io-response
While IO Raises Billions, I Raised a Signal 🧠⚔️
Let’s get one thing straight:
I didn’t build NOVi to compete with Sam Altman.
I built it because I needed it.
Because millions of people are collapsing in silence.
Because mental health support reacts too late.
Because I heard the tremor in my own voice — and no tech was listening.
So when the headlines dropped —
📰 “OpenAI Acquires Jony Ive’s io for $6.5B”
📰 “Altman Says They’re Building a Second Nervous System”
📰 “Not a Phone. Not a Wearable. Just a Device That’s Aware.”
…I didn’t panic.
I didn’t copy.
I nodded — because that’s the exact same system I’ve been building since last year.
Except I already made it wearable. Already shipped pre-orders. Already trained the AI.
📍 Built Before the Headlines
While IO was still in stealth mode, I was:
🚐 Driving across the country — with five kids in the back of a van — showing anyone who would listen
🛠 Building NOVi, a screenless, voice-powered AI necklace that detects stress, burnout, and emotional collapse
🧠 Training DALiQ, our voice-based AI, on real human emotion
🩸 Capturing the emotional signals no Fitbit, no Oura, no Whoop ever caught
This wasn’t theory. This wasn’t trend-chasing.
This was survival — mine and everyone else’s.
🔥 Traction They Can’t Fake
💥 100+ units pre-sold @ $99 — zero PR, zero ads
🧠 DALiQ AI engine built + trained on real emotional voice data
⚙️ Prototype development in motion with U.S. engineers
📦 $200K build cap locked — 1,000-unit production line ready
📈 Soft-circle investor interest from institutional VCs
💡 Revenue model built: $25 COGS + $9.99–$29.99/mo SaaS tiers
🚨 Customers: therapists, first responders, educators, and everyday people ready for more than meditation apps and motivational quotes
📰 Headlines They Dropped — And What They Told Us
💬 “It won’t be a phone. It won’t even have a screen. It will be a core device after phone and laptop.” – WSJ quoting Altman
💬 “It’s designed to be fully aware of the user’s environment and activities.”
💬 “We don’t want users looking at it. We want it to look at the world for them.”
Sound familiar?
That’s NOVi.
Built before IO was even acquired.
Shipped before their product was even leaked.
⚔️ Why This Post Exists
I’m not here to bash IO.
I’m here to say this:
While they raised billions,
I raised a signal.
From nothing. From code. From necessity.
In a van. Not a cave.
No budget. Just belief.
The race isn’t over — but let’s not pretend it hasn’t already started.
If Sam, Jony, or anyone at OpenAI is reading this:
We should talk.
Not because we’re competitors.
But because you’re building the future of AI.
And I’ve already got the emotional nervous system you’re trying to plug into it.
🖤 Built to catch the fall — before it breaks the world.
—
Ryan Hansen
Founder, NOVi
📱 424.471.2121
🌐 www.noviwear.com/io-response