Being seen changes everything.
Seen Place LLC develops privacy-preserving, emotionally resonant AI tools for mental health and wellbeing.
We're asking big questions like: How can we make AI more accessible, secure, and genuinely human-centered?
Our Projects
SEEN:app
AI-guided journaling for deeper self understanding.
Šemû
AI-powered sermon coaching for pastors.
Amāru
Bridging your therapy journey.
The El Roi Test
We're selective about what we build and who we build it with. This is how we decide.
Why "El Roi"?
In Genesis 16, Hagar, a servant pregnant and cast out, fled into the wilderness. Alone, unseen by the world, she encountered God at a spring. She named him El Roi: "The God Who Sees Me."
Hagar is the first person in scripture to give God a name. Not Abraham. Not Moses. A woman with no standing, no power, no voice in her culture. Being truly seen didn't make her passive. It made her bold. She responded to being witnessed by doing something no one had done before.
The Five Criteria
Every project, internal or studio, is evaluated against these five questions:
Does it help someone be truly SEEN?
Not just noticed. Not just engaged. Genuinely witnessed in their humanity, struggle, or story. There's a difference between an app that tracks your mood and one that helps you understand yourself more deeply and feel less alone.
Does it serve the overlooked or voiceless?
Hagar was a slave. Someone the world considered expendable. Does this create space for people who might otherwise be invisible? Does it amplify voices that struggle to be heard?
Does it foster genuine connection over consumption?
El Roi was an encounter, not entertainment. Does this deepen relationship with self, others, or the divine, rather than just fill time or capture attention? Connection means attuned presence, not scale or virality.
Does it honor vulnerability as sacred?
Hagar was at her most exposed. Does this treat personal stories, struggles, and inner lives with the reverence they deserve? Does it protect what people share?
Does it align with "no one should walk through life unseen"?
The gut check. Does this directly serve that core mission, or is it adjacent? Tangential? A nice-to-have rather than mission-critical? Every project we take on must answer this honestly.
How We Score
Each criterion is scored 0–3. Total possible: 15 points.
Regardless of score, any project that exploits vulnerability or requires deception is rejected outright.
What We're Not Building
To avoid drift, we don't optimize for:
- ✕Maximum engagement or retention as a primary success metric
- ✕Persuasion, coercive nudging, or behavior control
- ✕Self-optimization divorced from meaning
- ✕AI replacing human agency, discernment, or voice
Projects that succeed by extracting attention or dependency, rather than cultivating presence and agency, are misaligned even if they look good on paper.
A note on our roots: The El Roi story comes from the Hebrew scriptures, and that origin matters to us. But SEEN doesn't require users to share our faith. The principles embedded in El Roi (being seen, serving the overlooked, honoring vulnerability) are universally human, even if our language for them comes from a particular tradition. We won't hide our roots, and we won't impose them.
Our Team
Ben Kraker
Founder, Creator & Lead Developer
Neurodiverse technologist who built SEEN:app from the ground up. 10+ years creating human-centered systems. Believes technology should help people feel seen, not surveilled.
Mahlon White
Cofounder & Product Owner
Strategic product leader bringing vision and user advocacy to the Seen Place ecosystem. Focused on impact measurement and user experience.