Wilmington startup WeWa.life revolves around an application called Mimi. Equal parts academic organizer and a shoulder to lean on, the flagship product is a guide to student life for undergraduates, emphasizing a powerful mission to support student wellness. More specifically, Mimi functions as a companion that seeks to organize academic calendars while also ensuring that a student is connected to their peers on campus.
Browning Rockwell, Founder and CEO of WeWa.life, first conceived of the early version of the idea in 2019 amid conversations about digital health and therapeutics. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the idea of the startup stagnated—until Rockwell was working as a mentor at the Cameron School of Business at UNC-Wilmington. There, he encountered a mentee who confided in him about mental health issues and how prominent they were in his day-to-day life.
It was then that Rockwell began conducting on-campus research concerning the interconnectedness of mental, financial and emotional problems in relation to to the academic lifestyles of UNCW students. By way of initially surveying some 100 university students, Rockwell was able to create WeWa.life with the purpose of rolling out the core product: Mimi.
Functioning as a form of chatbot, Mimi attaches itself to the API of an existing Learning Management System (LMS) such as Canvas and acts as a guide to help students balance academic life. It also helps make sure that a student is informed about ways they can socialize and stay engaged with campus life.
Helping universities support mental health
WeWa.life is employing a SaaS (Software as a Service) business model for widespread university adoption, with two universities on track for pilot programs in the Fall.
Rockwell also emphasized that universities implementing Mimi’s services would not be doing so as a means of replacing existing mental health services, but rather as an addition to the existing resources on campus. Mimi can bolster what is already established and assist mental health professionals in the academic setting.
Rockwell said that the key pain points that Mimi is seeking to address concern convenience. For example, Mimi can be constantly available to students, including during out-of-office hours. Mimi also combats the stigma of walking through health building doors in person by helping students understand resources from the comfort of their dorm rooms first.
From that point, Mimi has guardrails in place to recognize when a student’s situation may have escalated and require professionals to take over. These processes were developed with help from Dana Murray, the Chief Behavioral Officer at WeWa.life and a professional therapist with experience caring for students.
“Carving out your universe”
Rockwell said that while powerful, mental health care is not the primary focus of Mimi’s services. Rather, that would be the action of connecting students to each other in support of social wellness.
In contrast to asking other LLMs for advice, Rockwell said that Mimi understands the student’s academic calendar, workload and other factors regarding their university experience. This in turn enables Mimi to help students “carve out their universe” and gain an assistant that helps with seeking mental health resources, social events, assignment management and campus navigation—all in one program.
Compared to other LLMs that can offer general advice, Rockwell frequently described Mimi as an “experience” and a “home base” where students are able to access a plethora of resources from the convenience of their phone, laptop or other device.
Privacy and security
Rockwell understands the complexity of navigating medical and academic privacy, while also dealing with the implications of giving data to an AI-powered application.
Mimi corresponds with existing HIPAA and FERPA policies on university campuses, ensuring that both academic and medical privacy is tightly bound with the same rules that were previously established by universities.
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Startup: WeWa.life (Mimi)
Founder: Browning Rockwell
Founded: 2019; pivot to Mimi in 2025
Team size: 6 (2 full-time)
Location: Wilmington
Website: wewa.life
Funding: Bootstrapped
Rockwell also said that privacy is “hard-coded” into Mimi, with options in place to help students choose which data is going into the application, or opt out of data sharing entirely.
The road ahead
As WeWa.life readies for its pilot programs this year, Rockwell is already envisioning expansion by way of bringing this idea into many other different communities that can benefit from having a chatbot that connects individuals with resources and ensures social and mental wellbeing.
“I want to have a situation where a student has that icon on their phone and it’s something they’re going to go to on a daily basis for one reason or another,” Rockwell said. “I want it to become a system that is proactive in their life.”
“I want to have a situation where a student has that icon on their phone and it’s something they’re going to go to on a daily basis for one reason or another,” Rockwell said. “I want it to become a system that is proactive in their life.”
