Helping people see a change in themselves before it becomes a crisis

Why we built Okaya

Like too many people, we've watched loved ones struggle. We've seen the good days and the bad days. We've celebrated small victories and sat through dark nights. Some of us have lost someone to suicide. When that happens, the questions stay with you: could I have seen the signs? What if they'd had better support? What could have been different?

Mental health professionals told us the same story again and again: by the time most people ask for help, they're already in crisis. People do care. We just don't notice our own decline until we're struggling to stay afloat, and the longer the wait, the harder the road back.

Then there's the stigma. Despite all the talk about awareness, suicide rates keep rising in some groups. People still whisper about therapy. They still hesitate to use their company's EAP because "what if someone finds out?"

What if checking in on your readiness could be as normal as checking your blood pressure?

Our idea came unexpectedly. Greg, one of our co-founders, was testing high-performance cameras through Intel's Software Innovators program. He set up his bike on a stationary trainer, strapped on his heart rate monitor, and saw the camera read his heart rate almost exactly like the monitor. Okaya doesn't measure heart rate. But that moment showed what a camera could notice. It also showed that technology, built with care and science, could help people see their own state more clearly.

The team came together naturally. Some of us had worked together for decades; others brought fresh eyes from other fields. What connects us is a shared belief that technology, built responsibly, can help people understand themselves better.

Two levels: the person and the team

The cost of people struggling in silence lands on families, teams and whole organizations. So Okaya works on two levels. Each person sees their own readiness. Organizations get a group view that helps them support their people.

Individual results stay private to the individual.

Leadership sees anonymized, aggregated unit-level readiness only. Never who checked in, how anyone did, or anything they said.

Organizations have both a responsibility and an opportunity to build places where people can stay ready. That means better support, better-targeted resources, and a culture that puts readiness first every day.

Built on our own research, explained in plain words

Many AI tools are built on data that doesn't reflect the range of real people. That's why we build our own research datasets, study where bias can creep in, and publish what we find. You deserve to know what the check-in looks at and why, so we explain it plainly.

This work is personal. When we improve Okaya, or hear from someone it helped, we think about the people we couldn't help in time. We want fewer families to ask themselves what they could have done differently.

That's why we're here. That's why we built Okaya.