Experience the problem before you see the solution.
For the next minute, your mind works a little differently than you're used to. Three short moments — then you'll understand exactly what UnSquirrel was built to fix.
Moment one · Reading
Reading should feel effortless. For millions of neurodivergent adults, the letters refuse to hold still on the page.
This is a glimpse of what reading can feel like with dyslexia — every sentence costs energy most people never have to spend.
Moment two · Focus
Try to hold your attention on this one sentence.
Notifications, intrusive thoughts, and competing priorities arrive uninvited. For an ADHD brain, this is every minute of every task.
Moment three · Overload
Everything arrives at once, and nothing has a place to go. This is cognitive overload — the daily reality for roughly one in five minds.
This is the problem
Now you've felt it. Here's what we built.
UnSquirrel is a cognitive platform designed from the ground up for brains that work differently — so the moments you just experienced stop being the cost of getting through a day.
The prototype opens in a new tab, so this page stays open — explore it, share feedback, then come back anytime.
Private by designOn-device. Never sold.
Recognized by Inspirational Women MagazineBuilt by a dyslexic founderPrivacy-first architectureDesigned for accessibility
The idea
A platform that adapts to you — not the other way around.
Mainstream productivity tools were built for one kind of brain, then patched for everyone else. UnSquirrel starts from neurodivergent cognition and builds outward.
Zero-friction capture. One tap before the thought disappears.
No shame mechanics. Missed tasks roll forward quietly.
Calm by default. No badges, no streaks, no red alerts.
The platform
Three brains. One purpose.
Separate spaces for work, life, and learning — each with its own tools and its own encrypted vault.
Career Brain
Work mode
Deadlines, communication, and documentation — handled, without disclosing how your brain works.
Planned — Phase 1
Life Brain
Personal mode
A private space for health, family, and daily life — and the medical system that comes with them.
Planned — Phase 1
Student Brain
Academic mode
Dense textbooks, writing anxiety, and accommodation paperwork — made learnable from day one.
Future phase
The Vault Wall
Your employer never sees your personal life. Health data never touches your work tools. It's the foundation, not a setting.
Why the alternatives don't work
The tools exist. They weren't built for you.
Not bad products — just designed around a different kind of mind. Accessibility bolted on afterward doesn't change that.
Blank canvases
Infinite freedom, zero structure. Hours building a system you never actually use.
Guilt-coded tasks
Red "overdue" labels turn a to-do list into a source of shame you learn to avoid.
Punishment mechanics
Losing a streak for switching context punishes something an ADHD brain can't control.
Surveillance scores
A daily "productivity score" isn't motivating — it's confirmation of your worst fears.
You are not the problem. You were handed tools built for a different mind and told to adapt. UnSquirrel is built the other way around.
How we build differently
Seven principles. None optional.
Every decision is tested against one question: does this add friction? If yes, it gets redesigned.
01
Zero-friction capture
One tap, one field, no decisions.
02
Structure without setup
A working space the moment you open it.
03
Shame-free failure
Missed tasks roll forward. No verdicts.
04
Priorities in view
The interface is your working memory.
05
Energy-aware
Tasks that match your current capacity.
06
Sensory-first
Calm defaults. Stimulation is opt-in.
07
Privacy as architecture
Not a toggle — the structure itself.
Phase 1 — the foundation
Five features. Every one counts.
Chosen to remove the most exhausting daily friction. Nothing added until these are right.
Text simplification
Any email, contract, or medical letter — simplified to your reading level, in any language. Original always one tap away.
Career + Life
Visual deadline dashboard
Now, soon, or later at a glance — coded by colour and shape, so it works for every kind of vision.
Career + Life
Document locker
IDs, insurance, leases, medical records — stored on-device, with alerts before anything expires.
Life
Wellbeing journal
Sliders for mood, energy, and brain fog. Voice or typed. Never visible to employers.
Life
Pulse log
A private work journal inside Career Brain — track focus and energy across the day, always yours alone.
Career
Urgency at a single glance — coded by both colour and shape.
The road ahead
Built one honest step at a time.
Phase 1 is fully designed and ready to build — it just needs funding. Everything after grows from what the community tells us.
Building first
Phase 1 — Foundation
The five features that remove the most exhausting daily friction. Awaiting funding to begin.
Where it goes nextDeeper professional toolsPersonal wellnessSupport for studentsCommunity & connectionTools for employersResearch & global impact
Our promise: we never announce a phase as active until it is funded and in development.
Your data. Your rules.
You are the only one in control.
