00:00hello so we're going to start with a
00:04presentation by rata so uh and then
00:06we'll have a little talk after she gives
00:07a little presentation so welcome welcome
00:14Mika hello my name is rata it is
00:17wonderful to be back at slush I've been
00:18coming to this incredible conference
00:212016 and I'm going to start with a
00:23little bit of a product story I know
00:25this doesn't look like the products
00:26you're used to um but this is uh myself
00:30and my baby brother Ruben celebrating
00:31Norwegian national day um I'm half
00:33Norwegian and half Dutch and not long
00:36after this Photograph was taken we moved
00:38to the Netherlands um our fashion taste
00:41took a tall for the turn for the more
00:43colorful I would say I think that's what
00:45I still enjoy to wear today um Ruben and
00:48I had a pretty remarkable life growing
00:50up our parents separated when we were
00:51two and four years old and so we really
00:54grew up together we moved between our
00:57parents in different countries we lived
00:59in Norway and the the Netherlands we
01:00moved to England but we were always
01:04together and in fact we didn't just
01:06learn to speak similar languages
01:07together we also fell in love with
01:09technology together in this Photograph
01:11you can see us uh making ringtones uh
01:14Ruben was an engineer uh I was
01:17essentially his product manager he is a
01:22Mac we talk to each other about
01:27anything except we can't talk to each
01:29other about anything anymore um in fact
01:32I was in Norway this past weekend to
01:34commemorate um the 10 years since he
01:40accident this is a story about the magic
01:45connection I was incredibly lucky to
01:47have this one person in my life that I
01:50was able to share everything with um we
01:52shared the hula hoop of life together as
01:54you can see in this Photograph we were
01:56so incredibly close and I actually
01:58didn't realize until I learned to live
02:00without him the last 10 years how
02:03special it was to have this connection
02:05some of that I could fully
02:07trust and I've become incredibly
02:09interested since that moment in what it
02:11takes to feel close to someone what it
02:12takes to build trust and I've realized
02:15in that time that most people don't have
02:18one single person that they can trust
02:20and not feel judged by and confide
02:24in in the last 10 years we've entered
02:28the most lonely decade in human history
02:31and I have come to believe that we faced
02:33two great battles in our lifetime the
02:35first is the climate
02:37crisis and the second is loneliness and
02:39I think this is a problem that we're so
02:41just waking up to now the irony is that
02:44in the last decade I have actually
02:46dedicated my life to working on social
02:48Connection in various forms and shapes
02:50the reason I started coming to slush is
02:52I spent five years at Apple building the
02:54appstore business connecting people all
02:56across the world I actually ran the
02:58appstore in the Nordic for number of
03:00years I then went to work at headspace
03:02which is a leading mental health and
03:04mindfulness app and then I spent two
03:06years at Tinder most recently a CEO
03:08connecting people all over the world and
03:12yet as of the last two years the world
03:15is lonlier than ever in the US four and
03:18five young people feel lonely in Finland
03:22the Red Cross recently published a study
03:24to say that 61% of fins feel lonely
03:26sometimes or all of the time so what is
03:31well I founded a company called Mino
03:33earlier this year which is dedicated to
03:36helping people Master the skill of
03:37social connection because the good news
03:40is social connection feeling close to
03:42people like I did in that hula hoop is a
03:45skill that can be learned and our
03:48focus is on providing personalized
03:51relationship mentoring
03:56Mino is a personalized relationship
03:58Mentor that means that it will help you
04:01with any kind of relationship yes
04:03romantic too but also friendship family
04:06work maybe you're hero in the audience
04:08with some colleagues uh I think Nico
04:10rosberg is here at the conference maybe
04:12he could have used Mino to help him make
04:13better friends with uh Lewis Hamilton
04:16day um it is private and secure
04:20crucially and many people have asked me
04:24is it like the movie Her is it a fake
04:25girlfriend that is going to help me not
04:28feel lonely no it is quite the opp
04:29opposite of that um I think the best
04:32comparison that I've come up with is
04:33that Mino is more like the Remy in ratou
04:36except instead of helping you make
04:37amazing soup or pancakes it's helping
04:40you practice the skill of social
04:42connection and amazing relationships
04:44like in a flight simulator before going
04:46out to do this in the real
04:49world as I mentioned we're focused on 18
04:51to 25y olds right now because they
04:54really need this the most they had their
04:56social skill development interrupted by
04:58the pandemic I've spoken to dozens of
05:00young people in the last year who spent
05:032 years on Zoom staring at pixels when
05:05they should have been out in the
05:06playground flirting you know shoving
05:09people around and learning about these
05:10things this is where we're starting but
05:12I do think everyone can and could use me
