Voicing Startups

Overview

This week on the Voicing Startups podcast I am talking with Hugh, Co-Founder and CEO of Whispr. Whispr is a platform that is designed to deliver better information to workers and real-time data to managers so you can constantly improve frontline operations through the use of a voice-first experience.

Interview

To start off the interview, Hugh and I talk about his background and the origin story for Whispr. To better understand the product we then jump into a walkthrough of the user experience for both management and the front line workers. We also discuss use cases, multi-modal experiences, COVID-19 and COVID-Clean, analytics, differentiation and more. I hope you enjoy this week’s episode of Voicing Startups!

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Overview

This week on the Voicing Startups podcast I am talking with Jay, Founder and CEO of Roby. Roby is not just another ticketing software. Roby is able to automate your repetitive tasks such as employees’ questions, meeting scheduling, building services and facility requests through conversational AI. This allows you to focus on what really matters - creating an amazing working environment!

Interview

To start off the interview, Jay talks about his background and how he came up with the idea for Roby. We then spend a little time around the customer and then jump right into conversation around the product. We dig through multiple different use cases and discuss the benefits that Roby provides for both employers and employees. We also talk about the business model amidst COVID-19, Roby’s differentiation, voice experience customization  and what we can expect to see from the product in the coming years. I hope you enjoy this weeks episode of Voicing Startups!

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Overview

This week on the Voicing Startups podcast I am talking with Pat, Founder and CEO of Espressive. Espressive redefines how employees get help by delivering exceptional employee experiences. This is accomplished through Barista, Espressive’s Virtual Support Agent (VSA), which brings the ease of consumer virtual assistants, like Alexa or Google Home, into the workplace. Recently, Espressive announced a $30M Series B investment round led by Insight Partners.

Interview

To start out the interview, we look at Pat’s background and ultimately how he came up with the idea for Espressive and the Barista VSA. Pat then goes on to describe what exactly a VSA is. Following this we start looking at Espressive’s Barista VSA and the problems they are trying to solve for their customers. To better understand these problems, Pat walks me through some different use cases across multiple industries including IT, HR, and Sales. As I mentioned, Espressive just closed a $30M Series B from Insight Partners, so we spent the rest of the interview discussing the plans with the raise amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. I hope you enjoy this week's episode of Voicing Startups!

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Overview

This week on the Voicing Startups podcast I am talking with James, Co-Founder of HereAfter. HereAfter has pioneered a new way to save and share your loved ones most important stories and memories. Once stories are collected in an interview, the responses are available via an interactive voice experience through the use of the HereAfter AI platform.

Interview

Overview

This week on the Voicing Startups podcast I am talking with Sahil, Co-Founder & Product Lead at Soundskrit. Soundskrit is developing bio inspired directional MEMS microphones with a goal of improving audio capture in consumer devices. With a single microphone, they can separate sounds coming from multiple directions without compromising size or quality. Soundskrit is positioned to greatly improve speech recognition and sound localization, enabling a new suite of features for consumer electronics.

Interview

We start off the interview with getting an idea of Sahil’s background and the general concept of Soundskrit. We then jump right into a conversation about the product. To understand what they are building at Soundskrit, we look at underlying problems with existing microphones, their unique feature set, and some use cases in the real world. We wrap up the interview by looking at the years ahead. We discuss what we can expect to see with the Soundskrit product as well as exciting things about the audio, voice and conversational tech space. I hope you enjoy this week’s episode of Voicing Startups!

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This week on the Voicing Startups podcast I am talking with Will, Founder and CSO at SpokenLayer. SpokenLayer is the leader in short-form audio production, distribution, and monetization for both media and brands. One thing I love that makes them unique is their distribution. They distribute everywhere people are listening including Spotify, iTunes, Alexa, Google Assistant and more! Will has a clear passion for short form audio and it shows in our conversation.

To start off our interview Will gives us his background as well as the origin story of how he ultimately started SpokenLayer. Following the intro we jump right into talking about the actual product. We discuss many different use cases as well topics around audio content. Some of the topics we touch on include short form vs long form audio, distribution, monetization, and audio content amid the COVID-19 pandemic. To wrap up the interview we discuss future scenarios for both SpokenLayer as well as the audio and voice space. I hope you enjoy this week's episode of Voicing Startups!

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This week on the Voicing Startups podcast I am talking with Roy, Founder and CEO of Hi Auto. Hi Auto develops software that enables speech enhancement and speaker separation that focuses solely on the person speaking while eliminating challenging background noises. This is done through the use of a camera, which tracks lip movements and a single microphone. While Hi Auto works well with many audio only inputs, the combination of audio and video is where they really shine.

