Celine Tien (l), Julien Soros (m) and Narae Kim (r), Founders of Flowly

You put your finger on the back of your phone camera, and Flowly collects your real-time biodata so you can see it, and control it. All experiences can be accessed just on the phone or in Virtual Reality. In Flowly’s Pro Subscription, they’ll send you a Kit that includes a VR headset where you can immerse yourself in relaxing virtual worlds while learning to manage your nervous system. Flowly also includes an in-app community where users can share health resources and personal experiences with one another.

Flowly is partnered with University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and University of Southern California on clinical trials and the recipient of a grant award by the National Institutes of Health and National Institute of Drug Abuse.

Flowly is available today on the Apple App Store, and will be available on Android soon.

More about Flowly:

“Flowly Offers Relief to 100 Million Americans Living with Chronic Pain and Anxiety“ – Yahoo Finance 6/9/20

“We believe in the power of female investors, but specifically, we believe in Sara and Kerry as investors who have the experience but also the vision to see where we’re headed.” – Celine Tien

Co-founder and CEO: Celine Tien
Headquarters: Los Angeles, CA

Meet Celine Tien:

Celine Tien, CEO of Flowly

Background: Celine Tien is the founder and CEO of Flowly. Celine got her start in VR as the director and writer of Pippa’s Pan, one of the world’s first immersive Virtual Reality hybrid live-action films. Pippa’s Pan was selected for the 2017 Festival de Cannes VR Library Showcase, making Celine and her team the youngest director and production team at Cannes. The VR film experience also won 3rd place at the 2017 AT&T VR/AR Challenge at the AT&T Developer’s Summit.

Previously, Celine worked in feature development at Oriental DreamWorks in Shanghai and DreamWorks Animation in Los Angeles. She is also the founder of the non-profit education-based organization: Zoom for Kids! Celine is a former film/TV actress and model. She graduated from Yale University.

Why Start Flowly? Our story begins with a storyteller, an engineer, and an artist.

Celine is a storyteller from Yale and DreamWorks, developing traditional and interactive content. But growing up around pancreatic cancer patients, the majority of whom are in incredible pain, Celine felt strongly about developing a tool for people who suffered from pain. There needed to be a platform that addressed physical pain, but also the anxiety, depression and social isolation that accompanies it.

She called upon Julien, an engineer from Yale and Hyperloop One, to build out an effective but accessible biofeedback system.

Celine then convinced Narae, an award-winning visual artist and designer from CalArts, to create breathtaking virtual worlds that users could explore.

Together, the three of them spent hundreds of hours working one-on-one with chronic pain patients, listening to their stories, engineering Flowly to integrate community, therapy, and just plain ol’ fun.

Why Seek Venture Capital? “There is a huge need for accessible pain and anxiety management tools. We wanted to make sure we equipped our team with the resources needed to get Flowly out to as many people as possible.”

Have you seen women GPs bring a different perspective to the table? “(n/a- y’all are our first female partners!)”

Do you think a woman’s perspective is valuable to this market? “Yes! It’s not just valuable it’s sorely needed! The majority of chronic pain patients are women, yet there are few women-led teams designing and developing tools for chronic pain.”

Why True Wealth Ventures? “We believe in the power of female investors, but specifically, we believe in Sara and Kerry as investors who have the experience but also the vision to see where we’re headed.”

Words of Wisdom: “The obstacle in the path becomes the path. Never forget, within every obstacle is an opportunity to improve our condition.” ― Ryan Holiday