Dan Novaes brings an unusually wide-ranging story to the Digital Social Hour, one that touches health experimentation, a company built around rewarding smartphone use, and even how he met his wife. When Dan Novaes sat down with Sean Kelly, the conversation moved fluidly between all of it, anchored by a bond he shares with Sean and Wayne through a shared SIM hacking experience.
From there, the discussion opens into Novaes's personal health journey and the company, Mode, that grew out of his own restless curiosity about how technology and habits intersect.
About Dan Novaes
Dan Novaes is the founder of Mode, a phone company built around rewarding users for their everyday smartphone activity, an idea he describes as the "Earn Phone." Mode has grown to tens of millions of users globally, drawing attention internationally as people discovered they could get rewarded simply for how they already use their phones.
Alongside building Mode, Novaes has been open about his own health journey, one that led him to explore a range of alternative and integrative approaches after struggling to find answers through conventional means. That personal experience shapes much of how he talks about resilience and problem-solving as an entrepreneur.
What Dan Novaes and Sean Kelly Talked About
- How Dan Novaes built Mode into a phone rewards company with tens of millions of users
- What his own health struggles pushed him to explore outside conventional approaches
- Why he became interested in peptides and other alternative wellness experiments
- How a shared SIM hacking experience forged an unexpected bond with Sean and Wayne
- His take on aligning user behavior and company incentives inside Mode's rewards model
- What his personal dating story, including meeting his wife on Tinder, taught him about connection
- His perspective on where AI might be headed in the future of online dating
Why This Conversation Matters
Few guests connect health, technology, and personal life as directly as Dan Novaes does in this episode. It's a conversation worth watching for the entrepreneurial story alone, and for how openly he talks about the personal journey behind it.
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube
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About Sean Kelly & the Digital Social Hour
Sean Kelly is an entrepreneur and the host of the Digital Social Hour, one of the fastest-growing interview podcasts in the world, where he sits down with entrepreneurs, athletes, creators, and cultural voices for candid, long-form conversations. The show draws over 100 million views a month across platforms. Explore more guest features on SeanKelly.io.
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