Hi, I'm Dr. Ali Mattu 👋🏽

I'm a clinical psychologist, a YouTuber, and a startup founder who spent years inside the loneliness economy.

I still find myself scrolling at 10pm instead of talking to my wife. ​

​I'm trying to figure out what it actually takes to show up for the people we love.

I think the answer is more interesting than anything your phone is offering you tonight.

Let's figure it out

My story

I've lived with anxiety most of my life. For a long time I thought that was my problem to solve alone, that needing people was a weakness, that asking for help was a burden, that the goal was to need less.

I was wrong about all of it.

The research is clear: being with people you trust is one of the most powerful things you can do for your mental health. Not apps. Not content. Not scrolling. Real experiences with real people.

That insight changed everything about how I think about anxiety, loneliness, and what it means to need people.

How I got here

I spent over a decade working in hospitals and classrooms helping people navigate anxiety, panic, phobias, and stress.

But I kept seeing the same pattern. People weren't just struggling with their mental health. They were struggling with isolation. They felt cut off from the people who mattered. And the tools they were turning to for connection were making it worse.

So I stepped out of the clinic and into a tech startup to understand from the inside what the loneliness economy was actually doing to us, and what it would take to fight back.

What I’m doing now

I am on a mission to fight the loneliness economy.

I am the Cofounder & Chief Science Officer at Oriscen, where we are building a platform optimized for real-world attendance rather than screen time.

I also continue to tackle these topics on my YouTube channel, where over 350,000 people join me to discuss why friendship is getting harder and what it takes to show up.

My work has been featured on Netflix, HBO, and The New York Times. I also once got roasted by John Oliver on Last Week Tonight, which felt like a strange but solid endorsement.

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area with my wife, our two kids, and a lot of books about Star Trek, psychology, and the future.

Background

• Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology
• Chief Science Officer at Oriscen
• Former Assistant Professor at Columbia University Medical Center
• 10,000+ hours supporting people with anxiety, OCD, and related challenges
• Psychology License # California PSY34269, New York 020357