We've been quiet, but busy!

Michael Sapiro
Nov 25, 2025
3 min read

A gritty reality

We've all seen the TED talk(s) around "grit." It's been part of business jargon ever since Angela Duckworth first gave her landmark talk in 2013. Sure, it's been overused a bit since then. However, "grit" is the word that has characterized this past year for us. We have had to navigate changes in employment, health issues, funding issues, and the everyday stressors of balancing startup life with family life. Through it all we've pressed on. Late nights, early morning - we press on because we believe in what we are building. We press on because others believe in what we are building. We press on because we know we can help millions of people with their mental health. We simply keep pressing on. It's a vision worthy of our sacrifice and....grit.

So what's been happening?

When we first launched KOZEE in Spring of 2024, it was in a web app format. We signed 14+ games, had hundreds of free users, and a very active community. At the same time, this was an MVP - a proof of concept version to get a clearer understanding of the marketplace. We knew we needed to drive towards the grand vision of what KOZEE could be. And that's what we've been working on for the past year.

We brought on our Chief Science Officer, Dr. Nick Bowman. In conjunction with Dr. Nick, we conducted dozens of test to verify the mood management efficacy of our platform. Out of this we co-published a white paper and even now are working on additional submission for scientific journals.
We brought on our Lead Engineer, Ben Juarez. Ben collaborated with us to refine the vision for KOZEE, develop a product roadmap, create robust documentations for our full application, develop our algorithm (in conjunction with Dr. Nick), and create a seamless way for developers and studios to place games on our platform. Currently in progress and soon to be released, we will have a fully interactive "white box" version of our full application.
In addition to our scientific testing, we also conducted dozens of user testing sessions with gamers and game developers across the country. We took those learnings and completed a total UX overhaul of our KOZEE platform, including updated branding to appeal to a broader demographic.
We worked tirelessly with John Sutyak, one of our Executive Advisors, to refine our investor strategy and our pitch deck.
We worked with several coaches to hone in our financial documentation.
We partnered with gaming industry vet Joi Podgorny to refine our go-to-market strategy.
We had exciting discussions with various nonprofits and companies about ways we could partner together.

And we did all of this on a handful of small grants.

We're not done yet! In fact, we're just getting started. If you would like to learn more about partnering with BetterPlay Studios - whether as an investor, game development partner, media influencer, or as part of our wonderful community - reach out!