Yana: Your digital companion, without judgment or barriers to strengthen your mental health
- araptis8
- Jul 7
- 5 min read
YANA is the acronym for 'You Are Not Alone' and the name of this incredible platform that accompanies and supports you emotionally through its chatbot and psychological tools based on cognitive behavioral therapy.
The company was founded in Mexico in 2020 and today has more than 13 million registered users in over 35 countries. We spoke with Andrea Campos , CEO & Founder of Yana , and she told us in an interview how technology has allowed them to bring solutions to take care of their mental health to millions of people, while achieving scalability by holding hundreds of conversations at the same time.
1. What is Yana’s most important differentiator?
Yana's key differentiator is its holistic and deeply personalized approach. Yana goes beyond simply being a chatbot —because we know there are many since OpenAI launched ChatGPT-3 in November 2022. Yana is a platform that includes emotion tracking, grounding techniques, a gratitude journal, anxiety and depression assessments, and more, all powered by generative AI. This comprehensive approach not only encourages proactive well-being management but also continuously adapts to the changing needs of our users, ensuring a safe, personalized, and genuinely effective experience.
2. What role does technology play in your business model to optimize the user experience?
Technology—specifically AI—is fundamental at Yana, especially because it allows us to provide simultaneous support to a large number of people. If we tried to provide our service exclusively through human staff, we would need millions of collaborators available to interact with our users, which would not only be logistically unsustainable but also extremely complex to maintain a consistent standard of quality across all interactions.
Let's take the example of services like Uber, which hires drivers. Scaling quickly becomes complicated because they require multiple checks to ensure people are eligible to join the platform. In our case, by having an automated agent handling all conversations simultaneously, we can focus solely on ensuring our agent is flawless. This allows us to provide accessible, fast, and 24/7 support to anyone who needs it. Without the use of advanced technology, fulfilling Yana's mission would be virtually impossible.
3. What role do #HealthTech startups play in contributing to the region's digital inclusion?
In our region, there are numerous barriers to accessing healthcare services. Taking mental health as an example, less than 20% of people who need help actually receive it, and those who do can take up to 14 years to get it. Barriers range from a lack of awareness about the importance of mental health to the difficulty of detecting when we need care and finding available and affordable professionals. In this context, I believe that #HealthTech startups complement each other and, together, we overcome these traditional barriers. We democratize access to healthcare primarily through technology to ensure that more people, regardless of their location or financial resources, can receive the care they need.
"Technologies not only empower patients but also improve collaboration among healthcare providers, radically changing the way we receive and manage our healthcare."
4. What are the main challenges facing a #HealthTech startup? How has Yana addressed them?
There are hundreds of challenges, but I'll focus on one of the most significant: the lack of a culture of prevention in health. Generally, in both physical and mental health, people tend to react rather than prevent. Instead of making self-care a daily habit, we wait until something serious happens to act, and once we feel better, we stop giving it importance.
Creating a product that seeks to change this mindset and encourage ongoing wellness care is a huge challenge. This is made even more difficult when competing with addictive platforms like TikTok, which capture much of people's attention. At Yana, we don't yet consider ourselves completely overcoming this challenge, but I believe we're close to helping people understand the value of daily health care.
5. What's your long-term vision for Yana? How do you expect technology to impact the healthcare industry in the future?
Our long-term vision for Yana is to empower every person in the world to know, understand, and manage their emotional well-being, with the goal of not only slowing but also reversing the growing mental health crisis. To achieve this, technology is a fundamental component that will help us fulfill not only our vision, but many others shared by the founders of this industry.
In my opinion, technology is poised to completely transform the healthcare sector, making it more accessible, personalized, and efficient. With advances like telemedicine and apps (like Yana), we expect more people, especially in remote communities, to be able to access physical and emotional health services. AI and genomics, for example, promise much more personalized and effective treatments. Wearable devices are driving a shift toward prevention and proactive health management. Furthermore, automation is eliminating unnecessary administrative burdens, freeing up medical professionals to focus more on patient care.
In short, these technologies not only empower patients but also improve collaboration between healthcare providers, radically changing the way we receive and manage our healthcare.
6. What do you recommend that female #HealthTech entrepreneurs look for in their investors to build a long-term relationship?
I would recommend never, under any circumstances, accepting money from people who don't share your mission. Sometimes, especially when capital is scarce, it can be tempting to accept any type of investment, even if it doesn't come from people or funds that truly resonate with you.
In my experience, it's far more valuable to take the time to find the right investors, even if it means prolonging the capital-raising period. Sometimes, it's so difficult that it seems easier to just accept whatever comes along first. However, making this mistake could haunt you for the life of your company.
Especially in #HealthTech, it's essential to partner with investors who have a genuine interest in human well-being, beyond profit. These investors are rare, but worth the effort to find. In the end, having investors who share your values and vision will not only strengthen your company but also contribute to a more positive and lasting impact on people's health and well-being.
7. Tell us about a memorable moment you experienced during your entrepreneurial journey?
One of the most memorable moments was when, overnight, we were featured on the App Store, and we went from 80,000 to one million registered users! We weren't prepared for that. I was celebrating my birthday at a spa , so it caught me completely off guard. I had to cancel everything and rush home to deal with the situation because everything was getting out of control. The servers crashed, we started receiving bad reviews because the service was unavailable, and our rating dropped from 4.9 to 2.4 stars in less than two days due to all the complaints. They also saturated Mexico's toll-free crisis lines; they even had to contact us to ask us to disconnect their phones because the call center was serving only Yana users and they couldn't serve the rest of the population. It was total chaos! But in the end, it was resolved.
8. What is the most useful lesson you have learned that will help those considering starting their own business?
A common concern when starting a business is the lack of resources to hire the brightest or most qualified people. However, the most valuable lesson I've learned is that, beyond these qualities, it's essential to have people who share your values and with whom you can build strong bonds.
When a team is united by a shared vision and principles, the resulting synergy allows us to achieve goals that, I dare say, wouldn't be achievable even if you had the brightest or most capable team. This cohesion and sense of shared purpose not only create an incredible work environment but also foster creativity and innovation.
🚀 If you're a #LatinAmerica founder with a #HealthTech venture that needs capital, contact us . We're looking for you!
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