About Us

Choose Your Reality

Our Roots

In 2018, Cayden built his first smart glasses in his university dorm. Meanwhile, Israelov was independently experimenting with smart glasses technology. They connected on Reddit in 2022, teamed up to form TeamOpenSmartGlasses – the earliest community of smart glasses hackers – and within a year presented OpenSourceSmartGlasses at CES 2023.

That experience led to a greater realization:

Just as cell phones, smart glasses need their own operating system.
That idea became MentraOS.

In 2024, Cayden dropped out of MIT and Israelov quit his job to found Mentra. They launched MentraOS, went through YC, and raised $8M.

Today, the team is made up of diverse individuals who have experience working with Google, Fitbit, Calvin Klein, and Nike, yet will always retain that hacker spirit.

Cayden Pierce and Alex Israelov at CES 2023

Our Mission

For years, the world was promised smart glasses, but the technology wasn't ready. In 2024, AI and hardware finally reached that moment. Software did not. So we built MentraOS.

Smart glasses are not a trend. They are inevitable. Today, we pull out our phones hundreds of times a day just to connect our eyes, ears, and senses to the digital world. Smart glasses make that connection seamless and natural.

AI becomes powerful only when it understands context. With smart glasses, AI can see what you see, hear what you hear, and understand your environment in real time, unlocking the next generation of truly helpful computing.

We vow to protect people from a future where their technology and experiences are controlled by big tech companies.

With MentraOS and Mentra Live, we ensure a future where people will always get to choose their reality.

Open Source Future

We believe the future of smart glasses should be open source, because innovation, freedom, and community-driven progress lead to the best platforms.

By rethinking the operating system from the ground up, we've built the foundation for the future of wearable AI.

Join us in building a future where smart glasses are controlled by the people.

Meet the Founders

CEO/FOUNDER

Cayden Pierce

Cayden leads Mentra, overseeing software, hardware, and operations across San Francisco and Shenzhen. Seven years ago, he set out to bridge mind and machine. That mission took him from building custom smart glasses with Steve Mann (inventor of smart glasses), to traveling North America in an RV hacker lab and developing AI agents at MIT. In 2024, he left MIT to build the OS for the next 8 billion personal computers.

CTO/FOUNDER

Alex Israelov

Israelov leads Mentra's software team in San Francisco, building MentraOS. In 2021, a small shard of glass launched into his right eye, and he needed glasses for the first time. He immediately saw the potential of smart eyewear and began building smart glasses in his dorm room. He's led open source smart glasses projects since then and co-founded Mentra in 2024.