To start off this episode we discuss Roy’s background, the origin story of Hi Auto and what exactly Hi Auto is doing today. To transition into our product discussion, Roy touches on the key value proposition of Hi Auto around Speech Enhancement and Speaker Separation. We then discuss how Hi Auto actually works through the use of video and audio. Following the mechanics, we discuss the popular use cases that Roy is seeing with the business today and how he sees the business as unique in the long term. To wrap up our discussion, we talk about where the product will go over the next few years and why Roy is bullish on the audio and voice space. I hope you enjoy this week's episode of Voicing Startups!

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This week on the Voicing Startups podcast I am talking with Otto, Co-Founder and CEO of Speechly. Speechly is helping developers build next generation voice user interfaces. What makes them unique from offerings by incumbents like Google or Amazon is their Speech-to-intent spoken language understanding API. This API allows developers to build real-time, multi-modal interfaces for complex natural language enabled tasks for both consumer and enterprise applications alike.

To start off this episode, we talk about Otto's extensive background in both software and business. We then dig into how himself and some university friends came up with the idea for Speechly and how they ultimately started the business. This leads into us discussing the actual business model and target market for Speechly. The core piece of our interview focuses on the Speechly product itself. We discuss what makes this product unique, primarily how things like real-time speech-to-intent understanding and multi-modal are so important with voice user interfaces. To wrap up the show we look into the years ahead for both the Speechly product and the world of voice. I hope you enjoy this week's episode of Voicing Startups!

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This week on the Voicing Startups podcast I am talking with Josh, CPO of what3words. what3words is a simple way to talk about location. The what3words team has made the entire world a grid of 3 meter squares that each have a unique 3 word address that will never change. For example, ///filled.count.soap marks the exact entrance to what3words’ London headquarters. The benefit is that 3 word addresses are easy to say and share, and are as accurate as GPS coordinates. People are using what3words for everything from finding a tent at a festival to properly directing emergency services.

To start off this episode, Josh gives his background and the origin story of how what3words became a business. We then dive right into the product, the main problem it solves, and the key value proposition. what3words is further on in their journey than most of the other companies I have had on this show, so we spend time talking about the company history and how they got to where they are today. To wrap up the show, we chat about where we can expect to see the business go in the years ahead. I hope you enjoy this week's episode of Voicing Startups!

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This week on the Voicing Startups podcast I am talking with Bruce, Co-Founder and CEO of AgVoice. AgVoice is designed for use across the food and agriculture ecosystem, including livestock and crop production, agronomy, animal health and wellness, and machinery repair. By using proprietary analytics and conversational AI, users can improve productivity and workflow management, increase documentation accuracy, and gain valuable insights to optimize the use of resources in crop and animal production. Ultimately this results in more sustainable farm practices as well as more efficient, traceable and accurate reporting from professionals and producers.

In this interview, we start with the general background of AgVoice and how Bruce and his team saw the opportunity for this product. Before diving deeper on the product itself, we look at the business model and who this product is for. We then took a look at a few different use cases of AgVoice. To back up the use cases, Bruce walks me through some customer success stories as well. To wrap up the discussion we look into the future. We discuss both where Bruce sees AgVoice going in the years ahead and what gets him excited about the world of voice. I hope you enjoy this week's episode of Voicing Startups!

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This week’s episode of the Voicing Startups podcast is a bit different. Usually I am interviewing different startups in the audio and voice space, but today I am talking with Marc Ladin, General Partner at VoicePunch. VoicePunch is an early stage venture capital fund that has a thematic focus on audio and voice tech. The fund has been actively investing since January of 2019 and is in the process of raising our next fund. I joined the VoicePunch team about a year ago, and I believe Marc and I working together resulted in us having a really good interview and reflection of a year in voice tech investing.

To start off this interview we talk about Marc's background as a tech entrepreneur, how he got into early stage investing, and ultimately why he decided to focus on audio and voice tech. This focus led to VoicePunch and their Beta fund in 2019 which we dig into next. We discuss the evolution of VoicePunch’s strategy, the investments made and why, and some other general takeaways. This discussion led to 2020 and the years ahead. In 2020 VoicePunch is in the process of raising Fund 1, also focused on early stage investing in audio and voice tech. To wrap up the interview we talk about Marc’s outlook on the next decade ahead in the space. I hope you enjoy this week's episode of Voicing Startups!

