Paul:
Hello and welcome to What The Tech From Boast AI, where we talk with some of the brilliant minds behind new and exciting tech initiatives to learn what it takes to tackle technological uncertainty and eventually change the world.
Today I'm thrilled to welcome Dr. Ewa Antczak onto the show. Along with being a registered psychologist as well as an author and co-author of several research papers on social advertisement, she's also the chief executive officer and founder of Felixa Games. At Felixa, Ewa and her team are developing an AI engine that can be implemented into existing video games to monitor, track, and analyze behavioral markers for players. The AI engine will evaluate biological factors including eye movement, facial expressions, and tone of voice while gathering information from wearables to paint a picture of a player's wellbeing.
It's a nascent but important tech for sure, that holds a lot of promise with the potential to give game manufacturers insights they need to support the mental health of customers while giving players in the gaming community a safe and secure environment to learn about and deal with their own mental health struggles. It's a lofty mission that crosses multiple disciplines, and I can't wait to hear from Ewa about what her plans are for Felixa on the short term, her long-term goals and her take on navigating the startup world in 2023. So without further ado, welcome to the show.
Dr. Ewa Antczak:
Hello, Paul. How are you? Thank you very much for having me here.
Paul:
I am doing great. I'm so happy to speak with you. I know that we didn't cross paths in person at Elevate a couple of weeks back, but that's where you first came on our radar. I'd love to lead with how was the conference for you? How did you enjoy Elevate, and what were some takeaways from the show?
Dr. Ewa Antczak:
Oh, well. It was amazing. I really enjoyed the atmosphere. I really enjoyed meeting amazing, brilliant people who shared really interesting ideas in the tech industry. And actually for us it was a very special event because we ended up in the finals. So we were chosen as a top 10 startup companies at Elevate.
Paul:
That is fantastic. That is part of why I was so excited to speak with you today too, Ewa. Tell us about this top 10 startup. I know you're not necessarily a tech-specific founder, but I'd love to know how you got into the tech space to begin with.
Dr. Ewa Antczak:
Well, I think that tech has always been somewhere in my blood. I was fascinated. I was always keeping track of things that are going on. And by the way, you know that out of eight billion people in the world, three billion play video games. Have you ever played a video game at least once in your life?
Paul:
Oh, man. I live with a gamer. So last night they had D&D going in the other room for about five hours. So yes, I'm very familiar with gaming. But video gaming in particular, I got my boyfriend a PS5 for Christmas, so I'm familiar.
Dr. Ewa Antczak:
So you know what I'm talking about, right?
Paul:
Absolutely.
Dr. Ewa Antczak:
Gaming became huge many years ago, especially after the pandemic. I learned that 87% of people who are dealing with some mental health problems reach out for help online, especially in video games. And as much as I understand that video games can be very helpful, relaxing, and so on, let's be honest, they can create a lot of problems, especially when you are spending too much time, or especially when you are using it as an escape from reality.
So that's basically why I thought that instead of asking people to come to my office and ask for help, I would go and meet them where they feel most comfortable, which is directly in a video game. And that's how my journey with Felixa started. So it was way, way, way back before the pandemic, but I think that pandemic speed things up. I was honored and blessed to meet amazing people in my journey, including Claudette McGowan, who is the CEO of Protexxa which is a cybersecurity company, including [inaudible 00:03:42] who is helping with operations. And just recently we got an amazing person who is our CEO and his name is [inaudible 00:03:50] and he also builds AI solutions for government for the defense department.
Paul:
Oh, wow. So it is a very, very exciting time for Felixa. You guys are growing exponentially based on where you had been, it was an awesome elevate fest where you kind of got your homecoming in terms of, "Hey, you're one of the top 10 startups!" So congrats to Ewa. That's the first thing I want to say off the gate. Now, I'd love to know why did you get passionate about gaming in the first place? I know we kind of alluded to it and especially because just the scope of the issue in terms of mental health affecting gamers in particular is so huge. But tell me a little bit about why that's a passion for you.
