This CEO was Going to be a Consultant but Decided to Solve Mental Health Issues With AI Instead.

HackerNoon Reporter: Please tell us briefly about your background.

My name is Vishal Sisodia. I am an Engineer. For the past 10 years, I have been investing my time and energy into breaking the status quo in the health care sector.

What's your startup called? And in a sentence or two, what does it do?

Sumondo focuses on mental health issues, especially stress & chronic stress, which leads to depression. Sumondo is working on personalized, preventive solutions using ML/AI and using wearable devices across the world.

What is the origin story?

I developed heart problems a few times in my life. After doctors suggested go through a bypass operation, I decided not only to control my stress but also to avoid the bypass operation for my heart. It is a very long story, I presented it in short here.

What do you love about your team, and why are you the ones to solve this problem?

I come from the capital city of Yoga, Rishkesh/haridwar, India. Since I grew up in these places, I have been doing meditation for 23 years now.

When I made the algorithm for detecting stress, I thought it will be good idea to combine my passion (meditation) into the solution. The product is designed in Denmark, where most of the people are on sick leave due to stress. (Editor’s Note: wow!)

So our founder team is quite heavyweight, with a technical background and in-depth knowledge for meditation and non-medicine ways to treat sickness using digital health. Sumondo has 7 advisory board members who are all KOLs, doctors, and scientists.

If you weren’t building your startup, what would you be doing?

Consulting for Deloitte or Mckinsey.

(Editor’s Note: I’m glad you didn’t do this tbh!)

At the moment, how do you measure success? What are your core metrics?

Survived Corona time, and built the product further.

What’s most exciting about your traction to date?

Sold solution to three enterprise customers in Denmark and Netherlands.

What technologies are you currently most excited about, and most worried about? And why?

Blockchain, which I’m both excited and worried about, whether this technology would be used for wrong purposes.

What drew you to get published on HackerNoon? What do you like most about our platform?

Got the email invitation in our mailbox. We will see….

What advice would you give to the 21-year-old version of yourself?

Stay focused, keep doing things in baby steps.

What is something surprising you've learned this year that your contemporaries would benefit from knowing?

Learning an instrument (sitar) at the age of 47.