Marika Conomos was last year’s B&T Women Leading Tech Awards, presented by Atlassian, Woman of the Year, and she also won the Developer and Entrepreneur/Founder Awards for her game-changing company, UpLift AI. The development of UpLift AI’s Astra technology applies AI to the most intimate of relationships—therapist to patient, designed to ease the manual workload, giving therapists more time to focus on their patients.
That kind of innovative thinking is what B&T’s Women Leading Tech Awards celebrate—actions that rewrite the rules and leave the world better than they found it. Conomos’s company recently launched its flagship product, Ecko Health, which is how she refers to the company below.
B&T sat down with Conomos to learn about her path to success, which was paved with rocky roads—it’s a testament to Conomos’s tenacity to always strive for better.
B&T: What was the importance of winning the Women Leading Tech Awards?
Marika Conomos: Honestly? It was validating in the best possible way because it recognised that what I’m building, and why I’m building it, is important! In a room filled with big tech names like Meta, Canva, Atlassian, Telstra, it was powerful to realise that you can still be commercially ambitious as a small fish among big tech sharks, and still win.
Entries are open until 30 January, while late entries close on 6 February. So, what are you waiting for? Enter now!
B&T: What inspired you to create UpLift AI, tapping technology to improve mental health outcomes?
MC: Two things stand out. Firstly, a preventable death of a patient.
Someone needed my help at 2:30pm one day, not 7:00pm which was the only free appointment I had available. That time gap cost a life. And that’s something I’ve never recovered from.
Mental health care still operates inside rigid hours, human limits, and overloaded systems. But a person’s distress doesn’t follow a clinician’s calendar; distress happens when it happens. We have an access “at the right time” problem in mental health care. Ecko Health is designed to solve that.
The second thing was solving a problem for therapists. I’m a twin and my sister is also a psychologist, like me. Growing up, I experienced what it’s like to think alongside someone who gets you instantly, who catches what you miss, who keeps you sharp when you’re tired. Ecko Health was born from that idea.
What if every clinician had a personal double? A second brain that thinks like them, works like them, and never fatigues? What if care didn’t rely on one exhausted mind, but two aligned ones, so clinicians can work faster, think deeper, and work better? That’s exactly what Ecko Health does, by creating personalised Clinical Doubles for therapists.
Enter B&T’s Women Leading Tech Awards, presented by Atlassian, now!
B&T: What advice do you have for up-and-coming women in the tech industry, especially on how to navigate a male-dominated industry?
MC: Being the only woman in a room of men is more powerful than you realise because you can actually stand out more! That said, you do have to work hard for it.
Traditionally, a lot of business happens between men over a beer at the pub at 6pm. Deals are done there. But as a woman, that setting often doesn’t work; it can feel unprofessional or inappropriate. So, as a woman, you have to demand the meeting, demand a time to formally meet with the men so you can talk business and make the deals; pick your office or theirs. It doesn’t matter. And don’t take no for an answer.
And here’s the thing: if what you build is genuinely great, the room full of men will back you anyway.
B&T: What have been the biggest growth lessons looking back on your career in tech?
MC: Nothing falls in your lap, you have to go and get it. And if you don’t build it first, someone else will. So make sure you are first.
B&T: I love your ethos of “innovation must serve humanity and technology must elevate human expertise” – where do you see UpLift AI going next, and your relationship with tech in general?
MC: The future isn’t human versus AI. It’s human with AI, done ethically and safely, especially in mental health. AI has opened doors to possibilities of care that never existed 6 or 12 months ago. As psychologists and clinicians, we can now deliver care that is exponentially better – AI is genuinely making us better clinicians! How cool is that!
For patients, it means access to support in moments that never previously existed; that’s even cooler. This means someone struggling at 2 am with thoughts of self-harm may choose not to hurt themselves because compassionate, clinically-informed healthcare via AI was able to intervene in that exact moment, and help them get through until morning.
That’s the kind of future I’m building toward.
B&T: What advice do you have for women entering the Women Leading Tech Awards?
MC: Apply before you feel ready. Always. Don’t wait for perfection or for the bells and whistles. Your story doesn’t need to look like anyone else’s to be worthy of recognition. And if you feel like a small fish in a big sea of tech players? – Who cares? It’s often the smaller fish with the brilliant idea that can swim quicker to success!
So, back yourself loudly. The rest will catch up.
Enter B&T’s Women Leading Tech Awards, presented by Atlassian, now!
