investor overview
a harbor for the feelings between therapy sessions.
Sanctuary is a private, sovereign space for processing heartbreak and grief. We are pre-launch, building deliberately, and raising to launch well.
Delaware C Corp
Nashville, TN
iOS & Android launch September 4, 2026
pre-launch closed beta live
the opportunity
Heartbreak is one of the most acute forms of emotional distress most people will face, and one of the least served. Romantic loss activates the same neural pathways as physical pain; established neuroscience locates this in the anterior cingulate cortex and the insula. Yet the tools available are thin: a fragmented field of breakup-recovery apps built mostly around no-contact streak counters and generic AI chat.
The most established product in the category, Mend, is no longer actively maintained. There is no category leader purpose-built for heartbreak recovery. That gap is not an opening for another streak tracker, but for a higher-craft, ethics-first product that treats heartbreak with the seriousness it deserves.
Heartbreak is our wedge. The larger opportunity is the space it opens onto: the everyday emotional processing that happens between therapy sessions: the 2 a.m. spiral, the wave that arrives on an ordinary Monday. We are starting narrow on purpose.
why now
Loneliness is a recognized public-health crisis.
The U.S. Surgeon General's 2023 advisory described loneliness as an epidemic. Heartbreak is its acute form, and little is built specifically for it.
AI has crossed the threshold.
Foundation models can now hold a warm, grounded conversation, making a considered 2 a.m. companion deliverable at scale for the first time.
Trust in personal data is collapsing.
As people grow wary of where their most private moments are stored, a local-first, sovereign product is timely rather than niche. The architecture that protects the user is also a genuine differentiator.
the product
Sanctuary is live as a web experience today, with a public demo and a closed beta. The iOS and Android apps launch September 4, 2026.
The complete healing experience is free. How the company is funded is below.
why sanctuary
Trust is the product.
The breakup-app category carries a real reputational shadow: critics argue these apps profit from people at their most vulnerable. Sanctuary is built as the direct answer: nothing that helps a person heal is ever paywalled, and we count a user healing and leaving as a success. The defensibility here is earned trust and word of mouth from a product people are free to leave, not sunk cost or lock-in.
Sovereign architecture.
Sanctuary is local-first. Reflections, journal entries, and Dove's memory live on the user's device, not our servers. Because the data lives on the device, there is no lock-in: a user can export everything and walk away at any time. In an era of collapsing data trust, this is both an ethical stance and a differentiator competitors cannot copy without rebuilding from the ground up.
A coherent world, not a utility.
Dove, the Cairn, the Grove, and Expeditions form a single considered product surface: a deeper experience than the thin tools that define the category.
A studio thesis.
Sanctuary is the first product of Martori, a studio building sovereign emotional infrastructure. The platform is designed to extend to future chapters, but Sanctuary is the sole focus until it has earned the right to expand.
how we think about revenue
We will be direct about the tension a venture investor will see. Sanctuary's free experience is complete by design, and we consider a user healing and moving on a success. We are not building engagement traps.
Our revenue model follows from the brand rather than against it:
Sovereign
An optional subscription ($9/mo, or $72/yr) that deepens an ongoing practice and lets a user support the work. It never unlocks healing.
Physical goods
Durable, considered objects that extend the practice off-screen, beginning with the River Journal.
The Martori suite
Across a lifetime, a person may return to Martori for different seasons of difficulty. We are building for deep, durable brand trust and a long relationship, not a short funnel.
This is a patient model. It depends on genuine brand love instead of conversion pressure. We believe it is the only model honest enough to work in this category.
progress & milestones
Q1 2026
Incorporated
SanctuaryApp, Inc. incorporated (Delaware C Corp). Product architecture designed.
Q2 2026
Core experience shipped
Core web experience shipped: the Cairn, Dove, the Grove, the Meadow. Public demo live.
2026 to date
Early demand signal
A public demo and an open waitlist drew early organic interest with no paid acquisition. We treat this as a signal of intent, not product-market fit. The focus now is product readiness for launch.
Pre-launch
Closed beta
Closed beta running ahead of launch to gather the first real engagement and retention signal.
September 4, 2026
Public launch
Public launch on iOS and Android.
Post-launch
Retention is the metric
The metric that matters is D30/D90 retention. Sanctuary is built to be judged on whether people return and heal, not on acquisition vanity metrics.
what we're de-risking
We would rather show you the risks plainly than have you find them.
No retention data yet.
Sanctuary is pre-launch, and retention is the whole game in this category. Mitigation: a closed beta now, and a commitment to share D30/D90 data openly after launch.
Solo, non-clinical founder.
Sanctuary is currently founder-led. The live web product, built and shipped end to end, is current evidence of execution. Mitigation: a build partner and a clinical lead are being actively recruited; a clinical safety council and a research council are in formation.
Direct-to-consumer in a hard category.
Acquiring heartbroken users at sane cost is the category's perennial challenge. Mitigation: heartbreak is a high-intent, searchable moment; we are building an organic content wedge and will prove channel economics before scaling spend.
team
BM
Brian Martori
founder & ceo
A decade building consumer products engineered for attention and habit. Brian left that work and built Sanctuary on the opposite principles. He places his stones daily alongside the community.
Clinical Safety Council & Research Council: in formation. Sanctuary is in active conversation with licensed clinicians in attachment, grief, and somatic intervention, and with researchers who will review every scientific claim. Names are published only when confirmed. See the team page for current status.
Build partner & clinical lead: actively recruiting.
the raise
Use of funds:
Launch & mobile
iOS and Android build and release.
Clinical & safety
Council formation, safety architecture, crisis protocol.
Closed beta & launch ops
Closed beta & launch operations.
Founding team
First key hires.
the ask
The ask
The category is real. The pain is real. The gap left by Mend is real. We are building the answer carefully, and raising to launch it well. If this resonates, we would welcome a conversation.
hello@joinsanctuary.io
hello@joinsanctuary.io · Nashville, TN · SanctuaryApp, Inc. · Delaware C Corp
This page is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities. Any such offer will be made only through formal offering documents.
