Our story
My daughter's PT worked. Getting her to do it didn't.
My daughter has plantar fasciitis and Sever's disease — a growth-plate heel condition common in active kids 8–14. Her PT laid out a simple plan: stretch every day.
The every daypart was the whole problem. She never wanted to start. The printed sheet sat on the counter and the stretches felt like a chore — homework she didn't ask for. Most nights we'd get two done, if any. I was stuck knowing exactly what would help her and unable to get her to do it.
🧒 An unlikely observation
She'd sit on the couch for 30 minutes doing exactlythe same stretching motion if it was part of a dance routine in a game she loved. Same calves. Same feet. Same duration. The difference wasn't her body — it was the context.
The exercises weren't the problem. The framing was.
So I built her a stretching app that looks and feels like the games her friends play. A princess she dresses up. A unicorn she feeds by finishing her quest. A castle she builds one stretch at a time. Streaks, stickers, loot. Silly, a little ridiculous, and every exercise underneath is one her PT already approved.
She started opening it on her own. After months of fighting a paper sheet, she was asking when she could do her quest.
💡 Why we opened it up
Once the app worked for her, I couldn't stop thinking about every other kid in the same spot — Sever's, Osgood-Schlatter, scoliosis, plantar fasciitis, growing pains — whose parents are fighting the same nightly battle. Plus every grown-up prescribed PT after surgery or for a chronic issue who quit two weeks in. We're not failing at PT because we don't care. We're failing because the system isn't built for humans. So we added a Warrior theme for kids who'd rather slay dragons than wear crowns, and a Sage theme for adults, seniors, and everyone in between.
What we're building
Stretch Quest is a small company with a simple promise: the entire core app is free forever. All 40 PT protocol-based exercises. All three themes. All the gamification. No ads. No data collection from kids. Works offline. If every family used only the free tier, we'd still call this a success.
The paid Family tier is for families who want cloud sync across devices, leaderboards between siblings, a parent dashboard to track compliance, and specialized PT routines for the most common reasons people end up in physical therapy — plantar fasciitis, low back pain, runner's knee, posture, neck and shoulders, hip mobility, rotator cuff, meniscus recovery, and more. That's how we keep the lights on.
Who I am
I'm Kevin Zoss, a dad in Los Angeles, and Stretch Quest is built under my holding company, Zoss Family Holdings, LLC. My day job is Partner and Head of Media at Lazy Boy Agency, where I help brands with creative, talent and media. My other day job is being a parent to two wonderful girls, one of which needs to stretch every night whether she likes it or not.
If you have feedback, a feature idea, or a story of your own, I'd genuinely love to hear it: kevin@playstretchquest.com.
This one's for you Meadow. I love you!