WILLIAMSBURG — The Startup World Cup Virginia Finals are back in Hampton Roads for a second year and one business from Williamsburg is in the running to represent Virginia on the national stage.
NGZ.AI, founded by Mike McMahan, is a startup company focused on veterans’ healthcare — specifically, lowering the veteran suicide rate.
McMahan, who served in the Air Force, loved his experience in the military. After graduating from high school in Southern California, McMahan enlisted in the Air Force three weeks later.
“I got trained up to fix F-15 fighter jets. They stationed me at Langley Air Force Base right before the first Gulf War. When I got back, I was Airman of the Year, I was going to go towards the commissioning program, and then I got really, really sick. They classified me with Gulf War Syndrome because they didn’t know what was wrong with me at the time and I got medically retired at the age of 23,” McMahan explained.
McMahan found his way to banking and earned his finance degree at Old Dominion University. Having dealt with his own mental health, McMahan wanted to find a way to help veterans who may be contemplating suicide.
“I had suicidal ideations when I was medically discharged because that was my identity. There were some very down, down, down points. I come back and I land on this problem 20-plus years later. This is still an issue in our country,” McMahan said.
Kaitu, NGZ’s first product, is an app that uses AI to analyze physical activity, mobility, device interactions, communications, and biometric data on a veteran’s phone. Through that data analysis, the app provides a safety net that monitors and alerts mental health clinicians in any significant change in the veteran’s mood or search history.
“Our app works based on a risk-based score generated from the data analysis. Those risk factors could be isolation, sleep pattern changes, search history … if a veteran’s digital footprint changes, we can pick it up and alert a clinician,” McMahan explains.
Each day, users would be prompted to check in, rate their day, and take a selfie. From those prompts, the app would determine the risk-based assessment. If the veteran is green-lighted, they are good to go; if a yellow light appears, the veteran may want to evaluate their current mindset, and if a red light appears, the app can trigger a notification to a registered clinician that the veteran may need a check-in from a mental health professional.
“When we talk to the clinicians, there is one glaring problem. Somebody comes into an appointment today and they could be doing great. They leave that appointment, and that clinician has no idea what happens next. That veteran’s next appointment could be 60 days away. Between appointments, a lot of stuff could be happening, and that person who was having a great day might now be struggling,” McMahan explained.
Through his app, clinicians would be notified in real-time of a potential issue that could turn out to be a life-or-death situation.
“When you are spiraling, you don’t realize how quickly you are going. In talking to families, the first thing they always say is, ‘we wish we would have known.’ Will this be the golden ticket and solve it all? No, but we know it will save lives,” McMahan said.
McMahan will compete against other Virginia-based startup companies at the Startup World Cup Virginia Finals on Aug. 21 in Virginia Beach. If he were to win the regional title, McMahan would advance to compete at the national competition in October in San Francisco.
For McMahan and his team, it’s not about the money.
“From a business perspective, our return on investment is one. We want to save one life because if we save one, we can save five and that turns into a hundred lives,” McMahan said.
To learn more about NGZ and Kaitu, visit kaitu.ai.