Dr. Ewa Antczak:
Well, I also live with a gamer, two of them. I see what's happening to these young minds if you are not taking care of them as early as possible when they are facing some kind of difficulties. I've heard so many stories. I've seen so many young people struggling with mental health because they do not reach out for help in other ways. Just look for it inside of the game. What's scary about it really is that in the game shots, I'm sure you're familiar, anybody can say anything. When you're looking for an advice, you can get really any advice, even the most cruel ones. So as I mentioned before, gaming is extremely popular. We are talking about 3 billion people or more really playing video games. I think that this is the easiest way to reach people who need support. This is the environment where they feel safe, where they feel comfortable. This is definitely stigma free. They don't have to go anywhere to any office. They don't even have to schedule an appointment. This is so convenient that I think this is the best medium to go out and try to provide support when needed. Of course, we're not going to force anybody, especially if they don't need support. I think that the pace of life nowadays, and this is a quite acute, as you mentioned before, solution.
Paul:
And like you were explaining to, you're meeting folks on their terms, you're meeting them where they're most comfortable. You're lowering the barrier to entry to getting the help that you need. When you're being inundated with a lot of information too, like you had said, some unkind people can give you advice while you're out playing in the chat, while you're listening on your headphones. It can be overwhelming to be honest. So having a lifeline like that I can only imagine is going to be extremely helpful. Are there any solutions similar to Felixa on the market today or is this something completely new that you guys are revolutionizing here?
Dr. Ewa Antczak:
Felixa is going to revolutionize the way we understand psychology and mental health support. Again, from the ancient times when people who struggle with mental wellbeing we're usually left alone and they were not doing very well throughout the times when Dr. Freud came out and said, "Hey, you can come here and talk to me." That was absolutely a breakthrough in psychology. A doctor, physician is allowing you to speak aloud and speak your mind about your issues, and we've been doing that for about 200 years now. But when you look at the huge and speedy development of technology, what we're bringing as a human race, I think that we need to take a little bit different approach. And again, there has always been a stigma around mental health. That's why a lot of people do not reach out for help. They are ashamed. They're afraid. They don't want to be excluded.
Felixa is going to be another huge breakthrough in psychology. There are a lot of platforms out there, online platforms that allow people to connect with the psychologist and speak to them. But here again, Felixa is not only a solution to reach out for help, we are also going to provide diagnostics, monitoring and analyze behavior factors inside the game. So in other words, we're going to analyze how the player, how the gamer is playing the game. How the person reacts in the game. And based on this information, we are going to send the readout to the gamer. And also regular reports, obviously without any personal data and so on. Everything is going to be encrypted and anonymous. But I think it is important for the game manufacturers to also learn how they can improve video game to enhancement or wellbeing of the gamers.
Paul:
I think that's a great way of not putting the onus solely on the gamer to seek help. It puts a lot of the onus onto the manufacturer who's kind of creating the environment where a lot of the damage could be proliferated. So that is super interesting. Media has changed in the past five years so much. This year alone, just AI has changed everything about the startup space, let alone the media space. So we need to come up with solutions that can keep pace with that rate of change. And I'm glad that you're combining the disciplines of psychology, as well as AI and the lead and cutting edge tech to get there and again, meet the people most in need of these services, in the environments where they're already at; where they're already spending most of their time and where they could really feel comfortable getting the help that they need. So that is great. I'd love to know, you have your kind of gamer audience, but then you also have the manufacturers. How do these different parties engage with Felixa? What is almost the model of engagement for the future with these two different audiences?
Dr. Ewa Antczak:
I agree with you, Paul, that game manufacturers should take some responsibility for enhancing mental wellness of the players. And let's be honest, gaming has always been accused of being a time-waster, promoting violence and even causing mental health problems. I think it's time that gaming manufacturers provide some kind of support. So in the business model, the gamer, of course, is in the center of everything. Felixa Engine, AI, Felixa Engine is going to be available for gaming manufacturers for 50,000 per year, plus less than one per click of Felixa button. That will allow gamers to reach out for help to speak live with a trained mental health professional 24/7.
