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B C B U S I N E S S . C A
J U N E 2 0 2 5
"
" NOBODY I S FAM ILIAR
with neurotech," admits Paola
Telfer, "and the people who
are heard about it from sci-fi
films—and they're scared of
it." It's common to feel appre-
hension, stress or even doom
when contemplating brain-
altering technology or artifi-
cial intelligence. But her Whis-
tler-based company, Sens.AI,
aims to demystify that... by
using neurotech and AI.
Telfer has a bachelor's
degree in electrical engineer-
PAOLA
TELFER
C E O A N D F O U N D E R ,
S E N S . A I I N C O R P O R AT E D
ing from the University of Brit-
ish Columbia and an MBA from
Simon Fraser University. She
started her professional career
in microchip design, but from a
passion perspective, the work
didn't quite compute. "I real-
ized there were more exciting
aspects of engineering when
you applied them, and you
brought business into it," she
says. Sens.AI, the startup she
and CTO Corey Julihn founded
in 2018, is a neurotechnol-
ogy platform that combines
a wearable headset and
handheld controller with a
gamified app designed to sup-
port mental wellness. "We're
trying to empower people to
take an active role in training
for mental resilience—really,
we're trying to unlock the
whole human brain and mind,"
says the founder.
It sounds a bit like the movie
Limitless (sorry, we had to make
one sci-fi reference), but Telfer
insists that the technology—and
the results—are very real. Users
put on the headset and choose
from "missions" to help with
things like anxiety, focus or
sleep. Then the tech uses neuro-
feedback, heart-rate training
and intervention strategies like
transcranial photobiomodu-
lation (near-infrared light that
penetrates the skull and helps
shift brain waves) and binaural
beats (a different sound fre-
quency playing in each ear) to
both read and write electrical
signals in the brain. For a user,
it might look like taking a few
breaths, clearing your mind
and watching as fog fades away
and music increases in volume.
If you lose focus, the fog comes
back and the music quiets.
Since the product came on
the market in August 2023,
Sens.AI has amassed almost
5,000 platform users. There's
a two-month free trial subscrip-
tion, and Telfer proudly shares
that 85 percent of customers
opt in to the paid membership
once their trial is up. While bio-
hackers and longevity enthusi-
asts are particularly interested
in this kind of tech, Telfer
stresses that anyone can use it
to improve their everyday brain
function. "We made the data
very practical, digestible and
gamified," she says. "[Users]
aren't just saying, 'I feel smarter
and sharper,' they're saying,
'I'm showing up better for my
kids, I'm fighting less with my
partner'—people are sharing
stories of resilience."–A.H.
"We're trying to
empower people to
take an active role in
training for mental
resilience—really, we're
trying to unlock the
whole human brain
and mind."
