2026: The Year Of The Brain đ§ (and đ´ ofc)
From my first EEG scan in 2015 to proving breath work works in 90 seconds - brain measurement is no longer optional
Back in 2015, my roommate Spencer was working at Brain Treatment Center in Newport Beach - a place hacking the brain with tech that had pulled someone close to him out of clinical depression. Hearing the personal story, I was sold immediately and had my first EEG brain scan done and my interest with brain began. This turned into sort of an obsession. So much so, that years later (in 2023), I piloted that same technology at Equinox.
Hereâs what I learned: we quantify everything except the brain.
We track HRV with Whoop or Oura. Glucose with CGMs. Microbiome diversity through stool tests. But the brain - the central signaling system - gets treated like a black box we canât measure.
Thatâs finally changing.
Even Nike is now claiming a shoe that supports the brain, called NIKE MIND.
Measure, Fix, Remeasure
The standard framework for health optimization has three steps:
Measure â> give recommendation to fix â> remeasure to see change
Think about it. You get a CGM, see your glucose spike after pasta, switch to fiber/ protein-first meals, remeasure and see the improvement. Or you track HRV, realize youâre not recovering, adjust your training, and watch your scores climb back up.
In brain health, EEG is becoming that measurement standard to see how your brain is reacting to lifestyle. Many companies do it now, and we saw particular boom past 2020 when FDA regulation changed for at-home devices.
The competitive advantage today? Size and complexity of the scan - who can make it smallest, fastest, most accessible.
When I first got scanned in 2015, it required 45 minutes, a gel on my head, a technician to put the nodes, a doctor to evaluate results and suitcase-sized hardware.
2020 EEG remeasure with Brain Treatment Center to directly measure impact of living in NYC vs CA :)
Fast forward to 2025 and we have companies doing that scan with a cheap - Neurable is one of those companies and just announced a $35M raise (Huge congrats to Adam Molnar and the Team!). Theyâve compressed that same 30-minute EEG into 90 seconds using headphone-embedded sensors and LLM-powered analysis. Brain age, processing speed, all in a simple report.
If I can measure HRV daily with my Oura ring, why not my brainâs response to sleep, stress, or that third espresso?
Sample report of the Neurable 90 seconds EEG scan
What Excites Me: Proving Simple Things Work
But what excites me most about the future? We are getting very close to continuously measuring the brain - with Neurable, you buy headphones and they do the job! But most importantly, we have some interesting solutions to fix it - from high tech to no tech - working very well!
Meditation and breathwork being prime examples. Weâve always known these are good. We just couldnât prove it. Now we can.
Earlier this year in Switzerland, we ran an event with a luxury brand where Dr. Tamsin Lewis - our new Head of Expert Community - led breathwork sessions with Boniface VC. Hannah Bronfman wrote about it. We measured brain states before and after. The shifts were quantifiable.
Just recently, we did a talk at 113 Spring in NYC with Neurable specifically on womenâs brain health. Hereâs what makes this urgent: women are 3x more likely to develop Alzheimerâs. Hormonal shifts during menopause arenât just âhot flashesââtheyâre fundamental neurological restructuring. And yet we have almost no studies measuring womenâs brains through this transition.
We measured the brains of women in the room. Everyone was fascinated. Being able to see your brain state in real-time, understand whatâs happening neurologically during different life stages - this is whatâs been missing. Jessica Randaza, Neurableâs VP of Marketing & Communicaton, did a great post about it (read here).Ou
Event with Neurable on Brain Health for women led by Jessica Randaza at 113 Spring in NYC. DM me directly to get on list for future events!
This is the unlock: not just measurement for measurementâs sake, but measurement that validates simple interventions and makes the invisible visible.
The Solutions Taking Shape
Like all fancy longevity testing, itâs the care that comes from measurement that matters most. Here are some companies Iâve been looking at (outside of Neurable).
Brain Treatment Center / WaveNeuro (what we piloted at Equinox), uses eMRT (electromagnetic resonance therapy) to adjust your wavelengths to optimal state. The DTC product requires 30 minutes daily for a month. This is where my journey started in 2015.
Pharia Health - Backed by Sam Altman and others. A 5-hour âbrain bootcampâ that supposedly leaves you more sane on the other side. Iâm yet to try it, but the compressed timeline is intriguing compared to WaveNeuroâs month-long protocol. It does involve a pharmacological intervention tough.
Muse - Consumer headband combining EEG and fNIRS (blood oxygenation) thatâs been on the market for a while. Itâs an instant EEG scan of sourts as well.
113 Spring NYC - You can now experience mind-scent EEG visualization to get in real time feedback on how your brain waves are responding to smell. This is stunning to watch and interesting to learn how YOU respond, but less of a âhealthâ measurement.
Beacon Biosignals - Raised $86M in November 2025. Clinical-grade at-home EEG for sleep and wake monitoring. Building the worldâs largest neurodiagnostic dataset, working with half of the top 10 pharma companies on AI-driven biomarkers.
Emotiv - Multi-channel EEG tracking attention, stress, engagement. Partnered with X-trodes for remote brain monitoring. Bridge between consumer wellness and research applications.
Why This Matters Now
Brain measurement matters. Not to add another metric to obsess over, but to prove that simple, accessible interventions work. To show that you can shift your brain state with breathwork. To demonstrate that meditation isnât just woo-woo - itâs measurable, repeatable, and effective. And to open a world of possibilities for what it can feel like to actually hack your brain - for better overall performance and life.
Itâs clear brain health is taking center stage in 2026. And hereâs whatâs exciting: alongside regulatory changes on what can be sold for at-home use, a lot of people have been building in this space quietly for decades. The interventions are there - just fragmented, not marketed well.
Weâve spent a decade measuring peripheral markers. 2026 is the year of brain.
Appendix: Key Studies & Research
EEG and Cognitive Performance: Neurable neuroimaging research (2024). âPassive Brain-Computer Interfaces for Enhanced Focus and Cognitive Load Assessment.â
Menopause and Brain Changes: Mosconi, L., et al. (2021). âMenopause Impacts Human Brain Structure, Connectivity, Energy Metabolism, and Amyloid-Beta Deposition.â Scientific Reports, 11, 10867.
Brain Measurement Technology: Various studies on EEG compression and accessibility (2024-2025).
Women and Alzheimerâs Risk: Multiple epidemiological studies showing 3x increased risk in women vs men.