We all might need some help with our mental health. I used Ash and was blown away by how helpful it was at 2 AM. It remembered our conversations, and even challenged me, providing valuable insights. Isn't it crazy how AI can make us feel more human?
We're thrilled to introduce Ash: the first AI designed for therapy. This is deeply personal to us. We've struggled, tried to get help, and realized that most of us have the same problem. We decided to train a new foundation model for psychology and build Ash on top of it as a way of helping a lot more people.
We raised $93M from a16z, Felicis, Radical, Forerunner, TMV, and many mission aligned investors to help us do this the right way.
🧠 Why AI therapy built differently matters
Most AI assistants validate everything you say and give you the answer you want. That's great for productivity, terrible for growth. Therapy pushes you to see things differently.
Here's what makes Ash different:
Trained on therapy, not just the internet. Ash is built on our foundation model for psychology, which was trained on clinically relevant data. It’s learned from every approach — CBT, DBT, psychodynamic, you name it. When you talk to Ash, you're getting collective therapeutic wisdom, not generic advice.
It won't always agree with you. When you say "I'm angry," ChatGPT says "I'm sorry you're feeling that way." Ash might ask "Why is anger a bad thing?" Ash can create productive friction that leads to breakthroughs.
Learns what actually helps you. Through reinforcement learning, Ash pays attention to what creates real change — not just what makes you feel good in the moment. It notices when you open up, when you have insights, when you actually follow through on goals.
✨ What people are experiencing:
"Definitely something everyone should try. Only used two times so far and already it has brightened my inner flame that has almost completely burned out."
"I just wanted to tell you all thank you one more time... I've decided to go back to school to get my doctorate in psychology. Thanks to you guys for this, I'm learning how to become the best version of me… Thank you for changing and saving my life."
"We solved a problem I have been dealing with for a week in 5 minutes."
🎯 The details that matter:
Voice or text: Sometimes you need to talk it out, sometimes you need to write. You can pick.
Different styles: Ash can adapt styles to figure out what works for you
Remembers what you say: Ash remembers what you say between sessions so you don’t have to repeat yourself.
Weekly insights: See your patterns and progress over time
Actually private: Your data stays encrypted, and only opt-in anonymized data is used for improvements
🌍 Our mission:
There are 10,000 people for every therapist. Waiting lists stretch a year. Even if you find someone, there's no guarantee they'll understand your background, share your values, or fit your budget. And honestly? Most people only ever make it to one therapy session.
We're not replacing human therapists. We're creating a new modality of care that's available 24/7 and learns what works for you.
The team: We were founded by machine learning engineer Daniel Cahn (started coding at 8, AI research in mental health at Imperial) and me (co-founded Casper, helped millions sleep better, and then realized I wanted to improve my own, and many others' mental health).
We've had 50,000 people in our beta, and today, we're opening up to Product Hunt.!
Mental health isn't a 10% problem — it's an everyone problem. If you've ever thought "maybe I should talk to someone" but didn't know where to start, Ash is here.
Give it a try and let us know what you think. We read every piece of feedback (seriously, ask our beta users 😅).
