It all started when Sansan Fibri, founder of Wakefully, wrote a screenplay. The main character, loosely based on Fibri herself, built an app to unlock the symbolic messages of dreams.
“I thought it would be amazing to launch it alongside the movie,” Sansan said.
At the time, Apple was casting for its first reality show, Planet of the Apps, where software developers had 60 seconds to pitch their ideas to advisors like Gary Vaynerchuk.
Fibri participated with her “dream app” idea and made it to the final round.
Flipping the script
Growing up in Israel, Sansan was captivated by the magic of dreams. She lived in five countries before settling in New York in her early twenties to pursue a career in film.
“Dreams inspired my screenwriting, revealing a lot about myself,” Sansan said.
After studying Jungian dream analysis, the method unlocking symbolic meanings for personal growth, she realized dreams held deeper meaning than she’d thought.
Sansan began fundraising for Wakefully during the COVID-19 pandemic, navigating a world in chaos and an emotionally draining relationship. Then came the dream that changed everything.
In the dream, Sansan stood at the edge of a cliff, accompanied by two versions of herself: one representing higher wisdom and the other a terrified, self-doubting fragment of her inner fears.
“We needed to get somewhere, but nothing seemed to work. The only option was to jump,” Sansan recalls.
“Are we falling?” asked her fear-based self.
“No,” her higher wisdom self answered. “We’re flying.”
The moment she embraced this new belief, Sansan felt as though she was floating toward her destination.
“Two days later, I closed my pre-seed round,” she said. “That dream showed me that the fear-based narrative I was telling myself was wrong. If I chose to believe in something higher, the world would meet me halfway.”
Closing the first dream round
Wakefully raised $200,000 from ALIAVIA Ventures, a California-based fund led by immigrant VCs that invests in early-stage female founders in Australia and the U.S.
Now, a few years later, Sansan is back in fundraising mode, aiming to close her SAFE round with an additional investment of $300,000. She compares pitching to investors to performing.
“Thank goodness I’m good at memorizing scripts,” she said. “But pitching to investors is tougher because nobody is necessarily going to laugh, or even respond when you expect them.”
In her conversations with VCs, Sansan draws from her theater background.
“In theater school, we were taught to audition as if we already had the part to help manage nerves,” she said. “Also, the people on the other side of the table actually want you to succeed — they’re hoping the next unicorn is coming through their door.”
The power of subconscious
Wakefully is based on research linking dreams to mental health and performance. Its features include DreamDecoder, a personalized AI interpreter, Dream Manifester to shape dreams, and Dream Rescript, which transforms stressful dreams into positive experiences.
The app uses clinically validated techniques like imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT), effective for PTSD and recurring nightmares.
“If you’re being chased by a monster, we’ll help you rewrite the ending,” said Sansan.
She compares dreams to movies of the mind: “Your subconscious is the screenwriter, your mind is the director, and you’re the only audience member. You’re telling yourself a story — often without realizing it.”
According to the National Science Foundation, 80% of our thoughts are negative and 95% are repetitive – Wakefully helps users change that narrative.
Even strange dreams offer insights into waking life, boosting performance and productivity. “It’s a reflection of something you’re experiencing,” Sansan said. “Processing awkward feelings helps you operate with a more focused mind.”
For those who don’t remember their dreams, Wakefully sends bedtime notifications to set an intention for recall. Sansan believes memory is like a muscle – with practice, you can train your brain to make it automatic.
Building the dream business
Wakefully is collaborating with coaches, therapists, and wellness platforms to help assess clients’ subconscious progress and accelerate breakthroughs.
With over 30,000 users, the app has the largest and most contextually rich dream database.
“There are outdated databases from 20 years ago,” Sansan said. “They lack context about the dreamer. We analyze dreams based on current events, personal experiences, and cultural shifts.”
A Harvard Medical School survey found that during the COVID-19 pandemic, Americans dreamed of various bugs, including armies of cockroaches and wriggling worms.
“There’s a reason for that — Americans call a virus a bug,” Sansan said. “People in other countries dreamed about being trapped. Dreams reflect not only our personal experiences but also cultural ones.”
Understanding dream data is key to exploring how the human psyche behaves in certain circumstances. For example, Wakefully data shows that women pregnant with their first child often dream about identity.
“It’s a big change: suddenly, you go from being an individual to a mother, putting your child first,” Sansan said.
For her, Wakefully is more than an app — it’s a mission to help people embrace their inner power and reshape their lives from within.
“Anyone can take control of their narrative,” she said. “Dreams are always working, whether you tap into them or not.”
