When I ask founders what inspired them to develop their products, I usually hear about customer pain points. But the idea for Meet Zario traces back to a moment of monumental digital misstep — swiping on Grindr during a client meeting.
Co-founder Ondrej Zak was working at Accenture when his boss caught him mid-swipe.
"She was like, 'Oh my God, you can't swipe during meetings,'" recalls Killian Fjellback, his co-founder. "That's when he realised how compulsive phone use had become."
At the time, Killian had just read Indistractable by Nir Eyal (a book he highly recommends). He shared it with Ondrej, and soon after, they both quit their jobs to build something that could help people reduce screen time — a tool on your phone to help you get off your phone.
And now, Zario is launching Data Detective, the first AI-powered tool that lets users analyse their Google data to see themselves through Google's eyes.
I spoke to Killian to learn all about it and the company.
I love a good founder meet story
Ondrej Zak and Killian Fjellback met in the back of a BlaBlaCar on a ride from Zurich to Paris.
Fjellback recalled:
"There were transport strikes and neither of us had a car, so we ended up sharing the ride and became great friends — even though we're total opposites. Everyone else was just like scrolling on their phones."
This is a great testament to the fact that you can meet your future co-founders anywhere.
The problem of app addiction
Our addiction to apps is endemic, time-wasting, and distracting. Meet Zario has particularly gained traction with compulsive social media users.
Zario uses an AI-powered agent that acts like a personal digital coach. Based on user preferences or schedules, it can temporarily block access to distracting apps like Instagram, TikTok, or Twitter.
By combining behavioural psychology techniques with gamified challenges, Zario aims to help people reclaim their focus and improve productivity.
Key Features include:
- Mindful Pause: Introduces a brief pause before opening certain apps, encouraging users to reflect on their intention.
- Focus Schedule: Allows users to block distracting apps during designated times to maintain concentration.
- Quick Block: Enables immediate blocking of all apps for moments when a break from the screen is needed.
- Session Limit: Sets timers for app usage to prevent prolonged, unintentional browsing sessions.
The most interesting feature, highlighting the true addictive nature of apps, is Strict Mode, which enforces screen time limits by making it challenging to bypass restrictions, including requiring a fee or direct contact to deactivate.
Zario's methodology is grounded in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), both of which are recognised for their effectiveness in addressing behavioural changes. A study conducted at Maastricht University indicated that Zario is more effective in reducing screen time than standard digital detox methods.
Zario's $5-a-month pitch: save hours a day, add years to your life
Zario is not the first company to attempt to get people off their phones. I even have a Pavlok at home, a wearable device designed to help users break bad habits and build better ones through aversive conditioning – the delivery of a mild electric shock" to deter unwanted behaviours, such as nail biting, smoking, or oversleeping.
Further, given the plethora of time management apps—I use Pomodoro myself—I was curious how Meet Zario gets people to pay for its platform.
Fjellback explained that the company helps users calculate the cost of their screen time:
"If you're spending 2-3 hours a day, that adds up to decades. It becomes a no-brainer when people see that paying $5 a month to save even a fraction of that time is worth it. In many cases, we're saving people 1–3 hours per day."
Who uses Zario?
According to Fjellback:
"Around 35-40 per cent of users want to stop doom-scrolling. Others want better sleep, are obsessed with crypto, or want stronger controls than their phone settings offer."
Some are also curious about the novelty of having an agent control their phone — that's intriguing or terrifying, depending on who you ask."
Most of Meet Zario's users are in the US, India, and Germany. Culturally, it varies, as Fjellback recalled, "When we talked to users in China, they didn't understand why anyone would want to spend less time on their phone."
The idea for Data Detective occurred while travelling. The Zario founders had won a grant to visit San Francisco. They wanted to make the most of their time there, so we signed up for every networking event, workshop, and course they could find.
According to Fjellback:
"One morning, we ended up at a 7:00 AM workshop about setting up AI agents, but it was pretty basic. So instead, we started chatting with other participants.
That's how we met an Italian guy who had just graduated from ETH Zurich— he happened to be part of the Entrepreneurs First accelerator and was starting to build something in response to a new EU regulation that had recently come into effect."
Zario ended up being the first to integrate their tech and offer it for free — just to test the concept.
Under the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA), five of the largest tech platforms—such as Meta, Amazon, and others designated as "gatekeepers"—are legally required to provide users with access to their personal data through a direct API, as long as the user gives explicit consent.
This regulation is designed to ensure that user data is made available in a structured, machine-readable, and transparent way, empowering individuals to better understand and control the information these platforms collect about them.
The goal is to level the playing field by giving users the ability to transfer or analyse their data across services, which also opens opportunities for third-party tools like Zario's Data Detective" to offer new forms of insight and value.
"We've been tinkering ever since. The prototype works surprisingly well, and we see so many potential use cases.
For EU users, it's a unique opportunity to get a clear view of what Google knows about them — how their searches and online behaviour translate into assumptions about age, gender, income, and consumer preferences."
And it's the convergence of all this data where things really get intense. Think Google Maps, browsing history, shopping habits — suddenly, there's a profile you'd never consciously share with anyone.
"But we believe that information should belong to the user. Right now, it's scattered across platforms, buried in settings or dashboards. But eventually, someone will put it all together — and we want that "someone" to be the user themselves."
Data Detective is the first AI tool that deciphers personal Google data with an LLM, revealing insights Google knows about you. It provides a way to connect with people with their screen time map and increase awareness of how much data flows through platforms like Google — and in the future, Instagram, and TikTok.
Users can see their search history, inferred age, gender, income bracket — it's the kind of profile that advertisers build on you.
“Even the Adult Ones”: Zario co-founder publishes entire Google search history
Co-founder Zak even publicly posted his full data profile—including all his Google searches, "even adult ones—just to prove a point about radical transparency. It's funny and terrifying at the same time, but it sparks awareness."
In terms of utility, Meet Zario partnered with Fabric. Users connect their data (currently Google) via API.
"Everything is anonymised — we create a user ID, store it locally, and users can delete their data anytime. Fabric is GDPR-compliant, and we're privacy-first. We're just showing people their own data, not collecting it ourselves."
Fjellback stresses, "Everything is privacy-centric. Users have full control and can delete or retrieve data at any time. We're not interested in harvesting data—just reflecting it back so people can make informed choices.
Since privacy is a core part of our product, we can't (and won't) see what users do on their phones. But we realised we could hold up a mirror — giving people the tools to explore what they're doing, when they're doing it, and what that says about them.
The company plans to develop more features like personalised reports in the future.
Data Detective is in its early stages, available only in the EU for now.
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