05:17know um we've been in beta for a few
05:20weeks we've been testing the app in
05:22particular in the US um we have a few
05:24very happy customers and I think what's
05:26been really intriguing is that it isn't
05:28actually purely lonely people that are
05:30finding value in me know here is someone
05:33called Andrew Andrew is the the king of
05:35his frat house he's super popular he's
05:37got loads of friends but he didn't have
05:39the confidence to do the one thing he'd
05:41been agonizing about which was to ask a
05:43girl out that was in their friendships
05:44group and he said something to me that I
05:46keep hearing you know if you're my age
05:48now anything you'll say will be
05:51everywhere at the same time all at once
05:53and so he was terrified of taking this
05:55one step and he ended up working with
05:58Mina to ask the girl out
06:00they went on three dates it didn't work
06:01out but he was so proud and so happy and
06:04so confident and Mino has actually
06:06helped him take a very different
06:07approach to speaking honestly and
06:09authentically to his friends ever
06:11since we've built an amazing team with
06:13the help of our investors uh the team
06:15that you see here uh has worked
06:18previously to build headspace dulingo
06:21Tinder uh the abster business and so on
06:24and we are deeply passionate to helping
06:26people improve their social skills now
06:29all of this started when someone called
06:31Andrew in who you may have heard of
06:32called me up about a year ago and
06:33predicted that large language models
06:35like Chad jbt would quickly become a
06:39very powerful way to influence these
06:40types of things so we've been working
06:41for this on more than a year and I've
06:44spent a lot of my time in the last year
06:46on campuses building this with people in
06:49the real world but I have some exciting
06:52today today we're launching Mino in the
06:55first country in the world ever Finland
07:05I dream of a world in which there'll be
07:10product isn't anti- loneliness it is
07:14what we're experiencing here at this
07:15conference I love coming to slush
07:17because I have made some of my best
07:19friends two of my investors are Tony
07:21Fidel uh and one of the leaders of
07:24Spotify I met them both here at
07:26slush Finland is one of the most
07:28Innovative countries on the the world
07:30and I want your feedback before anyone
07:32else so I think 30% of the attendees
07:34here are finished so make a finished
07:36friend if you're not on the Finish app
07:38store please go and download the app and
07:40let me know what you think we want to
07:41build this with you so thank you very
07:43much and uh let's talk about Mino thank
07:48you how exciting so all the fins out
07:51there can download this so the rest of
07:53us have to wait I suppose but uh and you
07:55are finished but you're not the finish
07:56I'm on the Finish App Store so
07:57unfortunately I cannot get it but
08:00um I love passion projects passion
08:04startups driven by Passion driven by
08:05background and this is this is
08:06definitely one of those things this is
08:08like it feels like almost like uh your
08:10entire life has been building up to this
08:12thing and uh and and it's it's really
08:14going to it's it's just you g me that
08:16presentation was so nice to hear um I
08:18really want to dig into this AI versus
08:21human you you you you we've talked about
08:23this and I've seen you in other
08:24presentations where you don't like it
08:26when people say it's like her you know
08:29that the famous movie The ha Phoenix and
08:30it's really um how important the human
08:33aspect is to this and what it's
08:35interesting to me is like you know
08:37people don't think about human and AI
08:38together but this is exactly what you
08:40want to do can you can you talk a little
08:41bit deeper about that how that works and
08:43what you're thinking yeah
08:46so the truth is I genuinely reached a
08:50point um a year and a half ago where I
08:54disillusioned with to your point I'd
08:57spent almost 20 years in trying to use
08:59technology to build social connection um
09:02most recently at tinter and I simply
09:07didn't see the solutions that we had
09:08making enough of an impact um I think
09:12really all of that has changed now with
09:15the emergence of in particular natural
09:18language processing um and large
09:20language models and the reason for that
09:22is it's really allowing us to build
09:25products that follow the way that we
09:27speak and think as as human beings um
09:31and that's also the reason that I'm
09:32launching in Finland today and to be
09:34clear I want to set the expectation
09:35we're very early stage but we want to be
09:38able to design this for the questions
09:40that you will have for the types of
09:42Journeys that you want to take yourself
09:44on um we do not have to create this
09:48prescriptive path the way textbooks used
09:50to do it and then most apps of the last
09:5215 years where you would take someone
09:54through lesson one learning finish
09:56lesson two learning finish uh now now
09:59there's a two-minute onboarding and then
10:01you can really go into any relationship
10:03topic or goal that you have and we'll be
10:05learning from you and we'll be building
10:07for you so it's going to be actually
