Our Origin Story

Built in the quiet. For the quiet moments that hurt the most.

Here’s the truth: I’ve seen a lot of pain. Not the kind that makes headlines, the kind that lives in the in-between. The quiet after the crisis. The space between calls. The ache that shows up at 2:00 a.m. when you’re replaying a moment you can’t undo.

I spent over a decade as a Massachusetts State Trooper. I have served as Director of Security and Public Safety at an urban community health center, and I have worked on the front lines large-scale mobile addiction treatment programs. My days are spent in the overlap, where crisis meets compassion, and where our best people often carry the worst of it home. I’ve sat with first responders, nurses, social workers, and outreach teams who hold the line for everyone else, until they can’t.

That’s why we built ValorAid.

Not to track or diagnose. Not to replace what should’ve already existed. But to offer something small and stubborn in a world that often asks too much: a moment of pause that doesn’t ask for anything back.

ValorAid is a discreet, trauma-informed app designed for first responders, veterans, frontline healthcare workers, people who’ve been trained to keep it together, even when they’re falling apart. It starts with one simple check-in:
How are you? Really.

From there, it offers just what you need, nothing more, nothing less. A breathing technique. A grounding script. A short reminder that you're not broken, you're just overwhelmed. And if things go deeper, it offers a fast hand-off to real, human support.

No logins. No tracking. No performance metrics. Just care, quiet, portable, and human.

We didn’t build this because it was trendy. We built it because we saw the gap. Because one of my team members once said, after a brutal overdose call,

“I just needed two minutes before walking into the next room. But I didn’t even have thirty seconds.”
That’s the gap we’re closing.

This is not a fix for the whole system. It’s a foothold. A breath. A shift.
And sometimes, that’s enough to start something bigger.

Thanks for being here.
We’re glad you found us.

— Chris Maher
Founder, ValorAid