Meet Tony
I’m Tony Tong, founder of Mindreader – the platform for Behavioral Sales Intelligence for Human-Centered Selling.
Mindreader is a behavioral-performance platform powered by AI – built to help salespeople understand how clients think, decide, and buy.
My background spans data science, psychology, and startup operations.
I’ve built and scaled AI products in both Silicon Valley and Southeast Asia, always focused on one thing: turning complex data into human-centered insights that drive real-world behavior change.
At Mindreader, our mission is simple – to give every salesperson an unfair advantage by combining empathy with analytics.
Because the future of selling isn’t about automation – it’s about understanding people better than ever before.
How did the idea for Mindreader come about?
It began with a realization:
In business, everyone is selling something – an idea, a product, a vision, or themselves.
Whether you’re a salesperson, founder, marketer, or BD leader, success depends on your ability to influence, convince, and connect – yet most people still walk into conversations blind about how the other person thinks.
That gap inspired Mindreader.
I wanted to build a tool that blends psychology, facial analysis, and relationship selling, so anyone in business could instantly understand their counterpart’s communication style, decision triggers, and emotional motivators.
Because in every deal, partnership, or pitch – there are only three kinds of people: those who could be your client, your partner, or someone who knows either.
Mindreader helps you approach all three with clarity and confidence. It’s not just for sellers – it’s for anyone who needs to move people.
What key problem in sales communication does Mindreader solve?
The biggest sales challenge isn’t product knowledge – it’s people knowledge.
Reps often pitch logically to emotional buyers, or emotionally to analytical ones – and lose the deal not because of content, but misalignment.
We assume persuasion is about what we say, when it’s really about how they process.
Mindreader bridges that gap.
It helps anyone – from founders to sales leaders to marketers – instantly understand how the person in front of them thinks, decides, and responds under pressure.
It replaces guesswork with guidance – cutting up to 65% of wasted prep time while improving message resonance before your first call.
Instead of “hoping” your message lands – Mindreader shows you exactly how to make it connect.
What makes Mindreader different from other AI-driven sales tools or coaching platforms?
Most AI tools optimize processes. Mindreader optimizes people’s understanding.
While others automate CRM or analyze tone post-call, MindReader goes further – building a psychological map of how your client, partner, or investor actually thinks.
We combine:
- Facial micro-expression AI to decode subtle emotional cues.
- Behavioral psychology frameworks to turn insights into influence strategies.
- Sales psychology frameworks to transform insight into action.
We’re not another automation layer – we’re your behavioral advantage in every deal.
Can you explain how Mindreader uses NLP and physiognomy to analyze language patterns?
Sure.
Our physiognomy AI studies micro facial cues – symmetry, emotional micro-movements, and tension – to infer personality traits like openness, assertiveness, and stability.
Our NLP engine then analyzes communication – whether written emails, voice calls, or transcripts – to detect tone polarity, reasoning style, and confidence levels.
Combined, they form a multi-modal behavioral profile that predicts how a person prefers to communicate, make decisions, and be influenced.
Mindreader quantifies emotional intelligence – and gives it back to you as a sales advantage.
How does Mindreader balance automation with the human touch in sales coaching?
We built Mindreader around a core belief:
AI should enhance intuition, not erase it.
The platform automates what machines do best – analyzing behavior, detecting patterns, and generating tailored insights – while preserving what humans do best: reading emotion, building trust, and adapting in the moment.
We call this balance Augmented Empathy.
Mindreader gives you the emotional map, but you choose the path.
That’s what keeps every interaction authentic, personal, and powerful.
It’s not about replacing instincts or coaches — it’s about amplifying emotional intelligence so every rep, founder, or communicator becomes 10× more perceptive in real time.
Automation provides the clarity; empathy creates the connection.
How do you see AI changing traditional sales coaching methods?
Traditional coaching looks backward – “Here’s what you did wrong.”.
AI looks forward – “Here’s how to adapt now.”
As AI evolves, we’ll see real-time behavioral feedback replacing generic advice.
Imagine being able to know, mid-conversation, how to reframe your words for that exact person’s mindset.
That’s the shift Mindreader is leading – from performance review to performance augmentation.
AI won’t replace human connection – it will refine it.
How do you see SaaS evolving with the rise of generative AI and real-time analytics?
SaaS is shifting from tools that execute to companions that understand.
Generative AI enables software to think with you – predicting your next step, adjusting to your tone, and responding in context.
The next era of SaaS will be cognitive and collaborative, not mechanical.
That’s why Mindreader isn’t just analytics – it’s awareness.
We’re building a future where software feels less like automation and more like co-intelligence.
Mindreader represents that shift: from software that records sales, to AI that actually improves them.
What advice would you give to founders building AI-powered SaaS products?
Don’t be for hype before human friction.
Too many founders chase the newest model or feature instead of solving the real emotional pain behind why people use your product.
Start small – one feature, done exceptionally well. Make it unforgettable rather than spreading your energy across three or four forgettable ones. The magic is in depth, not breadth.
And remember: you don’t just build software; you design belief.
For Mindreader’s case, we were building software on top of top expertise blending multiple disciplines – psychology, sales and AI.
Your users need to understand why your product matters before they’ll care how it works.
That means your mental onboarding – the narrative, education, and philosophy you communicate – is even more important than your UI/UX onboarding.
If users don’t believe in your worldview or sales philosophy, they’ll feel friction no matter how clean the interface is. But if they get it, they’ll forgive imperfections and grow with you.
That’s what I call product taste – the emotional intelligence behind how you communicate, design, and guide your users through transformation.
Did you enjoy our interview? Do you have anything to say to our community?
It’s always inspiring to see more people curious about how AI and human psychology can work together – not as opposites, but as amplifiers of each other.
We live in a world where everyone is trying to influence someone – to sell, to pitch, to lead, or to inspire.
Yet very few people are actually trained to understand how others think and decide. That’s the skill gap Mindreader was created to close.
When you learn to read people – not just their words, but their motivations, emotional triggers, and reasoning patterns – you stop guessing and start connecting.
That’s where persuasion becomes authentic. That’s where trust compounds.
At Mindreader, we call this Behavioral Sales Intelligence for Human-Centered Influence.
It’s more than technology – it’s a new form of literacy for the modern communicator.
If you’ve ever wondered why some people can walk into a room and just click with anyone, it’s not luck — it’s awareness.
And that’s what we teach through every analysis, every insight, and every report we deliver.
The future belongs to those who can blend AI logic with human empathy.
That’s how you move people. That’s how you move the world.
To learn how it works – explore Mindreader and start your journey toward human-centered selling and influence.
