
Tim Altendorf
Engineering & AI
Software Engineer · AI Startup Experience · Cognitive Science
Owns
On-device pipeline, encryption, enclave processing, deployment, technical hiring.
About us
Five people between Berlin and Darmstadt: engineering, machine learning, computational linguistics, psychology and business.
The team

Engineering & AI
Software Engineer · AI Startup Experience · Cognitive Science
Owns
On-device pipeline, encryption, enclave processing, deployment, technical hiring.

Research, ML & Ethics
Model Development · Cognitive Science · Ethical AI & Human Impact · User Research
Owns
Relevance and insight models, on-device inference, user research, ethical architecture, and the partnerships and networks around the project.

Linguistic & Model
NLP-engineering · Model Development · Sentiment Analysis
Owns
Delivery process, language analysis, documentation infrastructure.

Business & IT
Business-Focus · MVP-Definition · Agile Implementation
Owns
Strategy, funding, claims discipline, compliance and quality groundwork.

Psychology
Psychology · Psychotherapy in training
Owns
The distance between what a person says about their own week and what the product says back to them.
Each function has one owner. The first hire after our first raise is a growth role, because none of us has run consumer app growth at scale, and pretending otherwise would be the expensive kind of optimism.
Who we listen to
None of them works here and none of them endorses the product. They advise informally, they read what we write, and one of them co-authored the research our method is built on.
Informal advisor
Complexity science · Psychotherapy process research · LMU Munich
Researches how change happens in people, using complexity theory, across more than 25 international publications. He co-authored the research our method for finding turning points is built on, so we are proposing to extend work he helped publish.
Informal advisor
Dipl.-Psych. · MA (Oxon) · Universität Witten/Herdecke
Studied experimental, clinical and organisational psychology in Oxford, Berlin and Heidelberg. She researches self-organising systems, in people, in groups and in organisations, which is the same question this product asks about one person.
Benjamin and Nora co-founded the sysTelios Think Tank, a research circle that connects complexity science with how change actually happens. It has no stake in this company, and nothing on this site is endorsed by it.
Where this came from
This did not begin as a market opportunity. It began with our own lives: two of us kept noticing that the ordinary traces we leave behind said something about how we were doing that we could not see at the time. So we are building the version we would trust with our own data. It works from the trace you already leave, it stays on your device, and we cannot read it.
SINA KHUDIDA & TIM ALTENDORF · FOUNDERS
That constraint is not a feature we added later. It is the reason the product can touch material this personal at all.
Where we sit
TU Darmstadt and Humboldt University Berlin, with a faculty mentor anchoring the science base. Hesse anchors our funding application; Berlin gives us the deeper pool of consumer product talent.
2hearts, the German tech community for people with immigration backgrounds; regional startup networks; university entrepreneurship support. We are also recruiting a growth advisor with consumer app experience.
Third place in the hessian.AI open idea competition, and an EXIST Women scholarship. Useful, and a long way from finished.
Talk to us
Whether you want to test an early build, advise us on growth, or ask an uncomfortable question about the architecture. All of it is welcome.
UnderstandUrself is a well-being and self-reflection tool. It is not a medical device and does not diagnose, treat, predict or provide early warning of any condition. If you are struggling, please speak to a qualified professional.