10:11supporting what people really do and who
10:13they really are so it's not like some
10:14kind of like wrote thing is it's
10:16actually you really it's really human in
10:18a way you're saying yeah fantastic but
10:22being helping you with your real human
10:25relation rat okay um so competition is
10:30there competition for this it's it's you
10:32hear about chat Bots and all this stuff
10:34going on AI like there's always personal
10:36assistance I as an investor I've seen so
10:38many yours is a very very different
10:40approach so do you actually see that
10:41there's competition for what you're
10:42doing it's pry interesting so we we are
10:44creating a bit of a new category in a
10:46sense um so it's part education it's uh
10:50you know it's it's it's part AI it's
10:52it's a whole bunch of different things I
10:54think what we hear the most and what we
10:56see with our current test users is that
10:57people are really using it in instead of
10:59three different things one and this is
11:02slightly controversial I do think that
11:04something like Mino could and should
11:06replace dating apps um dating apps
11:09currently help you meet strangers when
11:11one of the most exciting things about
11:13gen Z 18 to 25 yearolds is that they're
11:15mostly meeting their romantic partners
11:18and building close relationships from
11:20community and from their existing
11:22friendships um and so by working with
11:24Mino to build empathy uh to help you be
11:27a better friend to help you move from a
11:30situationship to a relationship and then
11:32invest in that relationship I believe
11:34media will eventually replace dating
11:35apps for most people secondly I think a
11:38lot of people are already using Google
11:40or chat gbt to ask for questions uh uh
11:43for relationship advice I mean who who's
11:48question use chat gbt to analyze a text
11:51message I see lots of hands going up
11:53there we go um and there are several
11:57challenges with that because because
11:59it's not necessarily private it's not
12:01personalized you know if you Google
12:02something it's not going to be just for
12:04you um uh Mino has memory so instead of
12:08you just asking a question and it giving
12:10you an instant answer we can also use
12:12the context of things that you've been
12:13discussing for months or maybe years if
12:15we look at the future and say hm I spot
12:18a bit of a trender this always happens
12:20once you've been on three dates with
12:21people maybe we should think about that
12:24being a thing that we really work on
12:25together um and lastly Mino drives the
12:28conversation if you use chat GPT or if
12:30you use Google uh for relationship
12:32advice then you have to be the one
12:34driving the conversation and you know
12:35what that can be a little bit tricky um
12:38so instead we have uh what we call
12:40Dynamic prompting for those more
12:42technical folks in the audience um or
12:44empathy mode and we're actually the ones
12:46asking you questions so that you can
12:48really really Express Yourself the last
12:50thing is I do also see what we're
12:52building as an antidote to the fake
12:54girlfriends Companions and so on that we
12:57seeing emerge um there is a a product
13:00for example in China that has more than
13:02500 million users and I I do worry about
13:05a world in which people will find more
13:07comfort in a fake AI boyfriend or
13:09girlfriend that always is exactly what
13:11you want but I don't really think that
13:14thing so I'm going to put my VC head on
13:16here for a minute um what how will you
13:19know when you've hit that kind of unlock
13:21moment like what is your go to market
13:22strategy there's so many apps out there
13:24there's so much noise and how are you
13:26going to get users and then when will
13:27you know that you okay it's taking off
13:29do you have do you have metrics you're
13:31looking at or what is
13:34it it will be when I start getting
13:37messages on Twitter and on email from
13:40people that say you've changed my
13:43life I've been very fortunate to work on
13:46a number of businesses where that's
13:49happened um in the case of headspace I
13:52sometimes met with uh cancer cancer
13:55patients who used headspace to to take
13:58the through a very difficult time in
14:00recover um of course in a Tinder context
14:02I met a number of people that met the
14:04partner of their life but um I truly
14:07believe that Mino uh has the potential
14:10to have a much bigger impact on way more
14:12people so uh my my Twitter handle is
14:14just Renata RN at so dear fins as in
14:18when weo changes your life please let me
14:20know and that for me will be product
14:21Market fit that's very cool so actually
14:24it's on X not Twitter anymore but just
14:29so you're deep into the AI world and and
14:32there's been a lot of discussion around
14:33you know the the pitfalls and the
14:35dangers of it do you have guardrails in
14:37play so how do you think about that or
14:38does that not really affect you because
14:40you're more of a narrow Focus but I
14:41suppose it does because you have you're
14:43dealing with real humans in their and
14:45their and their emotions so what do how
14:47do you approach that um it's it's
14:50actually the very first thing that we
14:51deployed um so llms that are public do