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This week on the Voicing Startups podcast I am talking with Sandra, Head of Project Management at Wunder. Wunder is the first all-in-one parenting assistant that uses voice technology and A.I. to give new parents the right information at the right time and improve the child’s language and cognitive development. Through the use of a baby monitor and mobile app, Wunder helps parents thoughtfully navigate the first 1000 days of life and raise happy, healthy, curious and all-around good children.

To start off the interview, Sandra gives a background of herself and how she became the first hire at Wunder. We then dig into the business side of Wunder including the target market and key value proposition of the business. For the remainder of the interview, we dig into the product itself and how they believe they can make a big impact in the lives of both parents and their children alike. To wrap up this episode, Sandra gives her outlook on the voice space and what gets her excited in the years ahead. I hope you enjoy this week's episode of Voicing Startups!

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This week on the Voicing Startups podcast I am talking with Ricardo, Founder and CEO of VOIQ. VOIQ creates conversational Voicebots that empower companies to use human-like AI Voicebots for highly personalized inbound and outbound calls. This provides a great option for starting and continuing conversations with leads or customers in an automated way. Also worth noting, VOIQ is backed by the popular startup accelerator Y Combinator.

To kick off the interview, Ricardo talks through his background and why he ultimately decided to start VOIQ. Following this background, we spend some time discussing questions around the business including things like the business model and target market. For the bulk of the interview, we focused on the actual VOIQ product. In this discussion, Ricardo walks through many different use cases and customer success stories that help to explain the value proposition of using Voicebots like VOIQ offers. To wrap up the show, Ricardo gave us his outlook on both his company and why he is excited about the voice space. I hope you enjoy this week's episode of Voicing Startups!

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This week on the Voicing Startups podcast I am talking with Ian Freed, Co-Founder and CEO of Bamboo Learning. Bamboo Learning is the leader in interactive voice powered education and have recently closed a $1.4M Seed investment round. Also, I have been super excited to interview Ian, given he is a 12 year Amazon veteran with endless interesting experiences. Here is a bit of his bio. At Amazon, Ian was a Vice President, and he served as Technology Adviser to Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos from 2004-2005. He led the Amazon Kindle business including business strategy, product development, business development, and marketing from 2006 until 2010. Additionally, Ian led the Amazon Echo/Alexa business from inception in 2011 through first product release in 2015. From 2016-2017, Ian led consumer services including Amazon Restaurants - a one-hour food delivery service from local restaurants in 25 cities.

To start off this episode, we look at the origin story of Bamboo Learning and why Ian ultimately started the company in the first place. Following this background, Ian digs into the product itself which is a portfolio of 5 different interactive education experiences. Following the product discussion, we dive into Bamboo’s recent $1.4M Seed investment round. For this piece, Ian frames up where we can expect to see the Bamboo Learning business and product offering go into the years ahead.  I hope you enjoy this week's episode of Voicing Startups!

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This week on the Voicing Startups podcast I am talking with Travis of Phebi. Phebi, comprised of Phebi Search and Phebi Insight, is a company that creates voice centric products for businesses. Using Phebi, customers can take advantage of the opportunities in V-Commerce and better understand their customers while doing so. For this episode of the podcast, we hyper focused on the Phebi Search product.

To start off this episode, Travis starts with the origin of how Phebi came to be a business. We then start to dig into the actual Phebi Search product, which allows you to voice-enable your e-commerce site. We go on to talk about why people businesses should be doing this in the first place and the value of being able to enable your existing e-commerce site. A real value prop of this product is being able to participate in the voice commerce evolution, without putting in too much muscle assuming you have an existing website in place. In the rest of the episode, we dig into the nitty gritty and the true power of the Phebi Search product. To wrap it up, we talk about where we can expect to see Phebi go in the coming months and years ahead. I hope you enjoy this week's episode of Voicing Startups!

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This week on the Voicing Startups podcast I am talking with Petar, Founder and CEO of Home Service AI. Home Service AI is the Ultimate AI Chatbot and Voice Assistant for Vacation Rentals and Hotels. Home Service AI is used by hosts and property managers to ensure that their guests have a great experience through the use of conversational technology. The end result of this for property managers is time savings and higher customer reviews which can both help a business's bottom line.

To start off this interview, we take a look at what got Petar interested in conversational technology and why he ultimately started Home Service AI. Following the origin story, we start by looking under the hood at some of the important factors of the business such as the business model and the target market for their product. We then dove head first into the different features Home Service AI has to offer and what customers can expect if they are just getting started using the product. Aside from just talking about features, we also looked at some use cases to see where customers are really receiving value from the product. To wrap up the interview, Petar gives his vision for where he sees both Home Service AI and the conversational technology ecosystem going in the next few years. I hope you enjoy this weeks episode of Voicing Startups!

