1. Tell us about you.
DŌBRA is a venture studio with a strong focus on impact. We create startups from scratch around high-potential, socially relevant issues. We intend to address issues of habitat sustainability, climate change, health, safety, active longevity, and future tech-lifestyle. Our first bunch is dedicated to mental wellbeing — an area we selected after deep, data-driven research.
Studio acts as a seasoned co-founder with hands-on guidance and day-to-day operations for the startups. We don’t accept external startups; instead, we identify promising problem spaces and form cross-functional teams to build meaningful solutions from the ground up.
2. Tell us how your startup is changing the world.
We believe impact is scalable when it's systemic. DŌBRA is not just launching apps—we're building an infrastructure to repeatedly generate startups that tackle issues like emotional resilience, grief support, decision fatigue, and stress overload.
Our first bunch of startups (including Bear Room, CareCompanion, Magic Mirror, Teeni and Food for Mood) is already being tested in live markets. They were created following a massive research project that analyzed over 300 billion data points. We aim to reduce the emotional suffering that's increasingly becoming a global norm.
3. What sets you apart from the competition?
The core idea behind DŌBRA is to create startups that are properly cooked and ready for the VC market. First, we put a lot of focus on validating ideas. Our studio’s themes (we call them "issues") are chosen based on large-scale research involving media, patents, venture deals, and more. For example, our decision to focus first on mental health was entirely data-driven.
Second, DŌBRA’s core team acts as a co-founder: handling hiring, legal, marketing, compliance, and partnerships—freeing product owners to focus on product. We share tech and design resources across startups, which cuts the burn rate nearly in half and helps prevent founder burnout.
Third, we work iteratively, quickly testing ideas and allocating resources to the most promising ones using retention, engagement, and impact as core metrics. Studio reduces risks by underwriting investment in a whole bunch. As all in-house startups deal with the same issue it creates the intrinsic magic of startup survival, and ensures a better success rate.
Flexibility is key: when projects underperform, we pause or reallocate teams without losing talent or knowledge.
4. What does it mean for you to win this title?
Recognition like this helps us bring more attention to under-discussed areas like daily mental self-care. It also validates our belief that impactful, evidence-based tech deserves as much visibility as the next AI productivity tool. We’re grateful to be included and see it as fuel to go further.
5. What do you love about your team, and why are you the ones to set out for this mission?
Our team combines deep tech, product, and psychological expertise, with people who have built, scaled, and supported impact ventures, AI, and science communication. We’re proud to bring together a diverse team of professionals with deep expertise in their field.
Right now, our flagship product Bear Room is being developed by:
- A founder and serial entrepreneur with 20+ years of experience and startup mentorship awards
- A clinical psychologist and Fortune 500 workplace mental wellness consultant who advises global organizations and academic institutions
- An AI & data expert with experience in genAI and big data, formerly working with clients like NASA, Formula 1, Sanofi, and Vodafone
- A Chief Product Officer with 7+ years in SaaS and digital products, and founder of multiple B2C/B2B ventures
- A UX designer with an M.S. in psychology, 10 years of product design and behavioral research experience, and background in academic science
6. Looking back, what milestone was the biggest turning point for your startup?
Our biggest inflection point was running the DŌBRA Grand Prix—an ideation sprint involving nearly 1,000 participants. It led to 14 validated product concepts, 7 of which were prototyped, and 5 now live in the market. This proved our studio model could turn insight into product fast.
7. What’s one valuable lesson you learned this year that you’d pass on to other startups?
Build your hypothesis in public. The earlier your community is involved, the more honest your roadmap becomes. Also: don’t chase perfection early on—a clear emotional insight beats a flawless wireframe.
8. How do you envision your industry evolving in the coming years, and how will your startup stay ahead?
We expect mental health to shift from "reactive therapy" to a mix of preventative, moment-based, and ambient support. Startups that combine psychology with great UX and accessible pricing will lead the change. We stay ahead by using synthetic and real user data, and rapid prototyping, to build culturally relevant products.
9. How do you or your company intend to embrace the responsibility of this title in 2025?
We recently crossed the bar of 100,000 self-healing sessions among our apps. And if we convince investors that Venture Studios is a worthy asset that is already showing its effectiveness, by the end of 2025, that will be a MILLION such sessions, each of which has made a specific person somewhere in the world feel better in challenging times.
10. What goals are you looking forward to accomplishing in 2025?
We’re aiming for 1 million self-healing user sessions across our flagman app Bear Room. Therefore, learning how to predict negative conditions and keep our users from irreversible health consequences is another important milestone. We are already working on such functionality in our application, with the self-explanatory name “Amulet”.
11. 2024 has been crazy, with all the new techs and geopolitical fluctuations. What are the impacts of these to your startup, and to your industry as a whole?
We were launching a bunch of startups in mental health in 2022 when it was clear that the next two years would see this market decline in venture capital investment. But we did it absolutely consciously, realizing that during the time of COVID and the hype about mental wellness fundamentally little has changed and there will be a new spring. 2024 highlighted the urgency of accessible mental health care. Geopolitical instability and economic stressors fueled demand, while tech breakthroughs in AI and LLMs allowed us to iterate faster and simulate clinical logic in new ways. Still, we remain cautious—impact must come before hype.
12. We would love your feedback on HackerNoon as a tech publication! How has your experience been with us?
We love HackerNoon’s independent voice, human tone, and celebration of strange, brilliant ideas. You give early-stage founders a chance to speak before they’re polished. Thank you for that.
13. Any words of wisdom you’d like to share with us?
Mental health isn't just about your moods and emotions. It's about your productivity, your cognitive abilities and your ability to live life to the fullest. When you are in poor mental condition, everything else becomes difficult to achieve. So always have a good digital tool on hand to help and tell you what to do next.
