Our story
Built by two high schoolers who understood cancer from different sides.
Soothe Note began with a simple problem: remembering care details should not be another burden.
Soothe Note was founded in 2026 by two high school juniors who had seen cancer from different sides.
Brynn Forlizzi, co-founder of Soothe Note, is a cancer survivor who was first diagnosed in 2023 during high school. She knows what it feels like to sit across from a doctor and suddenly go blank, even when the details matter: symptoms, side effects, medications, questions, and everything that happened between appointments.
Teddy Aaron, founder and CEO, came to the problem from the caregiver and support side. He had lived close to cancer too, sitting in waiting rooms and seeing how hard it can be to help someone you care about without knowing what to track, what to ask, or how to make the next appointment easier.
When Teddy brought the idea to Brynn at the start of 2026, it clicked immediately. Not as a startup idea, but as something they both understood from different seats.
Most health apps are built to win attention. More notifications. More streaks. More tracking. But cancer care does not need gamification. It needs something simple, calm, and useful on hard days.
That became Soothe Note: a calm cancer care tracking app for daily check-ins, symptoms, medications, appointment questions, private notes, caregiver sharing, and visit-ready reports.
Soothe Note was built for the space between appointments, where patients and caregivers are often carrying everything in their heads.
“Would this still feel okay on a hard day?”
How Soothe Note got here.
- Teddy
Teddy first sees cancer up close
At eight or nine years old, Teddy was introduced to cancer through a loved one's diagnosis. That experience shaped how he understood the uncertainty and unseen work carried by families and caregivers.
- Brynn
Brynn is diagnosed during freshman year
Brynn was diagnosed with stage 3 germ cell ovarian cancer, a rare form that primarily affects adolescent girls. She underwent two surgeries and three rounds of chemotherapy at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.
- Soothe Note
The first Soothe Note idea
Teddy began shaping an idea for a calmer way to help patients and caregivers remember symptoms, medications, questions, and what happened between appointments.
- Soothe Note
The first attempt falls short
Teddy tried to build the app, but he did not yet have the technical skills to make the idea work. The attempt stopped, but the problem stayed with him.
- Brynn
Brynn faces cancer again
After nearly a year and a half cancer-free, Brynn was diagnosed again during her junior year. She completed four more rounds of chemotherapy and another surgery, and has been cancer-free since.
- Soothe Note
The first working beta
After learning more and trying again, Teddy built the first working beta of Soothe Note. It was the first version that made the original idea feel real.
- Together
Teddy brings Brynn into the idea
Teddy showed Brynn the product and explained the problem he wanted to solve. It clicked because she had lived the exact moment behind it: sitting in an appointment and forgetting symptoms and questions that mattered.
- Together
Soothe Note launches
Teddy and Brynn brought the first public version of Soothe Note to market, built from both the caregiver and cancer-survivor perspectives.
Today, Teddy and Brynn continue building Soothe Note around what patients and caregivers actually need between visits.