CuesHub wants to be the app Tennessee executives open before they hit send
"We all have a lifetime budget of heartbeats, and we choose how we spend it. The slower we spend it, the longer we live. The faster we spend it, we reduce not only our lifetime, but also the quality of life."
If there was ever one thing to make someone stop in their tracks, that was it. Santosh Kumar, co-founder and CEO of CuesHub, knew what he was doing when he opened his “Founder Feature” interview that way.
There are tools to track calories, physical activity and sleep — but nothing that tracks stress, despite the fact that unmanaged stress silently drives chronic disease. Kumar, who recently pitched CuesHub at the AI Tennessee “Lab to Market” event, founded this technology to fill the gap.
Teknovation covered the startup back in 2023, but it was time for an update.
Designed for the C-Suite
Everyone gets stressed, which is why at the end of the day, CuesHub is for anyone. But at this point in their commercialization journey, Kumar is deliberately targeting executives because he knows they make our world go round.
“Think of executives as top athletes,” he said. “They’re making business deals, and the ones who come out on top aren’t just the most skilled — they’re also the calmest. If Tennessee executives adopt this app first, they get an early performance advantage before others do.”
But Kumar is clear to note that this app doesn’t get rid of all the stress in your life. In fact, a certain point of stress is needed.
“There is a moderate amount of stress that helps you perform at your best,” he said. “But the excessive kind is dangerous. Because of evolution, the body is trained to fight or flee from predators. But today, stress comes from emails, messages and meetings. You’re not running away from the meeting when something stressful happens. You’re still sitting in that chair. All that extra energy gets dissipated throughout your body and increases the risk of chronic disease.”
It’s this real-time visibility, and the pause that it creates, that can lead to healthy behavioral change.
“Before you hit send on that email or make that deal — pull up the watch, check the app, and ask: am I calm?” Kumar said. “A moment of lapse can do irreparable damage to a career and a work relationship.”
To play devil’s advocate, how does this work for the execs who say they are too busy for a pause or taking on yet another app? Kumar says the app accounts for that, too. Executive assistants or coaches can review their history and triggers for them. If they see they’ve had some stressful days, they could schedule lighter ones to follow in hopes of recouping some of those heartbeats.
Beyond the executive level, the platform has already garnered some surprising attention. “There’s a top NFL team looking at this app to help their players save mental energy,” Kumar said. “Games happen at the end of the day. If you haven’t conserved enough mental energy — even if you’ve been sitting the entire time — you won’t be able to tap into your physical energy when it counts.”
Download the app
CuesHub is available today for Apple Watch and Samsung Galaxy Watch users for free. A premium subscription that includes a calendar view mapping stress levels to specific meetings, down to the minute, runs $5 per month or $50 per year.
“I want people in Tennessee to benefit from this innovation, and I want investors to have a chance at an early stake in CuesHub,” ended Kumar.
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