Building the open platform for smart glasses.
Mentra builds smart glasses hardware, MentraOS, and the SDK developers need to deploy apps in real environments.
Who We Are
At Mentra, we believe smart glasses are the next personal computer. Billions of people will wear them every day, and they'll become our primary interface to AI.
Smart glasses can help deaf people hear. Help blind people navigate. Help everyone augment their cognition with AI. This is the future we're building.
The OS is the missing piece. That's why we're building MentraOS.
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, and within a year demoed the OpenSourceSmartGlasses project 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, Mentra was born. Cayden dropped out of MIT. Israelov quit his job. Founding engineer Nicolo dropped out of Tsinghua. Within months they launched MentraOS, went through YC, and raised a seed round from Amazon, Toyota Ventures, and others.
Today, Mentra is a diverse team spanning San Francisco and Shenzhen. Our team has experience at Google, Calvin Klein, VSP, Microsoft, and Nike.
As we grow, we remain committed to our core values of user empowerment through open-source technology, and we'll always retain our hacker spirit.
Our Mission
We pull out our phones hundreds of times a day just to connect our eyes, ears, and senses to the digital world. Smart glasses are the inevitable next form factor. They'll be our primary interface to AI and each other.
For years, the world was promised smart glasses, but the technology wasn't ready. In 2024, the AI had matured, the hardware was arriving, but the OS still didn't exist. That's why we're building MentraOS.
We believe a smart glasses OS should empower users first. Smart glasses will augment your reality, so it is imperative that control remains in your hands. We aim to maximize the freedom of users, developers, and OEMs using MentraOS.
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.
Who We Are
Mentra builds the open platform for smart glasses: hardware, operating system, developer tools, and deployment infrastructure.
Our customers and partners use Mentra to build apps for field work, live context, accessibility, communication, and hands-free AI.
The goal is straightforward: make smart glasses easier to build on, easier to deploy, and easier to trust.
Our Roots
Mentra grew out of the OpenSourceSmartGlasses project. Cayden Pierce and Alex Israelov began by building and sharing smart glasses prototypes with the developer community.
The work made one gap clear:
Smart glasses need an open operating system.
That idea became MentraOS.
Mentra launched MentraOS, joined Y Combinator, and began building the platform with a team spanning software, hardware, eyewear, operations, and partnerships.
Today the team works across San Francisco and Shenzhen, with experience across consumer hardware, cloud infrastructure, eyewear, logistics, and developer platforms.
We keep the company close to the work: fast prototypes, direct customer feedback, and open-source infrastructure developers can inspect.
Our Mission
Mentra exists to make smart glasses useful in real deployments, not just impressive demos.
The platform gives developers access to camera, audio, display, device events, app distribution, and the phone runtime needed to run multiple apps.
Users keep choice, developers get a practical SDK, and manufacturers can integrate an open operating system while keeping their brand and customer relationship.
Open Source Future
MentraOS is open source because glasses sit close to the user. The platform should be inspectable, extensible, and accountable.
Open infrastructure also makes it easier for developers and hardware partners to build without waiting on a closed roadmap.
We are building the foundation for smart glasses that teams can understand, customize, and deploy.
Team
Cayden Pierce
Leads strategy, product, ecosystem.
Alex Israelov
Smart eyewear expert. Leads MentraOS.
Carl Allen
20 years eyewear design lead with Marchon, Nike, Calvin Klein.
Terry Huhtala
Senior strategy and BD. Ex. founder/CEO and prev. CFO of Nemak ($40B/revenue).
Cody Dumont
Repeat hardware startup leader, prototype to production.
Celine Tsang
Applies 10 years in Chinese law and business to own hardware shipping and compliance.
Nicolo Micheletti
Prev. smart glasses HCI researcher at Tsinghua University, dropped out to join Mentra.
Matthew Fosse
Hacker, cuber, and mobile architecture wizard.
Isaiah Ballah
Leads the cloud team. Prev. at Google and Salesforce. Building wearables since 2021.
Parth Pawar
Designing the interface on your face.
Advisors
Dr. Mila
Huhtala
Medical & Clinical Advisor
Stephen
Wolfram
AI Advisor, Wolfram Research
Alan
Burt
Eyewear Advisor, Prev. VSP
Tomás
Vega
Wearables Advisor, Prev. MIT Media Lab
Mike
Rahimzadeh
Optics Advisor, Prev. Founder of Lensabl
David
Bonelli
Optics Advisor, Co-inventor Birdbath Optics
Build the platform with us.
Mentra is hiring people who want to work across hardware, software, design, operations, and developer platforms.
Ready to build on Mentra?
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