Our story
Hetki began from our experience and a shared problem.
The problem
High performers (founders, athletes, students, esports players, and knowledge workers) rely heavily on their minds. They train their skills and bodies, but often overlook the mind, even though it drives everything they do.
The founders
Vilppu
I spent years in an intense startup environment. The long days and pressure were constant. Meditation helped me stay clear and perform, but the apps never adapted to what I actually needed.
Meditation became a core part of my life and I started studying the practice seriously. I eventually traveled to South Korea and Japan to deepen my practice. Daily training in temples showed me what real guidance feels like. It's precise, responsive and personal. When I came back, I began experimenting with large language models to guide my own sessions.
Even the earliest versions felt more personal and useful than anything I had used before. Real guidance without the religious bias.
Joni
I was working in ML and data science while tinkering with bioinformatics on the side. Meditation helped me stay focused during long coding sessions. The problem was that the tools I used felt passive and generic.
For me, meditation was just practical. I did it for clarity and flow. I was also fascinated by how cognitive load and attention appear in data. I started thinking if those could be modeled to improve mental training.
The first LLM-guided sessions we did made it obvious that this approach was what I needed.
We built it for ourselves first
When we reconnected, our initial plan was to explore what you can actually measure during meditation. But we quickly realised something more fundamental: data means nothing if the help itself isn't good. So our focus shifted to using data to generate better meditations.
We started building, talking to users, collecting feedback, and testing early versions with high performers. The pattern was consistent: personalised sessions worked better, people stayed engaged, and progress felt real.
Democratizing access
If AI can tailor guidance in real time, we can make something accessible that used to be available only to a few:
- Personal mindfulness coaches
- Retreats
- Long-term teacher-student relationships
Things reserved for people with time, money, or access. Most people simply never had access to this level of support.
Today
We build Hetki around a simple truth: when done properly, meditation is one of the best tools for training and taking care of the mind. AI allows us to give that level of guidance to anyone.
A meditation and mental-training system created from our own needs, designed to adapt to each user, and focused on what actually matters. High-quality, personalised meditation that helps you think, perform, and live better.
