The Expert Insight That Shaped an AI App Startup

When Shane Pope was finishing high school, he experienced two losses that reshaped his sense of identity. It took years for him to realize how much emotional weight he had been carrying — and how few tools exist to help people untangle what’s happening inside their own heads.

That realization led him to build Remi, a structured, AI-powered app designed to help people process what’s on their minds without overwhelming them with more information.

Shane had a clear vision for the product. What he didn’t have was the technical expertise to build it.

So he engaged a team on Upwork.

The challenge

The Remi app grew out of lived experience. But turning that experience into a working AI product was a different challenge entirely.

Shane lost his father to cancer during his senior year of high school. That same year, a broken ankle derailed the basketball career that had defined much of his identity.

He tried to move forward without fully processing what had happened. “It took 10 years for me to actually go to therapy and get diagnosed with PTSD,” he said. That experience started Shane’s lifelong exploration of the brain, emotions, trauma, how we store information, and how we process it.

As AI tools exploded in popularity, Shane saw more people turning to them for clarity. But many tools exacerbate the problem with never-ending conversations. 

“People store way too much information in their heads,” he said. “We’re being bombarded with information, expected to process it at a rate that’s unheard of in human history.”

Shane believed he could build something more focused, tailored to meet a specific need. But translating that insight into AI app development required expertise he didn’t have.

“I love learning on my own, but what you can learn in six months is just a fraction of what someone who's dedicated their life to doing something knows,” he explained. 

He needed to find independent specialists who had already spent years mastering what he was just beginning to discover.

The solution

Shane started by searching Upwork for an AI engineer. Rachel Draelos is a physician scientist (MD/PhD) and expert in health AI who helps her clients move health care AI systems from idea to launch in weeks. When Shane saw her profile, he knew she was exactly the expert he needed.

“I like to scroll and read bios until I think I’ve found the perfect person, then I reach out,” he explained. He booked a paid consultation with Rachel, used that first hour to clarify the model architecture, then brought her on to build the AI engine that would power Remi’s seven-question framework. 

“She gave me such clear guidance and advice that gave me the confidence to build,” Shane said. “To have someone with her background and experience say, ‘this is a really cool use of AI and I know exactly how we can bring this to life,’ it unlocked the next step of this journey.”

That validation wasn’t just encouraging; it de-risked the concept.

"There's a narrative being pushed that you don't need to work with anyone, you can just 'vibe code' something yourself,” Shane said. 

“I've come to see the insights of actual experts in their field as invaluable. AI tools can be powerful to help you get where you think you're going; people who have built something similar before can actually help guide the way. You don't know what you don't know."

With the AI model underway, Shane returned to Upwork to hire a designer. Only after the design was finalized did he engage a developer to connect the model and front end into a production-ready app. 

“Upwork is the matchmaker that helps me find the exact person that I need at every stage of the journey,” Shane said.

The results

By hiring in sequence — model first, then design, then development — Shane moved smoothly from prototype to a fully launched app that’s now available in the App Store and Google Play.

It’s exactly what he envisioned. Shane plans to continue building the same way: Define the next problem clearly, hire the right specialist, and move forward deliberately.

“That’s one of the most freeing benefits of Upwork,” he explained. “I know that, if I need a person, I can have a meeting set up in a week — within days, a lot of the time. I can just focus on the next step and not worry too far into the future.”