Name: Dr. Jo Carlile
Company: Pear
Position: Founder
Website: http://ilovepear.com
About Dr. Jo Carlile
I am Dr Jo Carlile, a Clinical Psychologist and co-founder of Pear. I find myself (along with my co-founder Tallie who I also nominate), in the Wild West that is a female tech startup. We both do this whilst juggling young families, which creates a context of chaos, juggle and sleep deprivation! But what keeps our motivation alive is the passion that we have for the problem we are fixing.
Pear is founded by myself, Clinical Psychologist and Tallie Hopkins, Business Strategist, bringing together lived experience and 18 years of clinical expertise. Tallie has experienced first-hand how difficult and alienating it can feel to try to find the right therapist at a vulnerable moment. While I have spent nearly two decades in clinical practice, seeing the impact of poor fit, delayed access, and disengagement from therapy. Pear was born at the intersection of these two perspectives: one grounded in user experience, the other in clinical reality.
As founders, we are intentionally building Pear to pioneer what it means to be human-first in an AI-enabled service. AI supports scale, learning, and efficiency within Pear, but it does not replace clinical judgement, relational decision-making, or accountability. Crucially, every client on both sides of the platform (therapy seekers and therapists) has real human contact with us throughout the pairing process. We believe technology should remove friction, not humanity. Our aim is to show that it is possible to build a scalable, commercially ambitious AI business in mental health that protects trust, centres human connection, and treats both users and clinicians with dignity.
Since launching in May 2025 we have had more success than we planned for and we can’t wait to see how we grow in 2026.
As a founder the personal journey I am on has been fascinating, exhausting and entirely rewarding all at the same time! Our struggles in navigating business and decision making have been my biggest challenge. But our clear vision and shared values as founders have been very grounding for us. We have such ambition for Pear and the disruption it can do for a landscape that is currently neglected. We want to help as many people as we can to access the right support. We have total faith that using human connection, backed up by supercharged tech, we can take this all the way.
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