That instinct to dig deeper eventually became the foundation of his company Mobio Interactive. As founder and CEO, Saab is tackling a problem he believes sits at the heart of modern psychiatry: the absence of objective measurement. "All fields of medicine have objective tools," he says. "Mental health does not. That is the gap we are filling."

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Mobio delivers evidence-based therapeutic audio - nearly 2,000 sessions across nine languages—through an app similar to Spotify. What distinguishes it is the system that quantifies how users feel both subjectively and objectively before and after every session. "If someone tells you they are not feeling stressed but the data shows otherwise, those are the readings you need to trust," he says.

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His path was not linear. After completing his PhD in neuroscience at the University of Toronto, Saab opened his own laboratory at the University of Zurich's Psychiatric Hospital. There, he had access to tools revealing the minute workings of the brain whilst clinicians down the hall relied on questionnaires. "They were making life-changing decisions with far less information than I had in the lab. It felt like a tragedy."

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A friend's interest in health and gaming led to Mobio's formation almost by accident. The turning point came in 2016 when their first placebo-controlled trial on anxiety showed significant therapeutic effect. "I thought it was a Hail Mary," Saab admits. "But it worked. And once you see that, you cannot walk away." He closed his Zurich lab, reassigned his students, took 20 days off and has not stopped since.

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Mobio now works with hospitals and telehealth providers, demonstrating benefits for anxiety, depression, concussion-related distress, fear of cancer recurrence and substance use. The company also has preliminary fMRI data showing how its remote psychotherapy affects brain function in children post-concussion—the kind of mechanistic insight typically associated with pharmaceutical studies.

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Saab is unapologetically confident about the company's lead in objective stress measurement. "Even big tech would struggle to catch up to us," he says. "It would take time to get to where we are now, but by then we are already further along."

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His commercial path reflects his values. Mobio is B2B not because it is easier, but because Saab believes mental-health support should be accessible regardless of ability to pay.

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Investors remind him routinely that he cannot burn out. In return, he uses the same therapeutic tools he builds, paired with a refusal to waste energy worrying about the uncontrollable. "It is the stories we tell ourselves that shape our experience," he says.

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His view of the future is uncompromising: "Five years from now, it will be a faux pas not to include objective measurement in mental-health care. We are hitting the turning point."