Start with the person.
Design around a real task and a familiar way of communicating. Technical confidence should not be an entry requirement.
CHAMOMILE LAB · OUR STORY
Technology should
bring more people in.
Democratization of technology—bringing technologies to those who need them most.
A CONVERSATION ABOUT ACCESS
Who gets to benefit
from the next breakthrough?
We’re building Tombi around a simple question: what if benefiting from AI didn’t depend on already being good at using it?
Paul & JohnHow it all started from one conversation
Paul
When AI becomes more powerful but also harder to navigate, the benefits can concentrate among people who already know how to use it. I want us to pay attention to the people left outside that circle.
John
And we should begin with what people want to do, rather than expecting them to become experts in a new interface. The person’s life should set the agenda.
Paul
That is why Tombi should work through ordinary conversation. Remembering a plan or asking a question shouldn’t require learning where to tap or how to write a perfect prompt.
John
Simplicity also needs good judgment. We should ask whether a suggestion is useful, whether the evidence supports it, and whether the person can easily say no.
Paul
For me, democratizing technology means reducing the effort required to benefit from it. Access has to include usability, trust, and control—not just availability.
John
Then our responsibility is to keep listening and testing. We should be clear about what Tombi can do, and honest about what it cannot yet do.
THE NEED WE SEE
The next advance
shouldn’t create
another barrier.
New technology often asks people to learn its language: menus, settings, prompts, and unfamiliar workflows. Those demands can leave someone with a useful tool in their hands, but no comfortable way to use it.
That is the divide Chamomile Lab wants to address. Our starting point is not a person’s age or technical skill. It is what they want to do in daily life—and what stands between them and doing it.
Tombi is our response: personal assistance through natural conversation, with less screen work and greater attention to the person’s own routines, choices, and privacy.
THE PEOPLE BEHIND TOMBI
Different disciplines.
A shared responsibility.
Business, strategy, data, and science—working toward technology people can use with confidence.
Founder
Paul Lee
Business strategy · Accessible product design · Company building
Turning access into a product requirement.
Paul’s background connects company building, international strategy, and digital-health development. As co-founder and CEO of Endominance, his work has focused on personalized technology and the needs of underserved communities. Earlier roles in education technology and entrepreneurship inform his approach to turning a mission into a usable product.
What this brings to Tombi
As founder of Chamomile Lab, Paul sets the direction for Tombi: useful personal AI that asks less of the person using it. His focus brings the company’s mission into product choices, partnerships, and the experience of getting started.
Endominance profile ↗
Chief Strategy Officer
Ryan Moore
Strategy · Partnerships · Clear communication
Making a useful idea reach real people.
Ryan brings experience across public service, education, and entrepreneurship. At the U.S. Department of State, he managed international programs and language-service operations, including training programs for interpreters. He also co-founded an entertainment-marketing company and has taught in Japan and Maryland. He holds a history degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
What this brings to Tombi
As Chief Strategy Officer, Ryan connects Tombi’s purpose with the people, partners, and communication needed to bring it to market. His experience explaining complex material and working across cultures is especially relevant to a product designed for people with different levels of confidence in technology.
Middlebury · State Department event ↗
Chief Data & Algorithm Officer
Xiaoxiao Ma
Statistical modeling · Algorithms · Individual learning
Making personalization accountable to the person.
Xiaoxiao combines graduate training in applied mathematics and statistics at Johns Hopkins with mathematics and statistics at Georgetown. Her project work spans machine-learning classification, time-series forecasting, network analysis, and language analysis. Alongside that technical work, she has taught and tutored mathematics, adapting instruction to individual learners.
What this brings to Tombi
As Chief Data & Algorithm Officer, Xiaoxiao’s focus is how Tombi turns information into relevant assistance: which patterns are meaningful, where uncertainty remains, and how feedback should shape a suggestion. Her combination of quantitative methods and individualized teaching brings a practical perspective to personalization.
Public professional profile ↗
Chair of the Science Review Board
John J. Ratey, MD
Scientific review · Attention & behavior · Public science education
Keeping the science useful—and the claims grounded.
John Ratey is a psychiatrist, author, and associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. His work includes Spark and the Driven to Distraction series, bringing research on attention, exercise, and the brain to a broad audience. His career connects scientific investigation with a longstanding commitment to making useful knowledge accessible.
What this brings to Tombi
As Chair of the Science Review Board, John brings scientific scrutiny to the ideas behind Tombi. The role centers on reviewing evidence, questioning assumptions, and helping the team distinguish an encouraging idea from a supported claim.
Harvard Health profile ↗OUR SHARED PHILOSOPHY
Access is part of
the product.
Keep the person in charge.
Make permission, correction, and refusal part of the experience. Useful assistance should preserve agency.
Earn trust through evidence.
Explain what works, what is being tested, and what remains uncertain. Privacy and scientific review belong in product decisions.
FOLLOW THE WORK