The Story of NeuroMoney (From concept to launch)
NeuroMoney started as a small attempt to make everyday money tasks feel lighter. This is the story of how it moved from a shopping planner concept into a neurodiversity-first finance platform, and what it took to reach launch, which is now officially planned for 28th February 2026.
Stage 1: Concept
NeuroMoney began, around April 2024, with a simple need based on my own lived experience. As someone with both ASD Type 1 and ADHD, I tend to form strong attachments to brands and products that I trust. Once I find something that works for me, I want to keep using it.
Yet every time I needed to shop, I found myself repeating the same tiring routine of searching across multiple websites, trying to remember exact product names, and second-guessing choices I had already made before. The process felt far more demanding than it needed to be.
What I really wanted was a calm, predictable and memory-safe place where I could save my favourite products from different retailers and return to them whenever I needed. That original idea was a shopping planner that could act as one reliable space for trusted products, reducing the mental effort involved in everyday decisions. I shared the concept with a small group of people in my close inner circle, and their feedback and critique helped refine the direction. Those early conversations made it clear that this was not just a personal frustration, but part of a wider pattern of decision fatigue and cognitive overload many neurodiverse people recognise.
Stage 2: Initial build
The first practical steps towards building NeuroMoney happened alongside a role I landed in automation development. I was learning Python and SQL, and getting comfortable with backend systems and data handling, so I used the project as a way to apply those skills while bringing the idea to life. I built an early MVP with a simple interface and a basic database behind it.
The goal was not polish, but proof. I wanted to confirm that the experience I had imagined could exist as a working system. Seeing the concept move from notes and sketches into something real was motivating, but it also exposed early constraints. I could store and organise information, but I could not yet connect to third-party retailers to support a true multi-store workflow. That was the moment I realised a local prototype would only take the idea so far. If NeuroMoney was going to become genuinely useful and accessible, it needed to evolve into a web-based platform with a stronger foundation.
Stage 3: Push to web
Moving NeuroMoney to the web marked a shift from experimentation into product thinking. I tested a few different approaches to building web services in Python and settled on an API-first structure that gave me flexibility. What mattered most was being able to keep the system modular and adaptable, because I knew the product would evolve as the real needs became clearer.
I then migrated the early database into a cloud environment and rebuilt around a more scalable architecture. This stage forced me to think beyond features and into durability: how user data should be stored safely, how the platform should behave under growth, and how future tools could be added without making the experience heavier. It also helped me clarify what the platform was truly trying to solve. The work stopped being about building a clever prototype, and became about building a system that could reduce friction for people who already carry too much cognitive load.
Stage 4: Expansion
As the project grew, family and friends remained important in reviewing early builds, critiquing workflows, and helping keep the vision pointed in the right direction, even though NeuroMoney itself was still something I was using personally during development. Over time, it became obvious that the underlying problem was not only shopping, but money decisions and money admin in a world designed for constant attention.
I started reading more widely about how ADHD and autism can affect financial behaviour, and the evidence strongly validated the need for a tool like this. Research on adults with ADHD has found more frequent difficulties with everyday financial decision-making, including issues such as impulsive buying, lower saving-to-income ratios, and greater reliance on others for support (Koerts et al., 2021). In the UK, research commissioned by Monzo with YouGov estimated that adults with ADHD face an average additional cost of around £1,600 per year, often linked to missed payments, late fees, impulsive spending, and budgeting difficulties (Monzo UK, 2022). Work with autistic adults has also highlighted lower subjective financial wellbeing and practical barriers that can make financial security harder to achieve (Pellicano et al., 2023).
With that context, NeuroMoney started shifting from a shopping planner toward an all-in-one neurodiverse-friendly financial planner. Ideas expanded into subscription and bills tracking, and longer-term tools that reduce overwhelm, support better habits, and make progress feel achievable. Around this time I also began following financial education creators like Simon Squibb and Mark Tilbury, and implementing practical changes such as automating payments and subscriptions. The impact on my stress levels was immediate and reinforced how powerful simple, supportive systems can be.
Stage 5: Final push to launch
By late 2025, I could see that constant iteration was turning into scope creep. I was building and refining, but drifting away from the most important milestone: launching and learning from real users. To break the loop, I went public with my intentions, introduced compulsory weekly deadlines, and set an initial launch target for January 2026 to force momentum.
Now, in February 2026, two weeks after that original target was postponed, I am focused on the official public launch date of the 28th of February 2026. Over the past three months, I have focused on legitimising the business, launching the public site, and releasing an initial waiting list in December 2025. I have also heavily worked towards improving visibility through AEO, GEO and SEO, so that NeuroMoney can be discovered by the people it was designed to support.
While I have invested a small amount of my own money over the last one and a half to two years, the journey has not been driven by large funding. It has been shaped by learning, consistency, and a clear mission to build something that reduces stress and cognitive burden for neurodiverse users. Alongside development, the blog has become a way to communicate the vision, share the research, and show what NeuroMoney stands for as it moves from a personal project into a public platform.
Check out other articles
If you’d like more like this, check out other NeuroMoney articles here.
Note: This article is educational and is not personalised financial or medical advice.