In our latest #WeArePlay stories, we meet the founders building apps and games that are making health and wellness fun and easy for everyone on Google Play. From getting heavy sleepers jumping into their mornings, to turning mental wellness into an immersive adventure game.
Here are a few of our favorites:
Jay, founder of Delightroom
Seoul, South Korea
With over 90 million downloads, Jay‘s app Alarmy helps heavy sleepers to get moving with smart, challenge-based alarms.
While studying computer science, Jay’s biggest challenge wasn’t debugging code, it was waking up for his morning classes. This struggle sparked an idea: what if there were an app that could help anyone get out of bed? Jay built a basic version and showcased it at a tech event, where it quickly drew attention. That prototype evolved into Alarmy, an app that uses creative missions, like solving math problems, doing squats, or snapping a photo, to get people moving so they fully wake up. Now available in over 30 languages and 170+ countries, Jay and his team are expanding beyond alarms, adding sleep tracking and wellness features to help even more people start their day right.
Ellie and Hazel, co-founders of Mind Monsters Games
Cambridge, UK
Ellie and Hazel’s game, Betwixt, makes mental wellness more fun by using an interactive story to reduce anxiety.
While working in London’s tech scene and later writing about psychology, Ellie noticed a pattern: many people turned to video games to ease stress but struggled to engage with traditional meditation. That’s when she came up with the idea to combine the two. While curating a book on mental health, she met Hazel—a therapist, former world champion boxer, and game lover and together they created Betwixt, an interactive fantasy adventure that guides players on a journey of self-discovery. By blending storytelling with evidence-based techniques, the game helps reduce anxiety and promote well-being. Now, with three new projects in development, Ellie and Hazel strive to turn play into a mental health tool.
Kevin and Robin, co-founders of MapMyFitness
Boulder (CO), U.S.
Kevin and Robin’s app, MapMyFitness, helps a global community of runners and cyclists map their routes and track their training.
Growing up across the Middle East, the Philippines, and Africa, Kevin developed a fascination with maps. In San Diego, while training for his second marathon, he built a simple MapMyRun website to map his routes. When other runners joined, former professional cyclist Robin reached out with a vision to also help cyclists discover and share maps. Together they founded MapMyFitness in 2007 and launched MapMyRide soon after, blending Kevin’s technical expertise and Robin’s athletic know-how. Today, the MapMy suite powers millions of walkers, runners, and riders with adaptive training plans, guided workouts, live safety tracking, and community challenges—all in support of their mission to “get everybody outside”.
Discover more #WeArePlay stories from founders across the globe.