Paul:
That's amazing. I can see the applications well beyond even just gaming too, but we'll stick with just gaming for now, obviously, in terms of actually developing the product and getting the startup out into space. Could you tell me about how you've leveraged maybe partnerships in the community? Who's come together to help you build Felixa, and what has that looked like?
Dr. Ewa Antczak:
As I mentioned before, I'm super blessed meeting amazing, amazing people from different industries including mental health. So on my team, there are amazing psychiatrists and people who really build the healthcare industry in Canada. There are amazing people in the tech area, and I have amazing also business advisors, but to be honest, I'm also super proud of our younger advisory board. So we have a bunch of young people who we regularly talk to, to bounce our ideas of and get their feedback, and of course some possible solutions that work for them. I found it extremely enjoyable journey. I see that a lot of people are very interested in this solution. They're willing to join in any shape and form. We also reach out to the Waterloo to ask for technical support from the internship students. I spoke to people from Boast, for example, who are also going to help with possible solutions in terms of financing the project.
Paul:
Absolutely. Yeah.
Dr. Ewa Antczak:
So this is amazing journey, Paul.
Paul:
That is awesome. I have a couple thoughts based on everything you said. First off, it's very rare that you hear about a company bringing in a youth advisory board. It makes perfect sense. Those are your customers, that's who you're going to be supporting. So talking to them again on their terms and at a level where they can really interact with you is fantastic. Your other point too, partnering with Boast. We're so excited to partner with companies that are really driving true innovation like you guys are doing over at Felixa, especially as you're growing your RD team. I know you'd mentioned you brought in a CTO, going to really be digging into the nitty gritty of the AI [inaudible 00:11:53] in drawing some unique innovations. And those are the companies that benefit the most from, not just shred financing, but all forms of non-diluted capital strategy that Boast is really an ace at helping them execute.
So very excited about the great work that we can do to help you partner, but also with the others in the ecosystem. Again, you're doing the right thing, you're partnering with Waterloo, you're looking at other institutions too to kind of get their help in doing all of this because it takes a village. We're changing how we talk to each other and communicate a lot quicker than we're evolving how we talk about mental health. And then I'd love to know too; now you're just getting started for the most part, but what are your plans for the next year or so?
Dr. Ewa Antczak:
Oh well, plans are amazing! Especially that we have, I would say a bunch of investors really interested in investing in Felixa which will allow us to start building this platform, hire the best, most knowledgeable software engineers, and also marketers and people who will help with promoting Felixa. We are currently building our MVP, so that's the plan for the rest of '23. And we are planning to launch Felixa in 2024. Obviously, this is just a humble beginning. As we go on, we are going to add other features too. For, such as VR, facial recognition, voice recognitions and so on. Things like that already exist out there, but we are going to implement it and include in our solution. So basically when we have our MVP ready, we are going to start our data gathering process. We're also hoping to partner with some other universities that will help with the research.
Paul:
The year's not over yet. There's a lot of work to be done before we're in 2024, but I'm so happy to hear that you're as close to launch as you actually are, and again, that there's so much that you can do. I'm glad that you mentioned too, that VR and additional kind of technologies that you could fold in they exist out there. It's just we'll get there when it's ready, and I'm so excited to see what this can actually do. So Ewa, I appreciate this so much. Before we sign off, I'd love to know for other founders out there, what's maybe some advice you could give about starting a business in the current market?
Dr. Ewa Antczak:
That's a very good question. I started the business with huge enthusiasm, which helped me. And it is helping even through the difficult times to be surrounded by people who are like-minded, who are also enthusiastic about what you're doing, connecting with people, reaching out, talking to people as much as possible, and most importantly, honestly, taking care of your mental wellbeing. Because when you're exhausted, when you are stressed out, it's very difficult to soldier on and continue building your dreams. So I would say: networking, working hard, but most importantly, taking care of yourself and your wellbeing.
Paul:
I think that's fantastic advice for founders who are pouring their whole lives into their projects at the moment. Dr. Antczak, I can't thank you enough. This was a pleasure.
Speaker 3:
Oh thank you so much. Thank you, Paul.