ConversaTrait

Hi-- my name is Chad.

First of all, I realize that's a terrible way to begin a relationship, but, I promise I'm trying to be the change we all want to see in Chads all over the world.

Jokes aside, ConversaTrait was designed to help people communicate better. So many times we have things that we're argue with strangers about, or we don't see eye-to-eye even with people in our own families about, and, most of the time it comes down to a simple miscommunication that's the root cause of the tension. And we're better than to let that keep happening.

I had a few instances where I was factually accurate, but lost arguments on the internet. I couldn't understand why. So, I put my posts into one of the first versions of an AI chatbot that surfaced on the internet, and it told me that I wasn't wrong, but I was an asshole. Two things can be true at once.

So, I asked it how not to be an asshole, and it gave me really good advice. Life changing advice, actually. This was in 2023.

Fast forward 3 years of studying prompt engineering and AI models, I decided to return to this idea, except this time help OTHER people learn to communicate better, just as I had done.

It started because my brother and I famously do not get a long. Not anything weird or crazy, just didn't like each other. He's neurodivergent, with ADHD and he also identifies as being on the Autism spectrum. I'm diagnosed ADHD, myself, and him and I would constantly talk over one another, and our communication patterns were unhealthy at BEST and destructively violent at the worst.

Well, I decided to put one of our conversations into this chatbot I had been working on getting the system prompt just right for doing these kinds of analysis on, and the results shocked me, AND him.

It basically explained to each of us how this was typical neurodivergent and neurotypical minds completely missing the forest for the trees, and not understanding what the other means by what they say. It explained to me his point of view in a way I finally (after 30 years) understood. It did the same to him for my point of view.

After we read the output, we both said to one another "Is this thing right?"-- both of us confirmed that it had nailed us, dead-to-rights-- and at that moment, it was like a lightbulb went off in both our heads.

I swear to anything you want me to swear to, we both at the EXACT same moment, said the exact same thing to each other, which was something to the effect of: "Damn. That woulda been nice to know 30 fuckin' years ago!"

Ever since then? Our relationship has never been better. We went from MAYBE texting each other twice a year (birthday and xmas), to talking two or three times per week. We haven't fought once since.

Once I saw what just a system prompt and a bunch of a/b testing could do with the power of LLMs and communication, I dove down a DEEP rabbit hole and decided to make my software-as-a-service platform, ConversaTrait, which predicts personality traits and does all sorts of cognitive assessments and helps people discover the real version of themselves that they might not even know exists.

I've spent the last 12 months, 7 days a week, for 10-12 hours every single day creating this app and this platform, and I'm finally getting ready to launch and share it with the world. Early beta testing is extremely exciting, and now, since Feb 2nd, when Nature Human Behavior published a study showing that LLMs can correctly predict personality traits from open-ended narrative, like conversations, more accurately than your friends can. Sometimes even more accurately than your own mother can. The entire premise I've been building on was just scientifically validated by the most reputable and premier medical peer reviewed journal on the face of the planet.

The craziest part? That happened the day I almost gave up after having a terrible investor meeting.

The part even crazier than that?

That also happened to be my literal birthday.

What's more, is that I did my own internal validation study-- or tried to do one, rather-- where I got results that were in-line with Big 5 scores that were administered in a clinical setting. I chose a Pearson's correlation test, where my P values were < 0.001 except openness which was = 0.002. My r values had a mean of 0.73.

Do you know what the thumbnail for that study was when it was published? The only image you could see without having to pay $40.00 to get the paper? The only figure in the entire report that was available for free?.... The pearson's correlation chart.

On my birthday.

After I just swore to myself I was going to quit and that I had wasted a year of my life.

Wanna guess what their p values were? ... Not just close... identical to mine, and the r-values were right in line with what you'd expect to see.

I was ready to give up earlier because of the bad investor call, and the fact that I couldn't afford the $40.00 credit card bill payment I had due, that was now going to go past 30 days delinquent and hit my credit. And there's nothing I could do about it. Every card maxed. Every account empty.

Then this thing comes out-- on my birthday-- that validates everything I've been doing . I went to read the paper, and felt like someone shot me right in the chest.

It wasn't free.

$40.00. The same $40.00 I couldn't afford 5 minutes ago, and still couldn't afford.

It's an interesting feeling to be looking at the thing that's validated what you've dedicated a year of your life towards, and not being able to afford to get through the pay wall to read the damn thing.

So, I wrote to the authors and explained my situation, and he sent me a copy. I promise you there's never been a person on earth more excited to read statistical analysis on personality trait predictions that LLMs made 6 months ago in a lab than I was at that moment, after waiting 2 weeks of not being able to read it because I couldn't afford it.

I'm just now going live with the platform, already have paying customers, and I didn't have to dilute or take a cent of VC money. All I did was push myself to the mental and physical breaking point, and come within an inch of having a nervous breakdown.

But would I change any of that? Nah, probably not. But, first, I'd like to work on getting some more clients. My point is this: if it feels like you're at your wits end, and you start questioning everything you've been doing-- that's usually when a breakthrough is about to happen.

Stay the course.

Don't give up.

It's always darkest right before dawn.

And remember: even if you're walking the wrong way into the woods, as long as you keep a straight path, you can only go halfway in before you start walking back out.