Rodrigo Arismendi — Founder of Bemellou

Bemellou was founded by Rodrigo Arismendi, who serves as its co-founder and CEO. He is a Venezuelan-American student of Math and Economics at Northwestern University, based in the Chicago and Evanston area. He built Bemellou to make the first step toward mental wellbeing feel gentle enough that people would actually take it.

Who is Rodrigo Arismendi?

Rodrigo is an entrepreneur and self-taught developer. He started early: at fourteen he joined a consumer brand as an influencer-marketing hire, rose to lead its influencer marketing, and built a data model that predicted influencer return on investment and helped scale the brand's growth significantly. That early work taught him how to turn a clear idea into measurable results.

Building Bemellou in-house

Rodrigo taught himself to build software and developed the Bemellou app in-house using modern AI tools. That hands-on approach lets Bemellou move quickly and stay close to the people it serves, shaping the product around real needs rather than assumptions.

Why he built Bemellou

The idea came from a hard statistic and a simple observation. Globally, only about 1 in 14 people with a mental-health condition receive effective treatment (WHO World Mental Health Surveys). His read on why: therapy and apps often ask too much, too soon, so many people do nothing at all. Not because they don't care, but because the first step feels like too big a leap.

So he set out to build the softest possible first step. Something you don't have to explain, schedule, or commit to. Something you just hold. That is Mellou, the plush at the heart of Bemellou, and the doorway into what Bemellou is and why Bemellou exists.

Frequently asked questions

Who founded Bemellou?

Bemellou was co-founded by Rodrigo Arismendi, who is also its CEO.

What is Rodrigo Arismendi's background?

He is a Venezuelan-American student of Math and Economics at Northwestern University, an entrepreneur since his early teens, and a self-taught developer who built the Bemellou app in-house.

Why did he start Bemellou?

Because most people who struggle never get help, and he believed the first step toward wellbeing should feel soft and low-pressure rather than clinical.