In October Dear.io, one of the startups born in our startup studio, flew to New York. A week of meetings organised by ATLAS and the Transatlantic Innovation Hub NY for a group of Italian startups, closed by a pitch on the stage of the NY Tech Meetup, one of the longest-running tech events in the city.
Antonio, CEO of Dear.io, went together with Michele, the co-founder who leads the science side of the project. Here is what they saw and what they learned: it might be useful if you are thinking about taking your startup to the United States.
In 30 seconds
- On day one the pitch was taken apart. "Boring", they told him, "and that's a shame, because you have a very powerful story". Antonio had two hours to rebuild it from scratch before going on stage.
- The new pitch starts from the problem. Millions of young people already talk about their lives with AI, and nobody controls what it tells them. Dear.io wants to be the AI people can trust.
- In America money does not fall from the sky. Most of the investors they met will not even consider a company that is not already making a few million a year. And trust is built only by showing up, often.
What Dear.io is
Dear.io is a smart journal: a chat with AI where you talk about what you are going through, by voice or in writing, and which over time helps you put your thoughts in order and recognise your recurring patterns. It does not replace psychological care: it is a tool that supports personal reflection and everyday wellbeing.
The difference from a general-purpose chatbot lies in the method. Dear.io is based on a scientific model that studies how people build meaning through dialogue, the result of a research programme at the University of Padua with which the team is building a collaboration. The app is in development and not yet on the stores: you can leave your contact here to join the tests.
The pitch, torn down and rebuilt in two hours
The week started fast. A few hours after landing, the group was already in front of mentors rehearsing their pitches. Antonio's did not go down well at all.
They told me: your pitch is boring. But they also told me it was a real shame, because I have a very powerful story.
No dinner: a smoothie and two hours to turn everything around, before the evening event in front of an audience of founders, investors and people from the industry. Antonio says he was shaken for an hour or so, then realised that energy had to be put to use. The result is a pitch he is very happy with: a simple, clear story that conveys the urgency and the scale of the problem.
It is a lesson that holds off stage too. People who build a product tend to explain how it works. People who listen first want to know why they should care.
What Antonio said on stage
The new pitch starts from a fact: people are already bringing their private lives into their conversations with AI, spontaneously. Antonio quoted a few figures:
- 72% of American teenagers have tried an "AI companion" at least once, an AI you talk to like a friend¹;
- 97% of US psychologists believe chatbots may inadvertently reinforce negative behaviours or distorted beliefs²;
- two in three young people who turn to AI for advice when they feel low do not tell anyone about it³.
If one of our kids is bullied today, they are more likely to talk about it with ChatGPT than with us.
The point is that nobody governs what AI tells these people. Dear.io tries to change that on two fronts. The first is scientific: the University of Padua's model offers a systematic way to analyse dialogue, and therefore to guide the interaction instead of leaving it to chance. The second is regulatory: Dear.io is born in Europe, built from day one on GDPR and the AI Act, two sets of rules that serve as a reference outside the Union too.
It looks at two kinds of customers: universities, which already spend a lot on psychological support for their students, and therapists, for whom Dear.io has a dedicated portal.
Questions from the audience
The most interesting questions came afterwards. Someone in the audience pointed out that targeting the most vulnerable raises the stakes a lot: if something goes wrong, the consequences are serious. Michele answered that this is exactly why you have to move now. The problem already exists, it is just mostly invisible, and taking responsibility for what the AI says is the heart of the project.
Another question was about how the quality of the answers is checked. This is the technical part we care about most. Dear.io does not leave it to the language model to decide how to answer. The strategy of the answer is built first, by proprietary algorithms the team is developing together with the university, and only then is it handed to the LLM, which puts it into words. On top of that there is a risk management layer that flags sensitive conversations, which a psychologist can review directly. Other products give the AI good psychological literature and hope it applies it; Dear.io gives it a method.
▶ Watch Dear.io's pitch at the NY Tech Meetup
The rest of the week
The pace, Antonio says, was crazy: one event after another, like the city itself.
