An Interview with Martin Cordsmeier — by Atanas G. Atanasov
AGA: Martin, thank you for sharing your thoughts with our audience; would you shortly present yourself?
MC: Sure, thanks for this opportunity! Since my childhood, I loved to talk to people about their biographies and the question if they live the life they really want. I soon realized that most people are controlled by acquittal, moderate contentment, and rare enthusiasm – they forget about their dreams, hidden talents, wishes – about the life they really want. As a result, people get sick, criminal or tired of life. I understood that this is a fundamental mental health topic. I was adopted as a child and therefore know the feeling of “being a stranger” well – because of that I was always curious about how our society is structured and why so few people are truly fulfilled. I wanted to change that.
AGA: What is the background of your current work and why it is of importance?
MC: With millionways I founded a non-profit organization to tackle this predicament with a practical and hands-on approach. Supported by a team of multidisciplinary scientists and researchers, millionways conducted more than 7.000 one-hour interviews in D/A/CH. Never forgetting the goal of being wherever the people are and helping them to stop ignoring their dreams. We worked with cities, schools, companies, institutions (e.g. foundations) and of course with individuals. Based on intuition, empathy and “reading between the lines” we discovered unconscious wishes, talents and goals. And we connected every participant with other people – e.g. mentors, like-minded people, friends or people with same goals but complementary talents for building a team.
With that approach we changed more than 300 lives on a smaller or larger scale.
After this successful R&D phase we started to build a scalable product (for-profit but still focused on impact) in 2019. We first-time-digitalized a complex and validated personality model (the PSI theory) and trained an A.I. with the collected data.
I also published a book with ECON about this deep topic of “just being yourself”.
AGA: What is the focus of your current efforts?
MC: We finished developing our science-based A.I. in late 2020 and built a modern and low-threshold App to engage ordinary people, who maybe never thought about mental health or self-actualization. It serves as the world’s first “Emotional Assistant” / “Life Companion” and consists of two basic functionalities: 1. Unique type of personality / mood / stress level analysis via voice recordings and 2. Network for purpose-driven connections based on the results. Users can also see their personality development, since we want to teach people that personality is not something fixed, but dynamic. This is something that many people struggle with all their lives, because people tell them that they can’t achieve something – and not seldom they get a depression as a result over the years.
We think about this App (for Android / Apple and WebApp) as a possibility to bring the complex topic of mental health into the minds of the masses in a way that is easy to understand.
We also developed a physical headphone – based on our user surveys, people get the idea of an Emotional Assistant easier with a physical device. This will be – I don’t want to sound exaggerated – a groundbreaking and futuristic product: For the first time you can talk to an A.I. in a real dialogue about yourself, your conscious and unconscious desires and personality development. It can also make you aware of certain patterns. There are endless possibilities. We will launch this product internationally with a Crowdfunding (pre-selling via Indiegogo) and a focus on the U.S. within the next weeks.
AGA: What are the unique partnership opportunities arising?
MC: The current situation is crucial for millionways. We need to find the right shareholders, partners, scientists and investors now to not miss the momentum of the Corona-phase which is (hopefully) just ending. I don’t want to make any wrong decisions now due to time pressure – they may have a long-term impact on millionways. Yes, we are now for-profit, but the idealism in all of us is still the same: We always wanted, and still want, first and foremost to help people live happy and healthy lives!
We need supporters, scientific partners and shareholders with a similar motivation. The time is perfect now, because we have a lot of things ready – and a lot of things that can still be shaped in the future. I myself have my specific experience, developing millionways throughout my life. I also have great team members and investors. But: We now need the right people who know about fast growth – and of course lots of supporters and partners from all scientific fields.
AGA: What is your vision for the future developments?
MC: I strongly believe that our nervous, overworked and overstimulated society needs a network where people can finally be exactly who they really are. Where they don’t have to adapt to the expectations of others. A “safe place” for their real wishes, goals and unconscious qualities. And a place where biases are eliminated because you can get in touch with people regardless of their age, gender, beauty, wealth or social status.
We have developed all this with our own intrinsic motivation – and now we are ready to go. I see extreme potential here because 1. we are addressing a basic human need. And 2. we have a truly disruptive product.
Twenty years ago, I would have wished for something like this myself – and subsequently met thousands of people who felt the same way and from whom I heard things like: “If I’d had this earlier, I might be happier now.”
That is “Mental Health” in a fundamental way. I’m sure that together we can create something really socially relevant. That’s what I’m working on since I was 20.
You can contact Martin Cordsmeier at: mc@millionways.org
Keywords: mental health, mental health assistant, AI, AI health assistant, mobile health app, mental health app, Martin Cordsmeier