Stop Doomscrolling. Start Living.
Paced: The Digital Wellness Disruptor
Now Available Worldwide on Google Play
A masterclass in modern, lean startup execution.
Recent Press
MobileSyrup features Paced as the "Saskatoon-made app [that] helps beat doomscrolling by walking" , acting as a "gentle touch on the shoulder" to help users "snap out of" the scrolling trance by trading physical movement for time returned. [Read Full Article]
The Idea: Why This App is Different
"You’re not lazy. You’re just fighting a supercomputer with a human brain."
Most screen-time apps are "Digital Jailers." They punish you, block you, and shame you for having no willpower.
Paced is the world’s first "Compassionate Pattern Interrupt."
The problem isn't your willpower; it's the 'Infinite Scroll.' We don't doomscroll because we are lazy; we do it to numb out. We check our phones to avoid overwhelm, stress, or boredom, and suddenly an hour is gone.
Paced introduces healthy friction. By trading scrolling for strolling, it physically changes your state, stopping the passive consumption so you can get back to active living.
The Mechanic: The Wait vs. The Walk
Most screen-time apps lock you out entirely when your limit is up. Paced does something completely different: it interrupts your scroll, initiates a lockout timer, and gives you a choice.
You can either sit and wait out the clock, or you can walk to unlock it faster.
The Interrupt: Paced catches you when you try to open a distracting app, snapping you out of the autopilot trance.
The Timer: The app locks you out for a set duration,
The Shortcut: Don't want to wait? You can physically walk to speed up the timer and regain access.
The Golden Ratio: 100 Steps = 3 Minutes of Time.
This physical action snaps the user out of the "scrolling trance" and gives them a moment of conscious awareness to decide: "Do I really want to scroll, or should I get back to living?"
The Spark: A Facebook Post, a Podcast, and AI.
The seed for Paced was planted months before the app was ever built. In January 2025, Rhonda noticed a massive flaw in standard screen time apps: users could blow through their entire daily time limit in one sitting.
She posted a simple question to her Facebook network: "What if an app locked you out, but let you earn time back sooner if you got a minimum amount of steps?" The concept resonated immediately, proving there was a real market gap.
The Catalyst
The idea sat until July, when Rhonda listened to an episode of Mel Robbins discussing the neurobiology of phone addiction. Suddenly, the science backed up her January Facebook post: Digital locks fail because they don't require physical friction to bypass.
The Execution
That same afternoon, she walked into her local favorite, TOT Cafe in Saskatoon, opened her laptop, and went to work.
Treating AI (Google's Gemini) as her fractional C-Suite, she spent the next few hours hashing out the concept. Before she left the cafe, she had:
Verified the market gap she found in January.
Locked in the "Paced" name.
Secured the web domains and social handles.
Mapped out the core "Wait vs. Walk" mechanic for her developers.
By the Numbers: Early Traction & Validation
Launched organically without a dime of VC funding or ad spend, Paced is already outperforming standard industry benchmarks for productivity apps.
69% Active Device Retention (Industry Avg: 35-45%)
Users aren't just trying the app—they are keeping it permanently installed to manage their daily screen time.
94% Activation Rate (Industry Avg: 78%)
Nearly every single download instantly translates into an active user setting a physical boundary.
49% Returning Active Users
Almost half of our total users return regularly, proving the "Wait vs. Walk" mechanic builds sustainable, daily habits.
99.96% Crash-Free
A lightweight, background-stable utility that respects device battery and privacy.
The Founder Story: Rhonda Lavoie
"I built Paced because I realized willpower is a losing battle against billion-dollar algorithms."
Rhonda Lavoie is not a Silicon Valley tech bro. She is a top-producing Real Estate Agent in Saskatoon who realized she was losing hours of her life to the "Seduction Algorithm" of social media.
Fighting "Imposter Syndrome" and "Overwhelm," she realized that willpower was a losing battle against billion-dollar algorithms. She needed a tool that worked with her brain, not against it.
Today, Paced is a tool for herself and high-achievers everywhere who want to reclaim their time and leave a legacy, not a high score.
From the Prairies to the Play Store
The Solo Founder Bootstrapping a Cure for Doomscrolling
Rhonda is a solo, non-technical founder based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Frustrated by her own doomscrolling habits and the lack of effective tools on the market, she decided to architect the solution herself.
To bridge the technical gap without VC funding, she leveraged AI (Google’s Gemini) as her strategic partner—using it to translate complex developer documentation, run market analysis, and seamlessly manage an international development team.
Today, Paced is proving that with extreme resourcefulness and the right tools, a solo founder can build a highly-retained, habit-changing product that rivals Silicon Valley.
Fast Facts
Platform
Android First (Google Play). iOS Late 2026.
Philosophy
"Shame-Free" Digital Wellness
Differentiator
The "Wait vs. Walk" Mechanic (Compassionate Pattern Interrupt).
Pricing
Freemium (Free core tier; Pro upgrade available).
Media Inquiries
For interviews, review copies, or high-res assets:
Rhonda Lavoie