When Jay first started building Uprise, he thought the hard part was done: the research, the design, the creation of a tool that could help employees access mental health support faster. What he didn’t anticipate was just how difficult it would be to sell.
“I remember my mentor saying to me, the reason you can’t sell this is because you haven’t anchored it to a concept the buyer understands,” Jay recalls.
That single piece of advice shifted the entire trajectory of the company.
At the time, Jay was describing Uprise as an “evidence-based productivity phone coaching service.” To him, that made sense - it was about helping employees improve wellbeing and performance, but when he walked into workplaces with that pitch, HR leaders looked at him blankly. What budget line would something like that even fall under? It wasn’t recognisable, and so it wasn’t purchase-ready.
The turning point came when he realised Uprise resembled an Employee Assistance Program (EAP). “We had to call it an EAP so the buyer could understand it,” he says.
That realisation forced Uprise to evolve. What began as a basic learning system with coaching rapidly grew into a more sophisticated platform that mirrored - and ultimately improved upon - the functions of a traditional EAP.
But it wasn’t just the product that had to shift; it was also Jay’s mindset. As a clinician, he was used to striving for perfection and focusing solely on evidence-backed approaches, and he often worried Uprise wasn’t finished enough to take to market.
“In my mind, I was pulling forward this half-baked product that didn’t work the way I wanted it to,” he admits. Luckily, buyers didn’t see it that way. Compared to the outdated systems they were using, Uprise was already a huge step forward.
Traditional EAPs were cumbersome. Employees in need of support would call a phone line, get a list of psychologists, and then wait weeks for an appointment - by which point their issues could have spiralled into something worse. Uprise offered a different experience. At a time when telehealth was still in its infancy, the platform gave employees the ability to browse counsellors on an app, book directly, and often have a session the very same day. Faster, easier, and far more effective, Uprise wasn’t just “another EAP” - it was a better one.
Jay’s honesty became one of his strongest sales tools. He didn’t try to oversell or gloss over what stage the product was at. Instead, he was upfront, straightforward - the same way he had been trained to be as a psychologist. That approach resonated with buyers.
In the end, Uprise’s success didn’t come from chasing the flashiest features or trying to impress with credentials. It came from meeting buyers where they were, anchoring the product in a familiar frame, and then proving it could do the job better. What started as a “cool PhD project” became a trusted solution in workplaces across the country.
For Jay, the lesson was clear: in innovation, it’s not enough to build something new - you have to translate it into something people already know how to buy.
Jay’s current venture is Evro AI (www.evro.ai) which is a communication feedback tool.
“The mission is big. Our goal is to solve workplace communication,” he said.
Evro works by analysing meeting transcripts, uncovering hidden communication patterns then coaching users on which communication approaches work best for whom and when to use them.
“It’s a science-backed approach where we use evidence-based communication models to provide private communication coaching using AI,” Jay outlined.
“Currently people don’t know how they come across to others. They use generic AI tools but feedback isn’t objective, it’s biased by large language models LLMs wanting to please the user. Or they get performance feedback but that’s biased by their manager. Our solution is to provide objective feedback plus tools to communicate effectively with each person they have regular meetings with”.
Evro AI has a free tier for people who want to get started.
