He sold his mental-health startup to Airbnb, then relaunched it as a nonprofit with a bigger mission

As an undergraduate at Princeton, Rob Morris had a background in social science and psychology, but not coding. As a graduate student at the MIT Media Lab, Morris struggled with depression. He began to fall behind and eventually had to take a leave of absence. When he returned to MIT, he was able to catch up, largely thanks to a website called stack overflow, where I could pitch in on coding issues and strangers would reply for free. Morris wondered if the same process could be used for mental health.

Since the pandemic, anxiety and depression globally have increased 25%, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Meanwhile, more than 25 million Americans live in an area where there are not enough mental health service providers to meet the demand. According to a 2019 study, 80% of teens They said they have used their phone to seek emotional help online.

In 2015, Morris began creating a platform for mental health, called Koko, where users could send messages of support to people who needed mental health support. Morris and his partners Kareem Kouddous and Fraser Kelton raised venture capital funds and launched Koko as a startup. They also developed Kokobot, an artificial intelligence that could moderate conversations about Koko and identify anyone in crisis. Within a few years, Kokobot had two million users.

“At the time, using the internet for mental health support was still controversial,” says Morris, finding that it was not a sustainable business model. “With venture capital funding, you need a deep and powerful opportunity to grow and earn money, and we weren’t seeing that,” he says. The artificial intelligence that Kokobot used to identify someone in crisis could also be reused for content moderation, such as finding hate speech. Koko switched to internet security and content moderation.

“It was depressing,” adds Morris. “I spent years of my life dedicated to digital health, and we had this system that was providing a huge impact, and we had to abandon it.”

Koko was acquired by Airbnb in 2018, although the founders were able to keep the name. In late 2020, Morris and Kouddous decided relaunch koko as a non-profit organization. Today, users searching for content on, say, self-harm or “thin inspiration” are redirected to a page with resources, such as crisis helpline numbers, as well as an invitation to use Koko.

Koko offers users a variety of options, including guiding them on how to use a crisis line and providing information on any fears they may have, as well as courses on mental health issues.

However, its most popular option is the ability to talk to a partner. Users send a message, and while they wait, they are prompted to reply to another message sent by someone else. “Writing a short message of hope to someone else really helps redirect people,” Morris said.

Koko does not collect any identifying data, but has processes in place to ensure that users do not receive malicious messages. (Morris prefers to keep those processes confidential so malicious users can’t mess with them.) To date, Koko has worked with platforms including Tumblr, Twitch, and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, and has collaborated with researchers from Harvard and Stanford, among others.

as consumers shift more towards telehealthhealthcare providers will need to be equipped to help people in crisis online. Providers “might not have planned for someone dealing with depression or suicide,” Morris adds. “We have the ability to detect and intervene in a respectful way with the user.”

Ultimately, Morris wants to change the way the Internet responds to users who need mental health help. “When you Google a flight, you’re directed to these options that make you buy a flight instantly,” he says. “The interface is beautiful. But when you’re looking for mental health, it’s not great. I want to do for mental health what Google did for flights.”