Your data is sovereign to you. You decide what is shared, with whom, and when it ends. No one can override that.
On your device first
Nothing reaches a server unless you back it up — encrypted before it leaves.
You grant every permission
Choose what, with whom, and for how long. Revoke instantly, anytime.
Three walls, no crossing
Career, Life, and Student data stay in separate encrypted spaces.
Never sold. Never.
No advertisers, brokers, or third parties. No ads — ever.
Delete everything, anytime
Wipe all your data — locally and from backup. No questions.
Stealth by default
Looks like a premium productivity tool. Disclose nothing.
Designed with neurodivergent users at heart — and because good design is universal, it works for everyone. No disclosure required.
Property managers
Legal deadlines, tenant comms, maintenance.
Web designers
Client intake, scope, technical docs.
Legal & paralegal
Court deadlines, case notes, statutes.
Healthcare workers
Documents, appeal windows, advocacy.
Caregivers
Medications, appointments, coordination.
Students
Syllabi, textbooks, lectures, writing.
HR & employers
Meaningful ADA accommodation, no stigma.
Trades & small business
Permits, contracts, vendors, deadlines.
Our story
Built from lived experience.
I was diagnosed with dyslexia in grade school — pulled out of class to take tests while, at home, my mother had me working through university-level biology, English, and history. I studied beside her as she earned her master's in Microbiology, and by high school I was tutoring my classmates — still with no idea why my brain worked so differently.
When I took the SATs I scored an 8, and I was told I would never be more than a restaurant worker or a hairstylist. I dropped out in 12th grade with just eight credit hours left, married at 17, and later built a 20+ year career in property management, beginning in 1992. My husband had cystic fibrosis; I managed much of his care at home and learned the medical system from the inside, and I lost him in April 2005.
Years later I went back to college. I took the entrance exam with no prep class and earned the highest score in my class and the whole school. I had already been taking classes for months before I sat for — and passed — my GED, then went on to earn an associate's in Business Management. In 2020 I was named to Strathmore's Who's Who Worldwide for my property management career, but relentless burnout and the strain of masking finally led me to walk away — and only then did I truly understand the dyslexia I had carried my whole life.
In my twenties I tested at 148 — two points off genius; a recent test scored 126. I feel my own cognitive change, and I'm building UnSquirrel for both versions of myself. Years after I lost my husband, one of his doctors told me something that never left me: "We never see the full picture of a patient outside our care." That became the heart of UnSquirrel — and in 2026 I was featured in Inspirational Women Magazine for the work.
Sandra Burden
Founder & CEO, UnSquirrel Technology LLC
Inspirational Women MagazineDyslexic founderCF caregiver & advocate
"I got tired of adapting to tools that weren't built for my brain. So I built one that adapts to me — and to every mind like mine."
The village bridge
They never see the full picture. Until now.
"They only see a snapshot. They never see the caregiver at 2am managing an IV drip. They never see the family falling apart in the waiting room."
— Sandra Burden, recalling her late husband's medical team. This became the origin of UnSquirrel's caregiving and family features.
Why people are joining
Voices from the community.
UnSquirrel is being shaped in the open, with the people it's for. Here's what early members are telling us.
"Every app I've tried made me feel behind. I'm here because someone finally started with how my brain works, not how it's supposed to."
Amara OkonkwoParalegal · ADHD
"Reading long documents costs me hours no one else pays. The simplification tool alone would give me back my evenings."
Sofia ReyesGrad student · Dyslexia
"I care for my mum and run a small business. Something that keeps the medical side from slipping through the cracks is exactly what I need."
Daniel WhitfieldCaregiver · TBI
Back the mission
Help bring UnSquirrel to life.
Built by and for people whose minds work differently. Every contribution moves it closer to the people who need it most.
$100K
Pre-seed goal — where your support goes
App development (AllianceTek) 50%
Founder & team runway (12 mo) 30%
Cloud infrastructure & AI 10%
Community & outreach 6%
Legal & IP protection 4%
1
Millions cope alone
780M people live with dyslexia — and far more with ADHD, autism, brain injury, and cognitive change. No tool is built around them.
2
Lived experience
Every feature solves a problem the founder has personally faced — not one invented in a boardroom.
3
Ready to build
The full specification is complete and an engineering partner is engaged. Only funding stands between plan and launch.
Your answers help us build UnSquirrel around real struggles — not assumptions. We never sell your data.
You're on the list!
Thank you for sharing. Your answers will help shape UnSquirrel into something that genuinely works for minds like yours. We'll be in touch when Phase 1 launches.