- Amazon. A meeting with a couple of leads from the AI and startup side, "really sharp people". One of them said they were open to becoming an advisor for Dear.io. Practical detail: you do not get into Amazon's offices without a passport.
- Connecticut. A visit to the public fund that invests in the state's startups. For anyone who wants to enter the New York market, Connecticut is the place next door where everything costs less. Even there, though, investment goes preferably to companies that already turn over millions.
- Yale. A university with a strong focus on moving research into startups, which has produced several successful companies. Not very open to working with outside startups, but a chance to reach out to the people responsible for student mental health: exactly the kind of customer Dear.io is aiming for.
- The closing breakfast. One last morning of pitches in front of several investors, at the offices of the Transatlantic Innovation Hub that hosted the group.
A few interesting contacts came out of it, which now need to be nurtured.
What we learned about American investors
The most useful part of Antonio's story is about the myth of easy money.
"In America they throw money at you" is not true. A good share of the investors he spoke to were very direct: if a company does not already have between one and five million a year in recurring revenue, it is not investable. The idea that in the United States it is easier to raise money while you are still at the idea stage, at least from institutional funds, does not hold up.
Coming from Europe adds a question. In New York there are plenty of people working hard to build something similar, with a very hungry mindset. Why should an investor pick you? The most convincing answer is that you are already up and running.
Trust is what counts, everywhere. Business angels exist, and there are lots of them. But nobody writes a cheque to someone who shows up asking for a hundred thousand dollars. You have to convey how important your work is, that you have found a way to make it happen and that you have good signs you will succeed. It is the same in Europe, but seeing it happen on the other side of the ocean made it even clearer.
Advice for those thinking about it
Asked "what would you tell a startup considering this trip for the first time?", Antonio answers:
- it is worth doing anyway, because it teaches you a great deal regardless of how it goes;
- if the goal is to raise money or expand, you have to plan for a continuous effort: coming back every month, or every two or three at most;
- ask yourself whether you are willing to move. Many people asked him outright, and it is a fair question: people want to see you in person and hear the updates from you.
Living an ocean away from your network and your life is not a sacrifice everyone is ready to make. Better to know before you leave.
Frequently asked questions
What is Dear.io?
A smart journal born in Quinck's startup studio: a chat with AI, by voice or in writing, that helps you reflect, put your thoughts in order and recognise the patterns that keep coming back. It is based on a scientific model from the University of Padua that studies how people make sense of things through dialogue.
Does Dear.io replace a psychologist?
No. It is a tool that supports personal reflection and everyday wellbeing, not psychological, psychotherapeutic or medical care. Sensitive conversations are flagged so that a psychologist can review them, and therapists have a dedicated portal.
How does Dear.io control what the AI says?
The language model does not decide the strategy of the answer: proprietary algorithms based on the University of Padua's model define it first, and only then does the LLM put it into words. This way the AI follows a method instead of depending on whatever the model has learned.
When will the Dear.io app be released?
The app is in development and not yet on the stores. On deario.ai you can leave your contact to be notified at launch and take part in the tests.
What is the NY Tech Meetup?
It is one of the landmark events of New York's tech ecosystem, run by the NY Tech Alliance since 2004. At each evening startups and founders demo their products live and answer questions from the audience. The October 2026 international edition, organised with ATLAS and the Transatlantic Innovation Hub NY, brought eleven companies on stage, Dear.io among them.
Is it easier to raise money in the United States than in Italy?
Not for an early-stage startup. According to the investors Antonio met in New York, institutional funds look mainly at companies already making between one and five million a year in recurring revenue. Founders coming from Europe need to build trust, which means coming back regularly.
Sources
- Common Sense Media: Talk, Trust, and Trade-offs: How and Why Teens Use AI Companions (2025)
- American Psychological Association: Chatbots and Mental Health Survey 2026
- RAND: nearly 1 in 5 US adolescents and young adults use AI chatbots for mental health advice (2026)
- NY Tech Alliance: NY Tech Meetup: International Edition, full video of the event
Dear.io is one of the projects of our startup studio, like OrtiGo. If you work at a university, are a therapist or an investor and want to know more, you will find everything at deario.ai.
