Thync: http://www.thync.com/

Khosla Ventures invested $13 million.

Thync’s technology involves calculated stimulation—at present, via contact electrodes placed along the orbital ridge and the base of the neck—of cranial nerves, that is to say, nerves that travel directly into the brain as opposed to the spinal cord. The stimulus is currently applied through electricity; the company initially used ultrasound (which is capable of greater precision, “down to an area the size of an M&M,” says Goldwasser, and deeper travel—“directly into the brain itself”), but the unwieldy size of the technology made it impractical for how they imagined it being used. Which is to say, regularly and everywhere.

Because Thync is a wearable—perhaps the first wearable technology that actively does something to you rather than track what you’re doing to yourself. It sticks to your temple, a shaped, rounded triangle of plastic with a replaceable strip of flat printed-circuitry plastic that navigates the side of your head down to the base of your skull. The forehead and the neck piece generate impulses, controlled by the program you’ve loaded via a companion smartphone app, that actively jolt the neurons in those two sensitive areas; these programs generate mood shifts that Thync calls “Vibes.” At present, there are two sets of Vibes available: One designed to produce relaxation, and another designed to produce alertness.