Why complexity doesn't scare us (anymore).

In 2016, Thimus was born out of the intuition that applied neuroscience was ready to smash open the door of the lab and burst out into real life applications. At the time, there was only one word to describe this direction: neuromarketing.

We didn't pause and think of its implications: we just wanted to be alive.

And thus we went about a global rush for growth, fiercely omnivore like any sane-minded startup would be. Racing at 220 km/h in BMWs, flying tourists on charter airlines, exploring the tropical forests of Madagascar: such was our quite varied diet, when we were not helping great global brands creating outdoor garments or hanging out with Michelin-starred Chefs at the peak of their creativity.

Although adrenaline was an often dangerously addictive substance, we managed to be clear-minded enough to look at the global scenario and understand that strategic choices needed to be made in order to build our little house on rock.

Defining what NOT to do was an easy feat: neuromarketing would soon hit the wall of serious scientific limitations. At the same time, the field would overcrowd with players equipped with easily reachable low grade technology and very standard metrics and algorithms.

Long term value construction would necessarily imply taking the difficult road: learning every single tiny bit of the full neuro-physiological data pipeline, from the magic hardware piece that we strapped on people's heads to that riddle inside an enigma that is full interpretation of brain electrical activity.

Whilst our internal team grew, thanks to oncoming brilliant talent from different corners of the planet, our awareness also grew. We had built our own EEG device, equipped with environmental sensors, phenomenal decontamination algorithms and user-friendly dry sensors.

We liked the way it worked and provided a door to global scalability for our business model. But opening the door of deep access to brain activity, one we controlled directly, had in fact opened Pandora's box. The recurring question had become: what does brain electrical activity REALLY mean? Can we reduce the complexity of human experiences to a handful of mental states calculations? Complexity started to project its long, dark shadow over our frail architecture.

And that's when a lot of things happened at the same time.

The Pandemic, of course. A long, anguishing stop to travel, exchange and operations, which threatened our own existence as a company while the old World order was shattering.

Profound changes to our internal organization, with the departure of our original Scientific Director and the arrival of an eclectic Director of Innovation.

The ensuing company cultural change. A wonderful, mysterious and often times complicated intellectual process, which elevated our internal conversation about how to do things and - mostly - WHO do we want to be. Being about "asking the right questions" has emerged as a recurring mantra, as we challenge the very fabric of which Thimus has been built of.

Growing up, finding our own voice.

Such is the natural destiny of a company that is ready to forget about the startup cliché and simply be what it was always meant to be: a smart, talented group of special individuals who aim at using all they have learnt to learn some more, to find new answers, to connect the dots.

As we embark on this new part of the journey, we shall make decisions and be conscious of our goal: becoming a voice in the global debate on what humans will eat in the future.

We need and want to focus on one space, that of food, because we believe this is the space in which culture, emotion, biological evolution and sustainability all come together.

We strongly believe cultural neuroscience can combine ethnographic research, philosophy, sociology, psychology, epigenetics and qualitative research, all with the goal of simply reminding the world that there will be no such thing as simple answers to human challenges.

Complexity has been, for the longest time, our enemy: a chaos-loving monster who needed to be contained with deterministic rules and approaches. That's when we thought there would be no dishonor in not seeking real impact. We don't see the world that way anymore.

It's time for Thimus to seek an impact, to raise its voice, to furiously study and work, to play and have fun, to experiment and get lost. Time for change and for bravery, in a global scenario of irrationality and fear. Time for nurturing thoughts and feeding minds and bodies.

We are building a magic place to embody this new direction and hope we will be meeting like-minded people along the way.

Let's start the journey.