From Burnout to Intentional Building

This is a guest post by Akshaya Dinesh, shared here with permission. The views are Akshaya's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Edge City. Read more Edge City Patagonia Fellowship reflections from Rucha, Brian, Rhea, and Maxwell.

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Hey! I’m Akshaya — one of this year’s Edge City Fellows at Edge City Patagonia. I’m incredibly grateful for the chance to meet such interesting, diverse people from around the world while also diving deeply into my work. During the fellowship, I spent time in nature, pushed myself outside my comfort zone, made amazing new friends, and sharpened my vision for taking my project to the next level.

Before sharing what Edge City was like for me, here’s a bit of background:

I’m a self-taught coder who just loves building things. I learned to code at 13 and spent the next several years going to 45+ hackathons, building something new nearly every weekend. The energy of being surrounded by passionate builders is infectious — and it’s the same energy I felt at Edge City.

After high school, I studied computer science at Stanford for a couple of years and interned at companies like Microsoft and Bloomberg. But I missed the fast pace of 0→1 creation, so I dropped out during my sophomore year to start my first company, Ladder — a professional community platform for Gen Z. I poured everything into it: late nights until 6 a.m., skipped meals, and neglected friendships. We raised millions and served tens of thousands of users, but in the process, I burned myself out and stepped down.

Without giving myself time to recover, I jumped straight into my second startup, Spellbound — an email marketing platform for embedding interactive experiences inside emails. The concept took off quickly, attracting brands like Feastables, OLIPOP, Recess, Every Man Jack, and others. I worked on Spellbound for three years, but by 2024 I had reached the end of my conviction — and my chronic fatigue made it impossible to keep pushing at the same pace.

After navigating an acquihire to Substack, I spent a few months there as a Product Manager while trying to recover from what I first thought was “just burnout.” In reality, I had pushed myself so hard that I developed a chronic hormonal condition affecting about 1 in 10 women worldwide. Addressing my health became my top priority, and I launched into a year of doctor’s appointments, intense lifestyle changes, and testing everything from supplements to herbal medicine. It was lonely and exhausting, but eventually I reached a place where I understood my symptoms and could start imagining a healthier, more intentional future.

One thing stood out: there are shockingly few resources and little ongoing support for women with chronic health conditions.

That realization pushed me to build an app that helps women like me manage their symptoms and feel supported every day. I built the first version using vibe coding tools (mostly Claude Code) and shipped it to the App Store just before arriving at Edge City. Aside from a few hiccups with the review process, I began receiving real feedback from early users. A couple of TikTok posts brought in hundreds of comments from women who resonated with my story and were eager to try the app.

The first beta testers were incredibly helpful, showing me what needed improvement. I added features like a flower character to visualize progress, a revamped symptom tracker, and an AI chat companion — all layered on top of existing tools like daily diet tracking, macros, and nutritional insights. Those updates significantly improved the user experience and reduced churn.

But the most meaningful part of Edge City Patagonia was the community — especially the incredible women I met. They supported me, shared their own health journeys, and taught me about everything from seed cycling to cooking for hormone balance to the power of meditation and yoga. I attended regenerative yoga and meditation sessions at Regen Haus, participated in deeply reflective sound baths at the Wellbeing Hub, and had 1:1 conversations with women navigating chronic conditions themselves. I also met people passionate about longevity, wellness, and even more “woo-woo” topics like telepathy and consciousness through psychedelics.

These experiences broadened my perspective — not just on how my app could grow, but also on how I could care for myself with more intention.