Thrive! Virtual Coach helps you adopt new ways of working by nudging daily the right behaviour at the right time.
Extend My Runway is a Singapore-based AI-for-good start-up whose work is inspired by cutting-edge science.
Accelerate performance, productivity, and change. Extend My Runway helps by applying Nobel-Prize-winning nudge theory and revolutionary neuroscience from Harvard, Stanford, Chicago, MIT, British Columbia, and the University of Texas.
We translate the science into simple, actionable steps that enable you to conquer the last mile of any strategic priority.
We Love Science
What does today’s leading science say about business performance?
Your brain enables everything you experience, remember, think, feel or do. Your brain makes it possible to love your life, learn new ideas or skills, value your family, friends and hobbies, or find meaning in spirituality. Your brain recalls memories, processes stimuli, and it serves as the navigator and engine enabling goal-directed behaviour such as analysis, problem-solving, innovation, and resisting temptation.
Your brain is the source. When it performs poorly, you do too.
Here’s where the story becomes so exciting for corporations, leaders, and talents. Your healthy brain can change and rewire itself at any age or stage. This is called neuroplasticity.
You can leverage the power of neuroplasticity to learn, adopt new behaviours, improve performance and productivity, and build a workforce that conquers the last mile problem. You can build a higher-performing and healthier brain at any age or stage. Changng behaviour is the first step. We can train your brain to excel at business-critical and higher-order thinking. You will:
Think more innovatively or creatively
Manage complexity at a next-level standard
Strategise and see the big picture,
Improve your focus and push aside distractions,
Abstract out insights are takeaway lessons
Transform yourself, products, services or customer experience
Build collaborative relationships that are valued, and
Learn in a manner appropriate for you (and much more).
Improved brain health is the path to higher performance and productivity in a knowledge economy.
Science + AI Delivers an Urgently Needed Transformation Solution
We use science + context-aware AI to learn about you, adapt to your needs, and then enable behaviour change that’s impactful.
Our science + AI ambition helps resolve the hard part of transformation- behaviour change. It’s time-consuming and expensive. Designing a strategic pivot or buying new hardware seems easy in comparison. The real bottleneck is getting people to adopt new ways of working.
Unfortunately, and to overcome this last-mile problem, managers and their teams often double down on effort and hours. In doing so, we paradoxically adopt a lifestyle that makes it virtually impossible to perform at our best. This is because many of us:
Heavy multitasking drains your brain and significanty diminishes your performance and productivity.
Sleep too little or poorly.
Suffer from chronic stress.
Eat ultra-processed foods with poor nutritional value.
Multitask most of the day or doom scroll TikTok late at night.
Connect and network with too few people.
Exercise too little (to name just a few).
Fail to seek out novel and new and novel experiences.
Rationalise that we are de-compressing with alcohol at night.
This is a recipe for under-performance. Competing and winning today demands an energized and focused workforce that excels at strategy, innovation, learning, managing complexity, and adapting. Poor brain health undermines such capabilities.
Thrive! VC Uses AI Reinforcement Learning
The AI engine powering Thrive! VC utilizes reinforcement learning, a technique that trains our algorithms to make better recommendations aligned with your goals. It’s a backend trial-and-error process where our AI learns from your actions and feedback loops to build a context-aware platform. This learning improves the quality and impact of the personalized nudges you receive each day.
We are cautious about adopting large language models (LLMs) due to the risks they pose. These risks include generating inaccurate information, bias, and ethical concerns. Technologies like Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) in LLMs show promise, but we await greater confidence in their ability to mitigate these risks before we adopt an LLM.
We commit to building a personalized AI solution that learns your specific needs while mitigating the potential risks.
So when your new initiative is too important to fail, Extend My Runway accelerates performance by using science + AI to nudge the right behavior at the right time - helping you to Thrive.
Our Values
● We Believe Business Can be a Force for Good. We serve people and society by tackling today’s big challenges.
● We Believe in Science and Testing. We use the best-available research insights and reject pseudo-science.
● We believe in Ethical AI that Helps People. We reduce bias in algorithms and give people control over their data.
● We Believe that Talent can be Timeless. Anyone, regardless of age or stage, can grow, learn, and adapt.
● We Believe in Reducing Friction. We commit to low-friction commercial contracting, graceful CX, and changing behaviour first.
● We Believe in Growth. We prioritize word-of-mouth client recommendations and licensing agreements.
● We Operate as a Location-Free Employer. Our employees can live and work anywhere. Our operations are primarily virtual.
Our Partnerships
Michael Netzley, Ph.D., Founder and Chief Scientific Ofiicer
Dr. Tomas Klvana, Co-founder and EMR’s Chief Learning Officer
EMR’s Milestones:
2017: EMR was envisioned by Dr. Netzley and our model published in a global consulting firm’s annual journal.
2018: Tomas Klvana, Ph.D. joined EMR as its cofounder and then EMR was invited into and completed the Modern Ageing – ACCESS Health Start-up Accelerator in Singapore.
2018 - 2021: EMR generated its first revenue by delivering neuroscience-based workshops and webinars for clients such as BNP Paribas, DSM, Twitter, KPMG, Julius Baer, Frasers Property and IMD Business School’s Orchestrating Winning Performance.
2019: EMR created new roles for business development and government grants/programmes.
2019: EMR formed its research advisory board.
2020: EMR successfully launched its first digital nudges which led to EMR’s co-innovation agreement with Infineon Technologies.
2021: EMR joined Infineon Technologies’ Co-Innovation Space. We conducted over 230 hours of end-user interviews, ran ten analogue tests, and co-designed EMR’s data-driven platform. This agreement gave EMR access to Infineon’s AI engineers and 1500 employees.
2022: EMR signed a joint research agreement with the Center for BrainHealth at the University of Texas – Dallas.
2022: EMR welcomed Mario Domingo of DARC Labs (Manila) as its CTO and as an angel investor. We also welcomed Jaan Turon, Director of Venom Computers, as our Chief Strategy and Commercial Officer.
2023: EMR initiated Singapore’s first BrainHealth benchmarking study in partnership with The Center for BrainHealth. This is a control group study testing different dosages of brain health assessment and behavioural advice.
2024: EMR is now delivering the Thrive! Virtual Coach MVP (iOS) to Infineon Technologies and embarking on a pilot project with a Manila-based open finance firm that seeks to improve financial literacy and help customers build sustainable financial habits.
Lookign ahead, EMR will prioritize AI platform innovations, measuring the business impact of our nudges, and building a B2B sales engine.
Request the Extend My Runway’s Brochure
“The rate of change today is not just fast. It is accelerating. The complexity of modern life is outstripping our ability to deal with it.”