Our Story

AskEllyn was inspired during a chance encounter between Ellyn and fellow Waterloo tech entrepreneur Pat Belliveau. After hearing Ellyn tell her breast cancer story, Pat asked to read the manuscript of her book entitled Flat Please recounting her journey. Sparks of inspiration began to fly. He saw the opportunity to transform the content of the book into a powerful conversational AI that could be a shining example of AI for Good. It would be authentically true to Ellyn’s voice and realize her ambition to ensure those diagnosed with breast cancer would never feel alone or ashamed of their diagnosis.

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In a mere three weeks, Pat had a working model of the conversational AI up and running. He then recruited two close friends, marketing pro Ryan Burgio and software developer Christian Silvestru to the AskEllyn project, which is the flagship solution of the trio’s new benevolent AI for Good’s venture, called Gambit Technologies.

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The team have become fast allies, united by a shared desire to do good for the world and leave a meaningful legacy. With a vision of bringing conversational care to the world and to other patient communities, Ellyn founded The Lyndall Project, a non-profit dedicated to realizing that dream. AskEllyn is a powerful start. But it is just the beginning.