Building Bridges: How Good Talk Enhances Empathy and Connection
A Long Journey
Omi Chandiramani has worn many hats throughout his career. From his initial plans to take over his father's business to working for multiple startups and then for tech giants like Google and Amazon, his path has led him to his current passion: Good Talk, a powerful and intuitive app to help people navigate challenging conversations with empathy and connection.
A Sisterly Push Ignites a Passion for Tech
Omi’s interest in technology began in high school, thanks to his sister's encouragement. While his father hoped he would join the family business, his sister nudged him towards pursuing a path of his own and enrolled him into a computer programming class. This class sparked a lifelong passion for technology, allowing him to leverage his problem-solving skills and explore his potential in the tech industry. This newfound passion led him to pursue further studies in computer science in the United States, with the ultimate goal of working in the heart of innovation: Silicon Valley.
Climbing the Corporate Ladder…and leaving it Behind
Omi's career journey in tech is nothing short of impressive. Omi started out working at a variety of startups early on in his career but eventually ended up at Google. Although his time at Google offered an exciting taste of what it was like to work at an innovative, rapidly growing company and engineering focused culture, the long commute from Santa Cruz to Mountain View made it challenging for him to spend time with his growing family and ultimately led him to seek a job that was closer to home. Coincidentally, this was the perfect time for a transition as Amazon was just beginning to hire in Santa Cruz. Omi quickly became part of Amazon Santa Cruz’s founding team (hire #4) and even contributed to shaping the company's office design, culture, and local presence where it remains today in Downtown Santa Cruz.
However, in 2021, Omi faced a “mid-career crisis”, questioning his current path which seemed to simply make rich CEOs richer. This introspection led him to leave Amazon and commit to working only on social impact companies or causes for the remainder of his career. In early 2022, he transitioned to working with the Santa Cruz-based startup Climatize and, as their CTO, helped launch their platform for crowdfunding investments in climate change action. In late 2023, Omi worked part-time at Equilo, a Chicago-based startup focussed on creating gender equality using AI. Simultaneously, he began pursuing his current venture, driven by his passion for creating meaningful social impact.
From Frustration to Inspiration
Omi's journey in America had not been without its challenges, particularly regarding race. He and his family frequently encountered regular microaggressions: at work, at school, or just around town. But he recognized that this experience was just a tiny part of a much bigger social issue: despite strides in civil rights, Black Americans continued to face systemic inequalities across various dimensions of life, often paying with their lives. Omi felt a growing responsibility to be part of any progress on these issues, not just for his family, but for all people of color in America. As political tensions in the late 2010s increasingly translated into racial ones, this frustration deepened. The murder of George Floyd in 2020 became a tipping point for Omi, compelling him to take action. Doing nothing was no longer an option, and he began his search for a way to make a difference.
During this challenging time, Omi spent a great deal of time researching everything that he could get his hands on to deepen his understanding of social justice in America: from civil rights speeches to local police department manuals, but an approach where he could have the impact he hoped for eluded him.
As a tech enthusiast, he naturally gravitated towards technology solutions: could he actually build an app that could broaden people's understanding of race, and build bridges between communities that were at odds with each other? The problems to solve were very fundamental: most people didn’t even know how to talk about race. Building bridges between communities seemed quite a few steps beyond that! Omi felt stuck on this problem until he realized that this was exactly where he needed to start: he would create something that helped people talk to each other about race.
This was finally an idea that Omi could start working on: an app designed to help people practice challenging conversations through role-playing common race-related scenarios and with instant coaching and feedback.
Daughter as Muse and Customer 0: Good Talk Is Born
The development of this idea took a pivotal turn thanks to Omi’s precocious 12 year old daughter. She had been an enthusiastic and thoughtful sounding board for potential ideas and designs leading up to this point. Omi had created a couple of scenarios for users to practice: talking about the recent vandalism of a BLM sign with a black colleague or talking with a friend to understand what her hijab meant to her. But the app was going to need many more, so Omi asked his daughter for ideas. Without missing a beat she described a scenario about a classmate teasing her about the contents of her lunch; something that had actually happened to her at school that day. This simple exchange was a breakthrough moment revealing two key insights: First, real users - even 12 year olds - were going to be able to readily create scenarios that were far more realistic and gritty, and therefore far more meaningful to them than anything he - or even AI - could create. And second, it revealed that the app needed to help with challenging conversations in all aspects of life, not just racial ones. If a middle-schooler needed help dealing with a bully, then that was an important application of this app as well. This exchange put the finishing touches on the core feature set of Good Talk as a tool for talking about race, and also about anything else.
Saying goodbye to miscommunication and hello to better conversations
The Good Talk app allows you to quickly set up any challenging conversation, or choose from challenging scenarios that have been created - and practiced - by other users. Users have already created scenarios about everything from relationships to politics, and yes, about race. You can then practice the conversation with the help of a role-playing chatbot, and get instant coaching on how to become more effective. The coaching is tuned towards encouraging empathetic communication which fosters understanding and connection. Users can practice a conversation as much as they need until they feel ready for the real-world conversation. The best part: all this functionality is free to use, without even the need to create an account!
What makes it different from having a conversation with ChatGPT or other AI tools is the coaching element that helps evaluate and improve the user’s effectiveness in the conversation via instant tips. Additionally, the app already has a rich collection of real-world scenarios to practice, and new scenarios are being added by users every day.
Rather than staying up at night ruminating or being blindsided when going into a conversation, the app gives you a chance to practice what you want to say. Just like any skill or sport, communication is a skill that must be practiced and GoodTalk provides a quick, insightful, and most importantly, safe way to practice communication.
Looking Forward: Reaching the Right Audience and Making a Difference
While the app is already available to everyone, it certainly has potential applications in education, counseling and therapy, amongst other verticals. GoodTalk could be a valuable companion tool for people to develop their communication skills in these contexts. Omi is actively working on partnerships in these areas and is seeking collaborators.
His ultimate goal? To build a successful business that helps connect people - and their communities - one empathetic conversation at a time.
Learn More
Find app store links to Good Talk at: https://www.good-talk.ai/ If you have any feedback or ideas for Omi, please reach out to him at: omi@good-talk.ai
Click on the video to the right or go to App Demo video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6R9XKWmfL2Q