We are Brave Technology Co-Op, or Brave for short.
We exist for one reason—to help stop the overdose crisis.
This is why Brave makes tools that detect overdoses and activate life-saving community response, whenever and wherever people use drugs.
Call us idealists, but we see a grand and glorious tomorrow. We envision equitable, thriving, and compassionate communities. A world where everyone, especially those most at risk, has open access to the help they need. Where social isolation and accidental overdose are a thing of the past.
Our mission is quite direct. End overdose deaths.
We’re building a world where every overdose is detected and reversed.
We strive to walk our talk in everything we do. Our values are our guiding light to keep us true to our word.
Every person has the right to autonomy. This acknowledgement guides how we work with each other, how we design our products, and how we engage with communities.
The overdose epidemic is fundamentally an issue of social justice that has disproportionately affected marginalized communities. We stand in solidarity and co-design our products for and with those who are systemically excluded.
Collaboration is key to ending overdose deaths. We openly exchange knowledge and create solutions with the many other organizations and people on this shared mission.
Human connection is the antithesis of isolation and sits at the heart of everything we do. We work to lower and remove the barriers that promote social isolation.
We trust in one another to make decisions that are aligned with our mission, good for humanity, and based on mutual respect.
Brave makes technology but we are not a traditional tech company. There are a couple things that make us different.
Every one of our products is co-designed with PWUD to make overdose detection accessible to those most at risk of overdose.
The problem we’re trying to solve is bigger than any of can us touch individually. We believe the credit goes to those who do the work, those who use the tools we create, and those whose financial support makes what we do possible.
Here’s a look at our journey so far—some highs and lows, plus what we’ve learned along the way.
Mid-2016
Gordon Casey left his career in offshore hedge funds and moved his family to Vancouver, BC. He met some smart folks who were passionate about solving the housing and overdose crisis. And he was introduced to the principles of Harm Reduction.
December 2016
Gordon Casey launches Brave.
June 2017
Brave released the first beta version of the app. 60 downloads. Pilot with PHS. Despite positive feedback from people with lived experience, nobody uses the app and the pilot falls completely flat.
November 2017
Tamara Wojdylo joins Brave and brings her hackathon-winning Medical Call and Response app with her.
Brave shifts focus from response to remote supervision and participates in the Entrepreneurship@UBC Accelerator. Most of the folks there just didn’t get Brave.
January 2018
Brave starts working with PwrdBy–winner of the FDA Naloxone App Competition–on a remote supervised consumption app.
February 2018
Gordon finds Oona Krieg’s contact information on a poster and calls her. The synergy is instantaneous.
Brave hosts its first Design Jam, “Co-Creating Solutions for the Opioid Epidemic."
March 2018
Mario Cimet finds Brave, loves it, and gives his all taking on the role of CTO.
Sampath Satti joins the co-op and starts working on ODetect.
April 21, 2018
Brave is incorporated in British Columbia as a multi-stakeholder cooperative.
May 2018
Iva Jankovic joins Brave to help manage the RainCity pilot, and then do so many other things.
GE Foundation ghosts Brave after 6 months of work.
June 2018
Brave Buttons pilot with RainCity starts and ends 3 days early because Brave can’t tell if the system goes down.
August 2018
David Schwartz joins Brave to rebuild the Brave Buttons system for RainCity and beyond.
September 2018
Brave is one of 10 finalists in Phase 2 of the Ohio Opioid Tech Challenge.
Oona joins Brave as our first full-time paid team member.
Kenzie Erlank books a meeting with Oona through a mutual friend and asks simply, “How can I help?”
June 2019
Brave Buttons win Health Canada and MaRS’s Opioid Data Challenge, together with Public Health Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph.
August 2019
Brave is one of 4 winners in Phase 3 of the Ohio Opioid Tech Challenge.
March 2020
Brave establishes initial office space and US business operations in Columbus, Ohio.
September 2020
Dana starts working at Brave, taking over management of three US pilot projects located in Ohio and San Francisco.
April 2021
Established permanent office for US operations in Columbus, Ohio.
June 2021
Brave wins 2nd Place in the People’s Pitch for Start.coop.
September 2021
Overdose detection with Brave’s tools hits 100 overdoses detected.
November 2021
Brave receives a top ranking at X4Impct and Brave Buttons are listed in their Tech Solutions directory.
December 2021
Brave makes it into the final 5 of the Spring Impact Investor Challenge and wins the Special Investment Prize.
January 2022
Brave hosts the first Tech and Harm Reduction Symposium.
September 2022
Brave moves the US office from Columbus to Dayton, Ohio, establishing a space inside of The Hub.
We couldn’t have come this far without a group of folks with lived experience, technical brilliance, and compassionate activism who came together to make us what we are today.
From time to time, someone in the media gets wind of the important work we’re doing and they write about us. We're grateful to all the journalists who are helping more people discover how overdose detection saves lives.Here are a few highlights that we’re proud of.
