Founded: October 2015
Founders: Boaz Gaon and Ido Engel.
Employees: 15
Capital raised: $11 million
If there is one thing all human beings have in common, it is facing life’s challenges. Some people have more serious challenges than others, but throughout one’s lifetime, sooner or later, everyone experiences them. Now, in the world of Google and social media, there are a whole lot of data and information available at our fingertips if you know what you’re looking for and what to ask.
What is less accessible though, is wisdom.
Sometimes in life you just don’t know what you don’t know, so you can only navigate using the experience of those who’ve walked the same path before you.
Wisdom is acquired through experiences. And whoever can tap into the collective wisdom of humanity will ultimately impact, potentially, billions of lives.
Enter Wisdo, a company founded by Boaz Gaon and Ido Engel. If Google is building the “Information Graph,” and Facebook is building the “Social Graph,” Wisdo is building the “Wisdom Graph.”
Boaz’s father, who was one of the most resourceful people in the world of business and Israeli cancer research, was himself, unfortunately, diagnosed with cancer. And what became apparent was that despite his knowledge and connections, the family still made hundreds of mistakes that could have potentially minimized his suffering throughout his tragic battle.
Boaz and Ido set out to build a platform, sort of a Waze of life, helping people navigate their life transitions and challenges. What transpired next was quite unbelievable. Business leaders flocked to Wisdo’s vision, and joined the company as anything from an investor to the chairman.
The chairman, to name one example, is none other than Dr. Richard Klausner, who was previously director of the National Cancer Institute.
In other words, Klausner was the man approached by the president of the United States with a blank check, asking him to find the cure for cancer. It is not an exaggeration to say that Klausner managed more cancer research money than any other human being on planet Earth.
Wisdo only began its journey to help people navigate the hardships associated with cancer.
Other life transitions you might currently find on the Wisdo platform include bringing your first-born home for the first time, relocating to a new country, finding your dream job, dealing with a serious health matter, or quite literally any other transition that human beings might experience throughout their lives.
The value proposition of Wisdo is to learn from the lessons of others. Using patented technology, they crowdsourced maps of hundreds of life experiences in health, career and personal life to match you with experience- based knowledge, aka “wisdom.”
“Wisdom of the crowds” is by no means a new concept. One of the leading voices for the accuracy behind this concept is Dr. Lior Tzoref, who famously brought a real-life bull onto a TED stage, asked the crowd to estimate its weight, and when all the responses were averaged out, the crowd was only a few pounds off. Tzoref conducted in-depth research proving that Wisdo is effective in reducing loneliness, namely reducing one’s perceived social isolation.
After researching the domain heavily, the company was launched a year ago, allowing hundreds of thousands of people to map themselves anonymously to more than 15 million life steps on those maps. Wisdo has been selected as Apple’s app of the day, and gained stellar reviews from thankful users, many of whom are volunteering to serve as guides on the platform. This makes Wisdo one of the safest places online today to simply be yourself in a no-judgement zone.
In a world of fake news and cyberbullying, which lead to increased suicide rates and an overwhelming feeling of lack of safety, Wisdo is a safe haven for those who need it most.