Our Story
Why we built Peerakeet
People are not meant to go through hard things alone.
We created Peerakeet to make peer support easier to access, easier to deliver, and more human.
Too often, the people doing some of the most important work in recovery and behavioral health are stuck with fragmented tools, administrative burden, and systems that were never designed for the reality of peer support.
We wanted to build something better.
For us, this work is personal
Ishan Shah
Co-Founder & CEO
Ishan came to this work through both personal experience and years spent studying addiction, recovery, and behavioral health at Cornell and Brown University. His work focuses on improving how peer support services are delivered, operationalized, and scaled.
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Hunter Adrian
Co-Founder & CTO
Hunter built the Peerakeet platform from the ground up. He saw firsthand how disconnected the infrastructure for peer services was and focused on creating systems that feel intuitive, fast, and practical for daily peer work.
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Tim Balow
COO
Tim spent more than 15 years leading peer workforce operations, training programs, and recovery initiatives across healthcare and community settings. He joined Peerakeet after seeing the urgent need for infrastructure purpose-built for peer services.
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Why Peerakeet?
The name is a play on parakeet. It reflects what we believe the platform is really about: connection.
Parakeets are social animals. They do better with companionship and interaction, not isolation. That idea felt deeply aligned with our mission. People do better when they feel seen, heard, and supported, especially by someone who understands from lived experience.
Connection matters. Peer support matters. No one should have to navigate struggle alone.
That is the heart of Peerakeet. We are building technology around the idea that the right support, at the right time, from someone who truly understands, can change everything.