What if the measure of a great technology product wasn’t how long it kept you engaged, but how it helped you derive value from using it? On this episode of Worthy for Thirty, I sit down with Austin and Brennan, co-founders of Sleke, a technology company rethinking the smartphone around a radically different goal: to give people the means they need without the doomscrolling, addictive apps, and attention traps we’ve come to accept as part of contemporary life. The concept began with a problem they experienced first hand. While living abroad, Austin and Brennan relied on platforms like Instagram and Facebook to stay connected with friends and family, but quickly realized the frustration caused by the constant pull of their phones. They wanted the connection and convenience of a smartphone without being tethered to it. When they couldn’t find an alternative to their smartphones, they decided to build the phone they've envisioned. Sleke sits between the traditional smartphone and the increasingly popular “dumb phone.” Built around its Odyssey operating system, Sleke focuses on what Austin calls the “five M’s”: messaging, money, maps, music, and life management. The company's philosophy is straightforward: technology's primary objective is to help you accomplish a task and then get out of the way. We discuss how Austin and Brennan went from college friends to bootstrapped founders, why they started by interviewing hundreds of potential users, and what they’ve learned from roughly 1,000 users around the world. We also explore why they chose refurbished Google Pixel devices, how they decide which apps belong on Sleke and why some people need more than app blockers or screen-time limits (I use Brick) to change their relationship with technology.But the bigger conversation goes beyond phones. Brennan explains why screen time itself may be too blunt a metric. Reading, learning a language, or using a health app might increase the number of minutes spent looking at a screen while still creating something valuable. That raises a more interesting question: Is the technology consuming our attention, or helping us use our attention intentionally? We also get into privacy, product design, and Sleke’s decision to collect remarkably little user data. Rather than building around maximum engagement, the team is exploring how mobile technology can become more efficient, intentional, and privacy-conscious. And perhaps most importantly, we talk about what happens after we put the phone down. Austin and Brennan aren’t anti-technology maximalists. They believe technology can be used for real-world connection, helping people find communities, make plans, accomplish tasks, and spend more time living offline. As Austin states, the question becomes less about whether technology is inherently good or bad and more about the reason behind how we use it. In this conversation: • Why smartphones feel so difficult to put down• The difference between a smartphone, dumb phone and minimalist phone• Digital minimalism without giving up modern conveniences• The “five M’s” Sleke believes a phone actually needs• Building an operating system around intentional technology• Screen time, social media and digital wellbeing• Why not all screen time is created equal• Designing technology around privacy instead of engagement• Bootstrapping a hardware and software startup• Why Sleke chose a one-time purchase instead of another subscription• Using technology to create more real-world human connection• What the future of healthier mobile technology could look like For anyone who has ever picked up their phone to do one thing, and then realized, 30 minutes later wondering where the time went., this conversation asks an increasingly important question: What if better technology isn’t technology we use more, but technology that helps us live fully and present? It can be not mutually exclusive. Find this episode on your favorite podcast listening platform
