What Happened To The Simple Habit Meditation App From Shark Tank Season 9?

Raised by hardworking parents and coming to a new country alone at age 14 is bound to teach anyone the effects of stress. Tack on a stint in investment banking, developing an Android-based marketing app, and pursuing a master's in business administration, and it's safe to say that stress was a commonality in Yunha Kim's pursuits. Founder and CEO of Simple Habit, a meditation app that enhances digitized stress relief, Kim channeled her experiences in life to provide a premium version of a concept that already existed.

Like so many other meditation apps, including "Shark Tank" alum Liberate from Season 13, Simple Habit lets users receive the guidance needed to reduce their stress levels. Kim decided she had to pivot from the typical one-teacher format and infused her app with a bounty of professionals from all over, catering to different aspects of stress management. The one thing Simple Habit doesn't help with, though, is stepping into a tank of blood-thirsty, money-hungry sharks.

During the premiere episode of Season 9 of "Shark Tank," the Forbes "30 Under 30" entrepreneur presented her app with enthusiasm. While she had plenty to be proud of, when several sharks caught the scent of someone merely looking for exposure, she found herself in the most stressful version of what stepping into the tank could look like.

Before Kim's "Shark Tank" pitch, Simple Habit had already proved successful, though not profitable. Within its first year, the app had over 500,000 users, 5,000 of whom subscribed to the premium model. With initial investments of over $2.5 million, there was a lot for the sharks to salivate over. Unfortunately, things hit a rough patch fairly early on, starting with Kim's $12 million valuation and $600,000 ask for only 5% of the company.

Almost immediately, the soon-to-depart Mark Cuban was put off by Kim's pitch, though guest shark Richard Branson, recently known for shuttering Virgin Orbit's satellite launch business, and veteran shark Robert Herjavec remained optimistic. When the entrepreneur explained that the company still had over $2 million of its original investment, Cuban went on the attack, calling her a "gold digger" looking for exposure. For several uncomfortable minutes, Branson and Cuban went back and forth until, fed up with Cuban's quips, Branson threw water in his face.

The squabble between the two sharks aside, Damon Johns and Lori Greiner voiced their concerns and dropped out, essentially aping Cuban's thinking. Though Branson and Herjavec came in with a joint offer of $300,000 for 10% each, it didn't sit right with Kim. Despite Herjavec appealing with the value of having a shark and a reduced share of 7.5% each, Kim still didn't budge, and she left with only the stress of Cuban's vitriol on her mind.

Yunha Kim founded Simple Habit in 2016 and, by 2017, was deemed too successful by Mark Cuban to warrant being part of "Shark Tank." That success only continued to climb after Kim's appearance. The app was said to have been downloaded 75,000 times the night the episode aired in October 2017. By November 2018, Kim was telling Forbes the app had soared to 2 million users, stating most users found the app via word of mouth.

Having essentially turned the app into the "Netflix of Meditation" she had wanted to develop, Kim took the opportunity to pursue another venture. In 2023, seven years after launching Simple Habit, she sold the company to Ingenio, a wellness marketplace company. Kim wasn't completely done in the app space yet, though, and immediately launched Sleep Reset. A sort of offshoot of Simple Habit, Sleep Reset, came about when Kim found that 70% of the meditation app's engagement was related to sleep.

Simple Habit is still available through both the Apple App and Google Play stores. Though all of its social media platforms stopped posting after Kim sold the company, the app is still active and accepting new users. A quick scroll through the app shows that there are over 100 teachers providing meditative sessions for sleep, commutes, post-work, on-the-go, and difficult days. The app's premium subscription, which unlocks premium meditations and allows for offline viewing, retained the $11.99 per month tier Kim set in 2017. The annual subscription is actually $10 less than the $99.99 Kim mentioned on "Shark Tank," and users can also join for life with a $299 one-time fee.

At the time of sale, TechCrunch reported that Simple Habit had approximately 5 million users, showing significant growth since Kim spoke with Forbes in 2018. However, in an October 2024 interview with Authority Magazine, Kim offered a much bigger number. "By 2020, Simple Habit had helped over 7 million people manage stress and anxiety."

With Yunha Kim no longer at the helm of Simple Habit, the app's future is likely to remain tied to Ingenio's wellness ecosystem. In the 2023 TechCrunch coverage of Ingeio's purchase of Simple Habit, Leppi confirmed that the app would continue as a standalone product, though much of its meditation content would also be added to Ingenio's psychic readings app, Keen. Since Leppi's comments and Simple Habit's acquisition, no additional announcements have been made about the app's future.

As for Kim, the future continues to look bright. She's the CEO of Sleep Reset and continues to push the sleep-tracking app's success. Though her socials showcase an active life, including work with the San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and photos from December 2023 showing a wedding, there are no updates suggesting she's working on new ventures beyond Sleep Reset. In fact, activity as recent as December 2024 on LinkedIn shows that she's still all-in on the sleep app, participating in studies and research.