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This week on Voicing Startups I am talking with Anmol, Founder of Emitrr. Emitrr is a voice first SaaS platform that helps professional service businesses enable voice for their business. Ultimately, Emitrr is giving businesses a platform to create valuable and actionable voice experiences for their customers whether it be in the form of content creation like podcasts or voice controlled scheduling. In this conversation, we talk about how compelling it can be for businesses to be prepared for the continued evolution of voice in the marketplace.

To kick off this week’s interview, Anmol gives the origin story of where the idea for Emitrr came from and ultimately why he started the business. Following the overview, we take some time to talk through some core business points including Emitrr’s target market and business model. After discussing some standard business org questions, we dig into the actual Emtirr product and all of the different features that come with the platform which sets up the meat of our conversation. As we start to wrap things up, Anmol discusses what differentiates Emitrr from competitors and where he sees both his company and the voice space going in the years ahead. I hope you enjoy this weeks episode of Voicing Startups!

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This week on Voicing Startups I am talking with Stas, Co-Founder and CEO of Instreamatic.  Instreamatic is a Voice AI platform for dialogue advertising. Their mission is to revolutionize the advertising industry by allowing users to speak with ads: with the ability to skip irrelevant ads and drive curiosity to learn more in a hands-free environment just by saying so. According to Instreamatic, dialogue advertising creates a huge win for everyone: users get a better ad experience, advertisers can measure campaign performance and engagement, publishers benefit with higher ad and fill-rates.

To start this episode, we discuss the origin story of Instreamatic and ultimately where the company stands today. As we get further into our discussion, Stas does a great job of explaining different features of their product through real world examples. These examples help paint a picture of different possibilities and advancements that are coming to the advertising industry through voice technology. As we wrap up the episode we transition from business specific questions to more macro questions on the voice market and what the Instreamatic team is focusing on. I hope you enjoy this weeks episode of Voicing Startups!

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This week on Voicing Startups I am talking with Diego, product manager at Bespoken. The main business of Bespoken is automated testing and monitoring tools that are used for voice apps on platforms like the Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. This results in quicker development and higher quality experiences being made in the end. Some of the specific tools that we touch on this episode include Unit Testing, End to End Testing, Continuous Testing and Usability Testing. 

Throughout this episode we cover many different aspects of both the Bespoken business as well as the world of voice. In regards to the product specifically, we discuss topics like how to best leverage automated testing and monitoring tools like Bespoken as well as what to expect when you start leveraging a tool like this. As mentioned above, we go into details also about the different tools that are unique to Bespoken. As we get towards the end of the episode, Diego gives his outlook on both the future of the business and the world of voice in light of voice pretty much being activated on every device around us. I hope you enjoy this episode of Voicing Startups!

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Today on the Voicing Startups podcast I am talking with Stuart, CEO and Founder of SurveyLine. A simple way to understand SurveyLine is to think of the well known company Survey Monkey. It is a similar service that allows for customers to create and distribute surveys, but the catch is that end consumers are able to interact with the survey using their voice through popular devices like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant enabled devices. We dig into the value propositions of this business and also voice technology throughout this episode.

In this episode we dig into the SurveyLine business as well as the world of voice. To start Stuart gives a background of himself as well as the origin story of the product. Quickly, we start to dig into the added value of being able to leverage voice technology in different products, in this case the ability to interact with surveys in a way that has not been possible until today. As we get into the interview, we dig into the business itself on everything from organizational questions to show where the business is at in its life cycle, as well as product specific questions to really understand the value proposition of SurveyLine and what makes it unique. To wrap up the episode, like episodes past, Stuart gives his outlook on where he sees his business going as well as what gets him excited about the future of voice.

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Today on the Voicing Startups podcast I am talking with Joseph, Co-Founder and CEO of Voicehero. Voicehero ultimately is a suite of tools that helps customers create better voice experiences. This is done by giving users the ability to immediately discover actionable insights, and identify conversation patterns in user behaviors that otherwise may be overlooked. Voicehero was also a member of the 2019 Alexa Accelerator, ran by Techstars, that focus on startups in the voice space.

In this episode, we cover many different things about both the Voicehero business, but also the world of voice. To start off the show, we cover why Voicehero was started in the first place and ultimately what the product is. As mentioned above, Voicehero was apart of the Alexa Accelerator this year so we also talk about that experience in detail as well. Following this we dig into the actual Voicehero product and the different features that it has for its customers. As we start to wrap up the show we start to talk more about the big picture. Joseph gives his outlook for the years ahead for both his business and what he sees in the world of voice.

