HeartCore

Decision-state infrastructure for leaders under pressure.

HeartCore uses Apple Watch biometrics, with HRV as the primary signal, to help senior leaders recognize physiological state shifts before consequential decisions.

Closed pilot: 30 senior leaders across EU and US
The Product

Two surfaces. One signal.

On your wrist, a single state classification. STEADY, ACTIVATED, or DEPLETED. No charts. No scores. Just a word that maps to decades of autonomic nervous system research.

On your phone, a daily retrospective. Three sessions, tagged to calendar events, showing recovery curves and decision windows you may have missed.

The intelligence lives between the two: the watch intervenes in real-time, the phone builds pattern recognition over 90 days.

See the signal model →
14:32
H
STEADY
Session active

Watch face

HeartCore

Three cues delivered today

09:14BOARD MEETING

Held steady. One elevation at 9:38.

Recovered in 1m 42s

11:47HARD CONVERSATION

Two elevations. Settled after each.

Recovered in 2m 08s

14:20STRATEGY REVIEW

In progress

Today View

The decision you regret was physiological before it was strategic.

Senior leaders make their highest-consequence decisions during their lowest-quality physiological states. The board meeting after a red-eye. The restructuring call during a cortisol spike. The investor conversation on 4 hours of sleep.

The data is unambiguous: HRV below personal baseline correlates with impaired executive function, reduced cognitive flexibility, and narrowed peripheral awareness. Yet no infrastructure exists to surface this signal at the moment it matters.

“35,000 decisions per day. The consequential ones cluster in windows of physiological depletion that leaders cannot self-detect.”

Thayer et al., Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
The Signal Model

State Detection

Continuous HRV monitoring classifies your autonomic state in real-time. No manual logging. No questionnaires. The Watch observes what you cannot feel.

Decision Context

State classification against your personal baseline, not population norms. STEADY, ACTIVATED, or DEPLETED — calibrated to your nervous system over 90 days.

Recovery Loops

Daily retrospective maps physiological states to calendar events. Pattern recognition emerges: which meetings deplete, which contexts sustain.

Architecture

How it works

01

Sense

Continuous Apple Watch HRV and autonomic state telemetry.

02

Interpret

Algorithmic classification against your personal leader baseline.

03

Intervene

Silent haptic pattern when state begins to shift.

04

Reflect

iPhone retrospective builds your decision-state map over 90 days.

This is not wellness.

mindfulnessbalanceself-careburnout coachingstress managementhabit formation

This is infrastructure.

real-time signalphysiological stateexecutive judgmentdecision infrastructureclosed-loop recoverysilent telemetry

“HeartCore is built for the moments when pressure changes physiology, physiology changes perception, and perception changes judgment.”

Basis of our state models

Research-Backed Design

HeartCore's infrastructure is built on validated models of autonomic regulation, not pseudo-scientific wellness metrics.

Model Advisory

James Heyman, PhD

UC Berkeley Haas

Judgment & Decision-Making

HRV & Autonomic Regulation

Heart rate variability serves as a robust proxy for autonomic nervous system flexibility and the ability to regulate state under load.

Thayer, J. F., et al. (2012). Meta-analysis of HRV and neurocognition.

Stress & Executive Function

Acute physiological arousal systematically biases cognitive control, narrowing attention and favoring habitual over goal-directed choices.

Shields, G. S., et al. (2016). Acute stress on core executive functions.

Longitudinal Monitoring

Continuous ambulatory assessment reveals patterns in allostatic load accumulation invisible to point-in-time subjective self-reporting.

Slavich, G. M., et al. (2019). Wearable technology for continuous monitoring.

Closed Pilot

The 90-day program

30 senior leaders across EU and US. Individual baseline calibration, real-time state classification, daily retrospectives. Your biometric data never leaves your device.

Series B-D executive
Apple Watch wearer
Based in EU or US
3+ direct reports
Apply for the pilot

Privacy

On-device processing. No cloud. No employer access.

Calibration

Personal baseline over 14 days. Not population norms.

Commitment

Wear your Watch during work. Review 3 daily cues.

The Team

SR

Sandy Rathod, PhD

CEO, Behavioral Science

Embodied leadership, decision-state research

PA

Pieter Aarts

Co-founder

Business development, organizational psychology

FD

Fred Dijkstra

CTO

Technical architecture, platform engineering

Technology Partner

YipYip B.V. (Rotterdam)

Timeline

Q2 2026

Closed Pilot Launch

30 senior leaders across EU and US Series B-D companies. 90-day data capture begins.

Q3 2026

Pilot Completion

Pattern validation, intervention tuning, recovery loop structuring from pilot telemetry.

Q4 2026

Seed Round

Scale to 200 participants. Team-level intelligence layer.

Q1 2027

Product Launch

Enterprise beta. Organizational resilience signals.

No scores. No surveillance. Just infrastructure.