Hey everyone! We re the team behind Pinnacle, and tomorrow we are finally launching on Product Hunt.
We started this journey because most 'high performance' tools are just trackers digital chores that tell you what happened to your body, but don't help you understand your mind. We wanted to build a system that helps you maintain focus, resilience, and energy when the stakes are high.
What we've been building: We ve moved beyond simple chatbots to create an AI agent that uses built-in iPhone sensors like HRV (Heart Rate Variability) and voice-based reflection to turn mental signals into actionable clarity. No 'workslop,' just science-backed tools for situational execution.
We would love your support and feedback when we hit the feed tomorrow
Hacking with Swift
This looks great! Does it have a fairly easy ramp up where you can try a small thing for a while and feel its impact before trying more?
Pinnacle
@twostraws Hi Paul, absolutely!
We have gone through many iterations of the product with varying challenge levels for users. At the end what we realized is that we need to meet the user where they're at and that's what the current system is optimized around.
Let us know what you think once you try the onboarding.
Pinnacle
@twostraws Spot on, Paul. That 'ramp up' was actually a big design challenge. We spent a lot of time thinking about 'meaningful friction'—ensuring the first time you use Pinnacle, you get a win in around 60 seconds without being overwhelmed by the AI logic.
Would love to hear your thoughts on how the app feels once you're in; we're obsessing over making it feel as intuitive and lightweight as possible! 🚀
Pinnacle
@twostraws Thanks Paul. The onboarding was a crucial part of getting the UX right, and the chat interface we landed on gave us the power & flexibility to fully explore the space & its opportunities. It was also great fun to build!
Pinnacle
@twostraws This is where we believe the real sweet spot is with Pinnacle. What we’re aiming to achieve is the optimal challenge point for each user at any given moment in their journey. In practice, this means helping users establish meaningful daily practices and progressing at a pace that is manageable and sustainable as they work towards their goals. The system continuously calibrates based on user inputs and engagement with practices, allowing it to deliver the right level of challenge and support over time.
Turning a phone into a brain performance coach is a cool idea.
Are the exercises based on neuroscience research or more behavioral training?
Would love to know how the progress tracking works.
Pinnacle
@aroido Great question! It’s a mix of both:
We use science-backed exercises (breathwork, microbreaks) to regulate your nervous system.
The AI creates targeted action plans and helps build routines to apply your learnings in your day to day life
For tracking, we have a proprietary performance score, which is tracked alongside your wearable data (sleep, HRV, etc.) for a holistic view. We are also launching a feature soon to track your attention just using your iPhone - imagine meditating and knowing how well you did during the session!
Would love to hear your feedback once you've had a chance to dive in.
@rishab_mehra Thanks for the detailed explanation!
The combination of physiological signals like HRV with behavioral routines sounds powerful.
Curious — how personalized does the performance score become over time? Does the system adapt as it learns more about the user’s patterns?
@joel_jackson1 Congrats on the launch! The angle of using sensors already on your iPhone (no wearable required) is a winner for me. Curious: how are you handling the calibration challenge? iPhone camera-based HRV readings can vary a lot based on placement, lighting, and stillness. What does your accuracy benchmark look like ?
Pinnacle
@jerrybyday I agree, computer vision inherently has these challenge. We have a calibration pipelines built for each computer vision system to try to minimize the friction for users.
For HRV specifically, finger placement on camera is crucial and we guide users through this, as we detect the failure points. Lighting is less of a challenge here, since we can use the iPhone flash. In terms of benchmarks, we have been able to achieve over 90% accuracy (when the user is in a stable position) compared to a Polar Band strapped to your chest.
We have a separate computer vision system for attention tracking launching in a few weeks. The calibration question is much more complicated for that system, and we have a patent pending for it! Let's discuss this in depth when we unveil this feature.
Hope you enjoy the system.
I’ve been using EEG-based feedback apps for years, and the friction of carrying a headset kills the habit. If Pinnacle can really pull cognitive-state detection from nothing but the IMU and camera I already stick in my face every morning, that’s a 100x convenience win—would love to hear how you validated signal fidelity against a clinical-grade device.
Pinnacle
@lliora
Hi Liora, that was exactly our thesis from the start! The friction of dedicated hardware is the biggest barrier. To address your question on validation, here is how we’re currently bridging that gap:
Our primary overlap with EEG is tracking "attention state" (launching in the coming weeks). We’ve validated our algorithm by benchmarking perceived attention levels against publicly available EEG hardware, with very high correlation. We do want to do full scale medical studies here in the future.
We have other measurements built in as well:
HRV: Captured via the back camera. We can achieve accuracy very close to the best wearable hardware out there (we validated against Polar Band).
Psychological State: We extract this from voice data during your conversations with Pinnacle AI.
Wearable Integration: We sync with your existing Apple Health data.
We combine all these inputs to understand the full cognitive state and help you find optimal paths to optimize your performance. Please do give the system a try!
Trufflow
Why do only the iPhone users get the good stuff?! 😭
Any thoughts on how Pinnacle can help deal with phone addiction?
Pinnacle
@lienchueh We hear you! While we’re starting on iOS to nail the high-fidelity experience, Android is definitely on the future roadmap.
Regarding phone addiction: It sounds counterintuitive for an app designer to say, but we actually built features to help you put the phone down. We have routines specifically for sleep that focus on reducing blue light exposure and reminders to step away from all screens.
We believe a performance coach should help you master your environment, not just your device. Mastering the 'off-switch' is a core part of modern performance.
Pinnacle
@lienchueh We’d really love to make it cross platform. Right now we’re a small team and our computer vision models run fully on Apple’s Metal framework, so iPhone was the fastest way for us to ship something that actually works well. Expanding beyond iOS is definitely something we want to do, it’ll just take a bit of time, sorry!
Phone addiction is a tricky one - a lot of apps try to solve it tactically with screen-time limits or blocking, which can help but usually just treats the symptom. With Pinnacle we go deeper to find the root case. Through conversation you can set a goal like reducing phone use, reflect on what’s actually driving the habit (boredom, stress, avoidance, etc.), and then work with Pinnacle to address the root cause rather than just the behavior. That being said, do try a tactical solution like One Sec until Pinnacle comes to Android!
Looks really cool.
I in France and it doesn't seem to be available here. Will it be anytime soon ?
Pinnacle
@olivierbinet_code we are resolving some App Store regulations for EU - you should be able to use within 1-2 weeks.
Pinnacle
@olivierbinet_code We are now live in your region: https://apps.apple.com/fr/app/pinnacle-upgrade-your-mind/id6498899043 . Hope you enjoy the app, let us know what you think!
Interior designer and working mum here—my life is basically a constant battle against physical and mental clutter. I’m naturally skeptical of 'performance' tools because they usually just add more noise to an already loud day.
Pinnacle feels different. From a design perspective, the spatial hierarchy and use of negative space is calming, like walking into a clean studio after a chaotic morning with the kids. Was 'mental load reduction' a core part of the brief, or did the minimalist UI just happen to solve that for us busy parents? Love using the app so far!
Pinnacle
This is such a thoughtful observation @stef_hacking. To answer your question: Mental load reduction wasn't just part of the brief; it was the entire reason we built this.
Having spent a long time in design studios, I realised we often over-design for 'utility' and under-design for 'cognition.' We intentionally used that negative space to create 'breathing room' for your thoughts—much like a physical clean studio as you mentioned.
We wanted the AI to feel like a calm curator rather than another voice shouting for your attention. So glad to hear it’s resonating with your workflow 🙌