Mental health is a huge part of a founder’s journey, and because of the nature of our work, it is also the most fragile - Georgia Bucea, Ex-BRINOS Founder

Georgia Bucea founded BRINOS in 2023, an impact startup focused on helping neurodivergent children, that is no longer active. Nonetheless, we think that her journey, the lessons she’s learnt along the way and the reasons she decided to end this chapter are valuable and insightful for the impact ecosystem, so here is her story.

Georgia had been fascinated with neuroscience as a student, and specifically the intersection between computer science and neuroscience.

“That is also why I started a master's in Computational Physics, and did research on EEG data analysis along with a professor in Cluj. During a student hackathon, I discovered the opportunity for autism diagnosis, and after I had discussions with therapists who work with children on the spectrum, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. The field was interesting to me, and specifically the way the behaviour therapy is done. 

The whole process of documenting a behaviour therapy session is extremely tedious. The ADOS test, which is a standard in the industry, has over 500 skill items, and the therapist has to keep track of these items, write them down, along with observations, while doing the behavioural therapy. It is also the most expensive part, the behaviour analyst is often paid twice as much as the therapist, and all of this cost is covered by the parents. 

As a Computer Vision engineer, I immediately saw the way the technology can substantially improve this process, along with the diagnosis process, which in most cases doesn’t happen at the right age.”

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She talked with therapists, kindergarten owners, daycare centers, and parents in building her solution. 

“The most conservative out of these were the kindergarten owners and preschool teachers, as they couldn’t conceive the idea of a camera observing their behaviour. I had a lot of fiery discussions with them on the subject. 

Then the therapy centers were much more open about it, and they immediately recognized the advantage such a technology would bring. And I think the most interested were the parents with children already in the spectrum, as for them, a clearer window into their child’s development makes a big difference.”

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Georgia tested an MVP for BRINOS with a therapy center in Romania, entered the research process using video data from this therapy center and even raised an investment from EIT Digital, now named 28DIGITAL.

On the other hand, she says that the biggest challenge she faced was “balancing the startup way of doing things with the research approach and keeping the vision of the company always in mind. I was only a student when I started this, and I had to learn a lot about idea validation, talking to customers, and product design from scratch. 

These are activities that don’t come in research at all; you don’t need them there, so I had to always have two approaches to things: a commercial approach and a scientific approach. Moreover, in Romania, the academic world is not involved in industry at all. Finding relevant professors in the field who would be willing to collaborate on BRINOS was a huge challenge. Most of them didn’t want to bet on a tool for diagnosis; they feared that they would put their careers at risk by endorsing such a study. 

Another big challenge was fundraising, but this is a common one in startups, particularly those in the CEE region. Investors were reluctant to back a startup in this space, as they usually have doubts about the healthcare domain. It’s also not very common in the CEE region for investors to take big risks and bet on deep tech, although things are changing.” 

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While she hasn’t stopped building in the space of computer vision, robotics and physical AI, Georgia decided to stop BRINOS. She talks about how hard the decision was, and the reason behind it: 

“I got so attached to it that I saw it as my own child. But about a year ago, I went through a severe psychosis episode, which put me in a mental institution for over a month. I did fully and permanently recover from it, although there were about 50% chances I wouldn’t. 

After the experience, I decided to close this chapter. I know we don’t talk about mental health issues, our brains are the most precious things we have, and admitting they don’t function quite normally can be hard. But I do think that mental health is a huge part of a founder’s journey, and because of the nature of our work, it is also the most fragile.”

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Looking back, she says that probably the most important lesson she’s learnt with this experience is that there are no rules.

“A big blocker for founders in the CEE is overcoming the mindset in which we grew up, mostly due to an outdated education system. We believe that we need some sort of authority in order to challenge or change the norm. We also don’t take our dreams seriously, and we generally don’t attempt things that seem impossible. 

A big lesson for me was that you can just do things, which is also a popular saying in startups. 

Another lesson I learned is that the ecosystem in Romania is still not developed enough. There are a lot of programs that help, and as a beginner, you might think that that is enough, but in terms of funding, there are not a lot of opportunities out there. The good news is that change is happening as we speak.”

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Lastly, we wanted to learn from her what she thinks the impact-focused ecosystem in Romania needs in order to grow and what would have maybe helped her continue with BRINOS: 

“I think Romania has incredible technical talent and founders, but the ecosystem needs more patient capital and stronger collaboration between startups, universities, corporations, and the public sector. 

Impact startups, especially in healthcare and deeptech, often require longer development cycles before they generate significant revenue, so they need investors who understand that timeline. 

We also need more opportunities for founders in this space to test and validate their solutions with hospitals, schools, and public institutions. Early access to real-world environments can make a huge difference in helping startups prove their impact and scale faster. 

Finally, I think we need more founders who are willing to tackle difficult, meaningful problems and, more importantly, who are ok with putting in a lot of time for this, and I’m talking years and decades. All the good things that are worth fighting for take time.”

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Thank you, Georgia Bucea!