CEO
Stéphane Patteux
Strategy, business development, marketing, and everything public-facing — the website, social channels, and how we show up in the ADHD community. Stéphane makes sure we grow without losing the plot.
About StéphaneAbout us
Built for neurodivergent brains — honestly, in the open.
Herding Chickens is an ADHD productivity app. The name is a metaphor for scattered attention — not a proverb.
If you have ADHD, you already know the story. You bought the planner. You downloaded the app with the streaks and the badges. You built the perfect Notion dashboard at 2am in a burst of hyperfocus — and never opened it again. It's not that the tools were bad. It's that they were built for a brain you don't have.
Traditional productivity tools make a quiet assumption: that seeing a task is enough to start it. For most people, that's roughly true. For an ADHD brain, the gap between knowing what to do and startingit can be a canyon. A task like “sort out insurance” isn't one item — it's an unmapped wilderness, and the brain responds the way brains respond to wilderness: it freezes. Then the overdue labels turn red, the guilt arrives, and the app becomes another thing you're failing at. So it gets deleted. We've deleted them all too.
The name Herding Chickens comes from what managing attention can feel like: chasing a flock of panicked chickens around a yard. You can't herd them all at once. But you can pick up one. That's the philosophy behind the product. We don't try to turn you into a linear, neurotypical planner — we want to meet your brain where it is. Pick one key thing. Stay on it with kind nudges. Break the scary thing into a step so small it feels silly when you need to. And when a day goes sideways — because some days will — no red ink and no judgment.
We're in early development. There's a private Telegram prototype; this site is the public waitlist. The first version is the daily loop — capture, one key thing, kind check-ins, balance. What we build next follows what people ask for. We'd rather say that plainly than list tools we have not shipped.
Meet the team
The people behind herding chickens
A two-person founding team — product and engineering — building the tool we wished existed on hard days.
CTO
Leonid Chindelevitch
Product vision and engineering. Leonid shapes what Herding Chickens becomes and builds the app — the daily loop, gentle check-ins, and support for getting started that actually ships.
About LeonidFounder stories
In their own words
First-person notes from the people building Herding Chickens — written by them, not rewritten by us.
CTO
Leonid's story
Ever since I was old enough to become self-aware, I've felt terrified of being bored. Not because I disliked the discomfort, but because I was anxious about what my brain might do to me if I was left alone with it, with nothing to distract me from my own thoughts. To avoid boredom, I tended to overload myself in any way I could, with studies, sports, extra-curricular activities, or anything that could take my mind off... well, itself. Being constantly busy came at a price - not only was I consistently late for everything, but I also tended to engage with things only superficially. This was true for everything with one exception, mathematics. I could lose myself in it for hours on end, and focusing on it gave me a sense of peace.
Read the rest of Leonid's story
I was fortunate enough to turn this tendency into academic success, getting a doctoral degree the day before my 24th birthday. My PhD advisor introduced my defense like this: Leonid has been involved with [long list of my extracurricular activities], he has been very helpful to the group, and he can really get some good work done... when he focuses. It was not until my early 30s when, following a suggestion from someone who knows me well, I took an assessment which found that I had attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (or ADHD for short). I approached the diagnosis with skepticism - it did not fit with my preconceived notions - but decided to try the stimulant medication regardless. It made a huge difference, and for the first time it felt like my brain could rest even when I was not doing mathematics.
But old habits die hard. Despite the medication being helpful, especially with driving, I was still overloading myself and letting people down in the process - not just colleagues and trainees, but also my loved ones. I used to jokingly tell my trainees that the difference between being a postdoc and a professor is that when you become a professor, you get to pick the person you disappoint next. I tried system after system for productivity, organising my life, but none of them ever stuck. When LLMs first appeared I also felt skeptical, but eventually realised their benefits for research, which are by now undeniable. However, the shift to agentic AI opened up the possibility of not only carrying out some of my tasks for me, but also setting up my own "chief-of-staff", an agent that could help me manage my commitments, energy levels, and keep track of my successes and failures. After the medication, this was the change with the greatest effect on my life. In the first two months, I went from having lists spread across multiple Notes, voice memos, scraps of paper strewn around my office, and my overloaded brain, to having a single system to contain it all, triage it, process it, and keep track of it so that I could finally achieve the flow state I so desperately craved.
I discussed this project with my friend Stephane, and we decided that it might be helpful for other professionals with ADHD. That is how Herding Chickens was born. My personal version has more features, which we hope to be able to bring to our users over time, but we decided to start with a core version to make sure these benefits do generalise. We're building Herding Chickens first on Telegram, then we'll bring it to other platforms. Join the waitlist and we'll tell you when early access opens. The design principles are simple: capture everything that matters, group it into categories, pick one key item to focus on for the day, get gentle reminders and if needed, AI assistance to split tasks (the difference between silently ruminating for an hour and taking a small step forward). It is my hope that you will also find this app beneficial, and would love to get your feedback. We are a small team, but we read every message, in whatever form you send it.
CEO
Stéphane's story
I met Leonid on a tennis court about five years ago, and we've been friends ever since. One day he told me he'd built something to help him keep on top of his tasks. I don't have ADHD, so this wasn't a world I knew from the inside. But he wasn't talking about an idea on paper. He was already using it. That was the bit that made me lean in.
Read the rest of Stéphane's story
I've been in IT for twenty years, mostly building websites and looking after marketing on personal projects, not for a company. Leonid knows the technical side, and he knows ADHD because he lives it. I like people, I like technology, and I like being useful. Between his system and what I already knew how to do, it felt like we could turn this into a real product that might help other people, not just him.
If you find us here, or you join the waitlist, I hope it feels like you've finally landed on something that actually helps, not another app buzzing you every five minutes. That's what I care about. There is a simple pleasure in building something useful and then not getting in the way.
I look after the website, the marketing, and talking to people. We're starting on Telegram to keep things simple. Join the waitlist and we'll tell you when early access opens. I hope it helps you start without the nagging. And if it does, or if it doesn't, say so. We're a small team, and I do read what comes in.
One chicken at a time. That's how the flock gets herded.
What we believe
Guilt-free by design
Shame is not a productivity strategy. The product is designed not to scold you, redden at you, or count your failures.
Built for how starting actually feels
Designed around real ADHD friction — getting tasks started, staying on them, noticing time — not motivational posters or hustle advice.
Community-shaped
We want the ADHD community to shape the roadmap. If a feature doesn't help a real neurodivergent brain, it shouldn't ship.
Join the waitlist
The app is coming soon. Leave your email and we'll tell you when early access opens.
The product is coming soon — Telegram first, then web and mobile. Features, pricing, and timelines may change. We'd rather tell you that now than surprise you later.