Hello Koko

Some of the most transformative software applications and services from the past decade have been powered by collective intelligence. Each time we use Google, Wikipedia, and countless other services, we’re benefiting from the individual contributions of thousands, if not millions, of people.

Could this same approach help improve well-being? Could we crowdsource the treatment of stress and anxiety? What benefits might come from a peer-to-peer model, where everyone learns by teaching others?

Koko hopes to answer these questions.

At Koko, our mission is to leverage the concepts of collective intelligence to bring emotional well-being to everyone.

The app

When we’re stressed, we often become our own worst enemy. We tell ourselves that we can’t do it. That we aren’t good enough. That things will never get better.

Our thoughts influence how we feel. While we can always modify our thoughts, wrestling with our own mind can sometimes feel like a losing battle.

Enter Koko. On Koko you post your stress anonymously. The crowd helps you see your situation from different, less negative, perspectives so you can find your way forward.

It sounds simple but it works. An early version of this system, developed at the MIT Media Lab, was evaluated in a clinical trial and was shown to significantly improve mental health outcomes.

The coolest part? The people who provided the most help on the system appeared to benefit the most. On Koko, it’s good to be good.

The community

We’ve been running a private beta with thousands of participants for a number of months. An early realization was that if a community can help one another manage stress, the community can help create the app that we all want to use. With this in mind we introduced a meta community within the app and the community has been helping shape the direction of Koko.

While Koko may be designed and developed by the three of us, it is brought to life by our incredible community from across the world.

The funding

We are happy to share that Union Square Ventures and Joi Ito have invested in Koko. Along with early investments in Twitter and Tumblr, Union Square Ventures has invested in companies that are using crowdsourcing to create entirely new experiences, including Kickstarter, Duolingo, and Stack Overflow. The funding will allow us to continue to build an exceptional product that our community loves.

The team

Koko is designed and built in New York City by Kareem Kouddous, Rob Morris, PhD, Fraser Kelton, with support from Alex Rainert and Rachel Nash.

Originally published at medium.com on December 16, 2015.