17-year-old Limerick entrepreneur launches mental health start-up

15 Mar 2016

17-year-old Limerick entrepreneur and Digital Youth Council (DYC) member James Corneille has launched a new start-up focused on mental health called Positivity Pack.

Given the high rates of stress in most offices – or even schools and universities – it’s no surprise that there has been a rise in the number of mental health start-ups, such as Lantern, appearing to meet demand.

In Ireland, at least, there’s one new addition with the launch of Positivity Pack, a start-up that takes a very simple idea and puts it online for people to buy.

The concept is that if you’re feeling rather stressed, or you know someone who you think might be stressed, you could order a box full of bubble wrap, a de-stress guide, sweets, custom message, confetti, balloons, smiley stickers and other little trinkets.

The idea is, for €8, this box of stuff will distract you enough to take you down a peg or two in terms of stress, with delivery available worldwide, says its founder James Corneille.

If the name sounds familiar, you might remember Corneille made a name for himself on social media after his minor mishap on sending an email that led to the brief trending hashtag, #accidentalspambuddies.

Explaining why he thinks it’s a good idea, the young entrepreneur says: “Positivity Pack is a pack that offers the perfect chill-out kit after those horrible rainy, hair-pulling, frustrating and unfortunate days.

“If there’s someone in your life right now that you think needs a bit of cheering up, you can do so right now by surprising them with a Positivity Pack, or even get one for yourself.”

Stressed woman image via Shutterstock

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

editorial@siliconrepublic.com