Featured Member - Kofo Mary Are

Kofo Mary Are describes London as "the best city in the world," but it was a stark reality about London that sparked her latest venture.

While working on a product for a life insurance company, Kofo Mary discovered something shocking: location dictates longevity. Specifically, West Londoners have an 18-year advantage in healthy life expectancy compared to other parts of the city.

"I wanted to understand how to close that gap," Kofo Mary says.

With over 20 years of experience as a Strategic Marketing Executive, Kofo Mary has led go-to-market strategies for startups and established enterprises, launching operations worth over £20M. But her transition to founder wasn't a leap of faith—it was data-driven. She personally conducted over 200 customer interviews to validate product-market fit for THIER, her digital health startup focused on lifestyle disease prevention.

Her background gives her a unique perspective. With studies towards an EMBA from Bayes Business School, a degree in Chemistry, and a Masters in marketing, Kofo loves operating at the intersection of science and business. It's this combination that led her to spot an opportunity others might have missed.

Working with consumer food startup Pollen & Grace gave Kofo Mary insight into the wellness and 'free-from' markets. But the real breakthrough came during her time at FluxInsights, where she came across research showing two crucial things: the crippling cost of obesity for companies offering private healthcare, and the ability of Machine Learning to predict lifestyle diseases up to 5 years early.

"I realised I could combine these insights to build a preventative solution," she explains.

That solution became THIER—an AI-enabled mobile platform focused on preventing obesity and type II diabetes. The platform provides tools to identify, track, monitor, and prevent lifestyle diseases in employee communities, using machine learning algorithms, community support, and personalized healthcare interventions.

Kofo Mary is particularly passionate about leveraging AI to accelerate development. She recently used tools like Perplexity to speed up prototype development, and relies on various AI research tools daily.

"I rely on tools like Perplexity, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude to satisfy my curiosity," she says. "They act as my 'second brain' and help me process information at the speed of my thoughts."

When she's not building prototypes in Figma or scouting for partners and investors, Kofo Mary enjoys running, walking, going to concerts, watching documentaries, and meditating to keep herself grounded.

Now, Kofo Mary is looking for the bridge between 'validated concept' and 'funded company.' She has joined Breakthrough Labs to refine her investment case and technical roadmap.

She's also building THIER's User Product Advisory Panel to ensure development remains deeply user-centric, and seeking partners for a major initiative focused on longevity and employee wellbeing.

For Kofo Mary, meaningful conversation is everything. "Whether it's customer discovery interviews or chatting with peers, I thrive on deep connections rather than small talk." Find her on LinkedIn to make a connection.

We're excited to have her in the Breakthrough Labs community and look forward to supporting her as she transforms workplace health.

Welcome to Breakthrough Labs, Kofo Mary!