Her Story
About Samah
Samah Damanhoori is the Founder and CEO of BlendBound, an independent game studio developing emotionally intelligent interactive experiences that foster curiosity, empathy, and meaningful human connection. Her flagship project, Folded: Inner Journey, is an open-world sandbox game that restores a paper-crafted world through relationships, creativity, and care rather than conflict. Guided by a vision to bridge gaming, wellness, artificial intelligence, and health, Samah is pioneering a new category of games that explore identity, emotional growth, and the power of storytelling to create lasting impact.
Before founding BlendBound, Samah built a multidisciplinary career across technology, entertainment, and healthcare, contributing to organizations including Apple, Meta, HBO, Genentech, and Genvid. As the Arabic language producer for Siri at Apple, she helped develop multilingual experiences while gaining firsthand expertise in building products at global scale. Originally from Mecca, Saudi Arabia, she studied English Literature and Linguistics before earning a Master's degree in Creative Writing from Notre Dame. Her passion for storytelling also led her to produce and direct creative works, including an animated short film selected for seven international film festivals.
Today, Samah combines operational leadership with creative vision to build experiences that place emotional intelligence at the center of gameplay. Under her leadership, BlendBound has received recognition in Silicon Valley for developing one of the best emotional wellness apps, and Folded: Inner Journey was selected to showcase at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), attracting hundreds of beta testers. Fluent in both Arabic and English, Samah advocates for empathy, balance, mindfulness, and cultural representation, believing that thoughtful design can strengthen belonging, inspire resilience, and shape the future of interactive entertainment.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Samah
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to the mentors who encouraged me to take the first step, especially Charlene of Regenerative Media, who inspired me to begin. I also credit the diverse experiences I’ve gained across multiple industries, which have taught me how to build products that can reach and positively impact millions of people.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I’ve ever received was from Charlene: “The time is now. Start right now, and don’t you ever give up.” That advice has stayed with me throughout my career and continues to remind me that progress begins with taking action.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Don’t create limits for yourself. Be authentic, trust your abilities, and start before you feel completely ready. Invest your time and energy in work you genuinely believe in, practice gratitude, and seek out diverse perspectives—they will strengthen both your leadership and your ideas.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
One of the most exciting opportunities is helping shape an emerging industry at the intersection of gaming, wellness, artificial intelligence, and healthcare. There is tremendous potential to define how emotional intelligence data can be used responsibly to improve well-being. At the same time, the field faces challenges. Gaming remains largely male-dominated, and research and industry resources related to emotional AI and gamified wellness are still fragmented, creating both obstacles and opportunities for innovation.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The values that guide me are empathy, diversity, curiosity, gratitude, balance, and emotional honesty. I believe these principles help foster meaningful relationships, encourage innovation, and create environments where both people and ideas can thrive.
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