Announcing our Techstars and Monsoon Investment

Navi is heading to Techstars Boulder to build an app that gets people off their phones and back into the world.

A few months ago, my husband Sean handed me my coffee and asked, “Why are you doing this?”

It wasn’t a casual question. Sean is a VC, and he spends his days watching innovation fail. He’d heard me talk about Navi for months. He wanted the real answer.

It came out before I could think: I want people to get out of their houses and back into the world.

I grew up watching the Jetsons, waiting for technology that would make life feel bigger. What we mostly got were screens that made it smaller. Our phones got very good at keeping us inside. Meanwhile, getting out the door turned into a research project: six apps, fourteen tabs, a map that goes quiet the second you arrive. Most nights it’s easier to stay home and scroll, so we do.

Nobody’s best Saturday was the fastest one.

I know this problem from the inside. I spent years leading Waze for Cities, studying how people move through the places they live. The tools we built were brilliant at one thing: the fastest route. But nobody’s best Saturday was the fastest one. The tools never asked what actually matters: your taste, your timing, the friend you haven’t seen in months. So we all do that work ourselves. Today, you’re the agent.

That’s the job we’re building Navi to take over. Navi knows you, your taste, your people, and the city in real time. You tell it the messy version of what you want, and it hands you a plan you can actually go and do. One app instead of six. I don’t want you to spend more time in Navi. I want you to spend more time living the life you want.

Which is why I’m packing for Boulder.

Navi has been accepted into the Techstars Boulder 2026 class. Yes, that Techstars: the flagship program where it all started before it grew worldwide, the one built on community, the one that believes in “Give First.” For the next three months I’ll be there, heads-down with a room of world-class mentors and founders, building the thing I’ve been describing at our kitchen table. I’m deeply grateful they’re betting on us.

With Techstars, Monsoon VC, and our angel investors behind us, we’re officially closing our $500K pre-seed round. The next three months go to two things: getting the Navi beta into your hands, and proving out how we grow.

So here’s my ask. If the fastest route ever failed you, or a great night out died somewhere in the group chat, tell me about it. Those stories are what we’re building for.

Screens figured out how to keep us in. Now we’re building the thing that gets us out.

Thais

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