14:54have uh natural guard rails built in
14:59um uh so one of my close advisers is
15:01Megan Jones Bell she uh was the chief
15:03science officer at head space she's a
15:05trained uh family therapist and she's
15:07now Clinical Director of mental health
15:09at Google so she's been very deep in
15:11this work for for for quite some time um
15:13and so what we've designed is um our own
15:15custom guard rails so for example in
15:18Finland uh if you download the app today
15:20if you do talk about for example um
15:23thinking about self Haring um then we uh
15:28we select different local organizations
15:30that we will point you towards um over
15:33time um uh we're already working with um
15:36different mental health professionals
15:38for example on college campuses and so
15:40on to also personalize the responses
15:42because if someone is in a difficult
15:44head space the hardest thing typically
15:47is to actually take that first step to
15:49send that text message to a friend to
15:50say I'm really in a dark place I really
15:52need help but nothing can ever replace
15:55real human beings being there for you in
15:58that moment moment in time so we have
15:59guard rails um it's it's a critical
16:02thing for us to have in place and that
16:04really escalates these types of things
16:06to um organizations NOS Etc that can
16:10provide um clinical care and
16:13support so I want to uh touch on
16:15something in your slide deck and we had
16:16a little discussion backstage about this
16:18you you feel that the two biggest
16:22threats to humanity to all of us is
16:25climate change and loneliness mhm um and
16:28I said well climate change affects 100%
16:30of us but I don't think 100% of people
16:33will be lonely so I I I for me it was
16:36for me if you ask me I say climate
16:38change and uh income inequality that's
16:40what I would say the two things are I
16:42want you to defend why you think
16:43loneliness is such a
16:48threat I think it's one thing to exist
16:52on this planet and that is of course the
16:55climate crisis if if this world becomes
16:57too hot or too cold for us to live
17:01breathe that is an existential
17:04crisis but there's also something about
17:07human and I think what fundamentally
17:10makes us human is that we're social
17:13creatures there's been a 30% decline uh
17:16in the number of people that are in
17:18committed relationships in the last 30
17:20years um so that's not just people
17:22getting married less people are also not
17:25cohabitating um living in communities in
17:27the same way one in seven people now um
17:30don't have a single friend and all these
17:32Trends are staggering and nothing has
17:34made them better they just keep on going
17:37down and genuinely this may flatten out
17:40a VI forward project in two 300 years
17:43we'll all be single we won't have
17:44children anymore and we won't have
17:47friends okay that's the end of
17:50humanity if you follow that curve yes
17:52okay if we follow that curve got it um
17:56I'm going to switch gears completely
17:57here and uh there a lot lot of Founders
17:58in the audience and this is your second
18:01startup there's a bit of a gap between
18:03the first one and this one I'm curious
18:06what made you want to do it
18:11again the first well I mean I I think
18:15like most Founders I
18:18uh I I never really wanted to be a
18:20Founder but I just kept on running into
18:22problems that I didn't see anyone else
18:23solving so I just had to go and do it no
18:27the the the problem I sold the first
18:29time around I created my first company
18:31exactly 10 years ago pretty much in 2012
18:34and at the time it was the year when um
18:36apps really started becoming um uh
18:39mobile for businesses so that was the
18:41year that Tinder was launched Uber was
18:43launched Instagram was launched and at
18:45the time in Europe especially there were
18:47very few people who were great uh mobile
18:49developers and designers um and so I
18:52built a company that was essentially a
18:53startup For Hire where people could come
18:56and build their first product with us
18:57and then go off and rebuild that with me
19:01know cuz frankly you know I've come from
19:04running a 1.7 billion doll organization
19:07um I had several corporate jobs like why
19:09on Earth would I go to running a 10p
19:11person company where I'm next week I'm
19:14painting walls by the way Monday that's
19:15my my schedule I'm painting the walls
19:17for our new office um what made me want
19:23um I really really believe that this is
19:27the most most important problem that I
19:29can make an impact on like I said for me
19:31this this and the climate crisis are the
19:32two biggest battles we Face In Our
19:34Lifetime I don't think I'm the right
19:36person to work on climate I I do think I
19:39can make a difference here and
19:41critically um the people that are behind
19:45this um so Andrew in who's truly one of
19:47the leading Minds in AI uh so we have
19:50access to incredible science um uh and
19:53in addition to that um our seed bound
19:56was led by uh r B who's the head of
19:59sequire he contacted me not long after
20:02we founded the company and
20:04I looked him up online before a meeting
20:07he'd been talking about this problem as
20:102012 and so there are a number of people
20:13that have seen so much between those two
