Timestamped

Before IO, Before Altman, Before the Headlines — We Built It

By Ryan Hansen, Founder of NOVi

In May 2025, the tech world lit up with the news that OpenAI had acquired Jony Ive’s design firm “io” for $6.5 billion. The mission?
Build the fourth great interface — a new kind of hardware product that could change how humans interact with AI.

The press called it revolutionary.
Wall Street called it disruptive.
We called it… already built.

Because while billionaires were just signing deals, I was out here — in a van with my wife and kids — building the actual product they’re now describing.

“A small object capable of being fully aware of a user’s surroundings and life.” — Wall Street Journal on IO

That’s the description of their upcoming hardware.
Here’s what we’ve already done:

✅ NOVi: The First Emotional Signal System

  • 100+ units pre-sold @ $99

  • Built before funding. No PR. No press. Just pain and product.

  • Worn around the neck like jewelry — discreet, powerful, voice-based

  • Listens for emotional strain through tone, breath, silence, and more

  • AI engine: DALiQ — real-time emotional diagnostics from voice

  • Designed to signal burnout, stress, grief, and collapse before it hits

Where others are building memory tools or AI assistants, we built something else entirely:

🖤 A defense system for the soul.

Not another productivity hack.
Not another app.
Not another lifeless wearable that just counts f*cking steps.

NOVi listens.
It hears what the world keeps missing.
And we were first — with receipts.

💥 The Real Story

I didn’t wait for permission.
I didn’t raise $6.5 billion.
I didn’t partner with the world’s most famous designer.

I listened to the silence behind people’s eyes and built something that could catch them before the fall.

So while IO gears up to “define the next interface,” I’ll say this clearly:

We defined it first.

And if anyone out there wants to talk about building the future, not from the top down, but from the inside out,  my number is at the bottom.

Because the signal is already here.

All fire,
Ryan Hansen
Founder, NOVi
📱 424.471.2121
🌐 www.noviwear.com

🖤 Built to catch the fall — before it breaks the world.