Entrepreneur Cole Smith might never have launched his startup, Numa Notes, if he hadn't returned to St. Petersburg.
Smith — a techie with an undergraduate and graduate degree in computer science from New York University — returned home in 2022 and observed his mother's busy schedule treating patients at her therapy clinic. The two spoke about finding a way to reduce note-taking and spend more with patients. Today, the idea has grown into a fully-fledged startup, Numa Notes. The platform is also a way to leverage Smith's expertise in machine learning.
"There's only so much that people can process in their minds at one time, but machines have given us this wonderful ability to process even more than what we're able to do on our own," Smith said. "[Machine learning] is a revolution to me."
In the past year of development, the startup pitched at a St. Pete Pitch Night and developed plans to go to market. In April, Numa Notes launched its artificial intelligence note-taking platform, and in May, the startup joined the Tampa Bay Innovation Center's climate tech accelerator program. Its goal is to be a platform for automating clinical note-taking.
Smith said the tool could free therapists nearly 30% of each workday. Numa Notes kicked off its growth plans by marketing to care providers and plans to expand into practices broadly, with about 100 therapists currently using the platform, Smith said. The company is also pursuing investments but is in the early stages of the process.
Smith first moved to St. Pete in 2003. His technical skills with AI come from studying computer science and machine learning at NYU.
At NYU, he won an award for an academic research paper on applying machine learning to climate change trends. The study sought to predict energy demand by tracking pollution. This experience showed him the value of big data, and while his interests slightly shifted, it led him to examine AI more carefully.
"Trying to solve the world's tough problems — like climate change, like mental health crises — are things that I feel AI is going to help us solve," Smith said. "I want to ensure that is what we're using [AI] for."
After graduating, he worked as a machine learning engineer at Morgan Stanley. That's where he met his co-founder, Christina Ng, who remains with the firm. His mother, St. Pete-based therapist Anne Smith, advises the company.
Numa Notes' focus is building transparent and responsible AI practices into the platform, like training the AI model from a mix of private and public data but never user data. It's a way to responsibly participate in the AI revolution.
"We don't just want a cool model we built for psychology out there," Smith said. "It has to be purposeful. It has to be something that is solving the problem that we want to go out and solve, and that's ensuring clients are able to get the mental health care they need, starting with taking care of our providers."