20:15guys like they have seen thousands of
20:17companies and so much in terms of
20:20technology and the fact that we're all
20:22coming together to really try and make
20:25an impact and this is a really hard
20:27problem I'm basically insane to do this
20:31team but I think we just have to try and
20:33we have to keep trying and I really hope
20:35that many other companies will also try
20:37we're going to need a lot of different
20:38things to come together here to actually
20:40make an impact on reversing this curve
20:43you make it sound like it was ah seoa
20:45came in I mean 2023 is brutal
20:48fundraising environment for startups was
20:51it was it as easy as that you're just
20:52you're just in the right place at the
20:53right time or how or or even a bigger
20:55question is is it easier the second time
20:58you think or what what is your kind of
21:00view on your founding the company like
21:02how how was that process for
21:04you um I didn't ra VC Capital the first
21:09um I think the thing I I I did ask rof
21:13this after we um closed the deal and by
21:16the way there are many seoa people here
21:17in the audience tonight they've been
21:19amazing it's been incredible to work
21:22with them um and I think the big thing
21:28uh I think there's a lot of excitement
21:31about AI right now there's a lot of
21:32excitement about the technology I think
21:35what they saw in me was that I was
21:38talking about the problems and I have
21:42had many experiences of actually
21:45building these types of companies and
21:47making an impact through culture so for
21:49example when I was at Tinder uh I
21:51initially ran the the European business
21:53um we did some really cool stuff where
21:55we partnered with uh like love Island
21:57some of These reality TV shows we made
22:00the Tinder WAP the first way in which
22:01you could swipe right um in order to
22:04appear on the show and we had um a
22:07million people in the UK applied to be
22:09on the show in 10 days million
22:11people so I think the fact that I was so
22:14focused on the people and the problems
22:16and I actually um I I made this deal
22:18with Andrew because he he contacted me
22:20on October 20 21 where are we now no 22
22:25um and I said I really want to spend
22:28some time still in the real world before
22:30we start coding and so I spent time uh
22:32with Incredible people with Alcoholics
22:34Anonymous uh I went to some communes I I
22:38really started studying Community social
22:40connection Behavior change in the real
22:41world first um and I think most people
22:45that have been pitching are focused on
22:48the technology and let's remember like
22:50it's it's been a year since open AI kind
22:52of you know started getting us all very
22:55excited but I'm yet to think of one
22:57single product that has made a real
22:59impact on a consumer problem like we're
23:01still very much in the we're excited
23:04about the technology phase and that's
23:06great like I didn't think I would see
23:07another Moment Like This having grown up
23:10at the App Store and it's an amazing
23:11time to be alive but we we haven't found
23:15real powerful use cases yet um and I
23:18think that's what they saw in me and
23:19that's why they're supporting me so
23:21what's been hard in the last
23:34Tech I think the hardest thing has
23:39been um making decisions
23:44about who to hire where to hire people I
23:47think I definitely lost some time like I
23:49think we're still trying to figure out
23:51what the right models are and and to be
23:53clear I've I've really come down on the
23:55you know what we need to be in in real
23:57life um and so that meant getting a new
24:00Visa moving to the US properly moving to
24:03the US this this this Monday so this is
24:05why on Monday we're painting walls um
24:08but I think still a lot of us have been
24:10figuring out the right way to operate
24:15um I I I think that's been the hardest
24:18thing yeah cuz you're you've already
24:20sort of you're actually formerly moving
24:22I think on Monday right from Paris to
24:24San Francisco you never lived in San
24:26Francisco before I have in 2008 oh you
24:29have before okay so you have a little
24:30bit of a community there so I think
24:32moving is all about the community you
24:33have your work Community how have you
24:35found San Francisco so far because
24:38people here kinds of just a quick like
24:41is it as bad or is it as good I I lived
24:43in San Francisco 19 years so I'm a
24:44little biased but I left 5 years ago I'm
24:46curious is it how do you feel about it I
24:48was terrified everyone told me I would
24:50hate it uh I've I've spent the last year
24:53living in Paris which I adore but um
24:57I've I've really loved it one I think
24:59it's such an open welcome in community
25:02um I live next to the park and go go
25:03running but in particular in terms of
25:05this work that we do given that we're
25:07working on a really difficult problem
25:09and something that's very Mission driven
25:10I think the energy the positivity and
25:13the C do attitude is is really unique so
25:18I'm very excited to start my San
25:20Francisco life on Monday fantastic all
25:22right well I hope people download it and
25:24try it and I'm I assume you want some
25:28Soo and I'm at rata on
25:31X thank you rata thank you m thank
