent years trying to journal in different environments (journaling apps, note-taking tools, physical journals, etc). While getting our thoughts out always felt amazing, we had yet to find a solution that worked for us and didn't stick with writing regularly.
We wanted something to help us build a journaling habit for life, to guide and nudge us to be better. We wanted a journal that would help us recall memories, remember lessons, and feel good in our daily lives, but also help us live our lives deliberately.
It's so easy to let time pass and always so jarring to notice when it is gone. Journaling is a form of mindfulness. Writing gives you clarity on what you're experiencing, and it's only with clarity that you can live with intent. And writing can help you think more clearly - getting ideas out of your head is a great and productive exercise.
Clearful was born out of these problems, and we're committed to it for the long term. We want Clearful to help millions of people journal, and we're excited about the positive impact this can have in the world.
Like meditation, journaling forces people to notice their lives - the good and the bad. It drives clarity. This is why gratitude journaling is so powerful - it gets people to see what is already good in their lives and what they already have to be grateful for. But it goes further than this. Journaling can help you gain agency. Knowing what's happening in your life gives you the opportunity to change it (if it's undesirable).
Too many people live their lives on autopilot. There is so much to be grateful for or happy about, and there is also much that can be improved in each of us. Being clear about where you are now, how you feel, and where you want to go is a prerequisite to taking action. If more people take action, we think the world will be a better place.
We envision a world where we have a better today and are empowered to have an even better tomorrow.
Our Founder Team
Clearful was created and is led by a husband and wife founder team who have worked on entrepreneurial ventures together for 11 years.
UX, UI & Product Design
Marketing
Software Engineering
Customer Support
A letter from the founders
Hey there! We're Jeffrey and Maria.
We've been a couple for 12 years and have worked together for 11 years. Talk about close quarters :-). We're excited about designing and building products that offer a new way of looking at existing problems and help individuals make the most of their lives.
Our first project together was Mealime, a meal planning service that made figuring out "what's for dinner?" and cooking healthy meals more simple and enjoyable for busy professionals. After five years, the company became one of the top meal-planning apps on iOS, Android, and Web and helped 5 million people eat healthier, lose weight, and save money. Mealime was acquired, which allowed us to pursue other projects that we were excited about, apply the lessons we learned to other endeavors, and, ultimately, bring Clearful into the world!
Journaling helped us immensely as we dealt with the often stressful environment of building a company together. But the journals we used (and we've used them all) never felt like the right fit. So, we set out to create a digital journaling tool with a private and clean writing environment that lets you focus on your writing when the words are flowing while offering help when you're staring at a blank screen and don't know what to say. It was important for us to build a flexible journaling environment so it could adapt to different styles and grow with you.
We are based in Vancouver, Canada, but we enjoy regularly traveling and exploring new places. When not working on Clearful or other projects, we like going outdoors for hiking/snowshoeing, kayaking, bike rides, reading, and cooking interesting meals.
Please contact us anytime if you have feedback, suggestions, or comments about Clearful or if you're interested in joining our team. You can find us at jeff or maria at clearful dot com.
Warmly,
Our Values
Our brand values represent how we do things. They keep us on the right path, enabling people to discover themselves and live fulfilling lives.
Design-First
Design is empathy. Design is respect. Design is so much more than pixels. Design starts with knowing what our users wish to achieve and who they wish to become, and ends with a journey that sees them, respects them, and moves them forward.
Long-Term View
We want people to use Clearful for the next 10+ years. The long-term view guides our decisions because it aligns our incentives with our users. It also implies the opposite—we don't relentlessly optimize for the short term.
Support Our Users
Relationships need communication, and we want to build great long-term relationships with our users and customers. Some companies see offering incredible customer support as a cost center; we see it as the best way to align our incentives and know the people who choose to support us.
Respect & Integrity
This is woven into everything we do. It means being transparent and honest with pricing, messaging, our plans, who Clearful is for, etc. It means suggesting competitors if Clearful isn't a good fit. It means respectfully saying no to requests that don't fit our vision. Not everyone will find Clearful useful; that's ok. We respect our users and, in turn, request respect from them.
Getting in touch
If you have a question or would like to chat about Clearful, send us an email at [email protected] or fill out our contact form, and we'll get back to you shortly. We'd love to hear from you!