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Today on the Voicing Startups podcast I am talking with Obaid, Founder and CEO of Botmock. Botmock is a one stop shop platform that has everything you need to prototype and test both chatbot and voice-based conversational experiences. Features include a drag-n-drop editor, project management tools, usability testing, developer handover and more. As you will hear in the interview, the true value of Botmock gets unlocked by having the ability to have different stakeholders have insight into the project, all the way from designers to developers.

We kick off the episode with a great origin story and ultimately what Botmock is today. A key note here is that today Botmock is designed for distribution on 10 different conversational channels.  Following a high level overview of the business, we dug into the target customers and business model. To get a better understanding of what users can do with the Botmock platform, Obaid then gave an overview of individual features that ultimately allow users to design, prototype, and test their experiences and the importance of each individual piece. However, the real value is having all of these pieces working together with the ability for teams to collaborate on projects and have insight into the work being done from design all the way to development. As we approach the end of our conversation, Obaid gives a glimpse into some of the best use cases he has seen with conversational experiences and where we can see the product going in the future. To put a bow on our conversation, Obaid paints a compelling picture of why he is excited about voice and conversational experiences going forward.

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Today on the Voicing Startups podcast I am talking with Armel, the founder of Trebble.fm. Trebble lets you stay up-to-date with all the different topics you care about by listening to short-casts (1 to 2-minute podcasts) from your favorite sources and content creators. Through the Trebble platform you are able to listen to these short-casts on your phone, on the web or any voice-enabled speakers with Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. Being a creator of short-casts I was super excited to do this interview, and Armel exceeded all expectations.

In this interview we touched on many different things ranging from metrics around the business to the in’s and out’s of short-casts.  To start the Voicing Startups interview off, Armel gives a background of himself, which really shows the work ethic that he brings to Trebble, coming from Central Africa to study in Canada, work for another startup and ultimately start his own company. We then start to dig more into the Trebble product itself. We discuss what the product exactly is as well as what a “short-cast” is, which sits at the core of the product. We then dig into the business model, the target customer landscape, as well as what the competitor landscape looks like and how Trebble is able to differentiate itself. To wrap up the episode, we start to look at a few more high level topics and Armel’s view of the future. Specifically, we discussed what the future of short-casts may look like and ultimately the Trebble platform alongside that progression. Also, Armel discusses what gets him excited with the continued proliferation of audio.

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Today on the Voicing Startups podcast I am talking with Sanjeev and John of Whetstone Technologies, both Veterans of Microsoft. Whetstone Technologies created the SoniBridge platform that is able to provide a voice-first, multimodal experience across multiple different voice assistants for businesses and brands, encouraging consumers to opt-in to receive text messages with things like coupons, web site links, videos, and instructions.

In this episode we cover all the different aspects of the Sonibridge platform as well as different trends in the voice space. While describing what exactly Whetstone technologies and the Sonibridge platform is, Sanjeev and John focused on how privacy and security is at the core of their product.  Following this we discussed their business model, target customers, and potential verticals that are already showing interest in the Sonibridge platform. After looking at those metrics, Sanjeev gives a broad look into all the different use cases of voice and enabling a multi modal experience through SMS. As we wrap up the episode, we talk about competition and differentiation, what we can expect to see from the Sonbridge platform in the future, as well as what get Sanjeev and John excited about the voice space in the years ahead.

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Today on the Voicing Startups podcast I talked with Dylan Chief Product Officer and Co-Founder of Pulse Labs. Pulse Labs aims to help developers, designers, agencies, and brands create the best voice applications they possibly can. They do this today by providing a platform and panel to deliver real user feedback and insights for voice applications. They are extremely excited about the emerging voice ecosystem, and do everything they can to help create great user experiences within it. Their work has gained the attention, support, and investment of companies like Amazon and Google.

In this episode we cover everything from the origin of Pulse Labs to how they see the entire voice market unfolding in the future. To start the show we touch on how Pulse Labs was able to gain the interest of Amazon and join the first ever Alexa Accelerator program. After talking about some of the different things that you are able to test your voice app for, Dylan gave his insights into why he believes anyone building a voice experience should consider iterative testing and starting as early as possible. Later, we talk about the target market for using Pulse Labs and what the process is like for getting started with testing your voice apps. As we get to the end of our conversation we talk about the entire voice ecosystem and how Pulse Labs is positioned for any product that Amazon or Google may come up with (Ring and microwave, I am looking at you.) To wrap up the episode of Voicing Startups Dylan gives his vision for the future of both the company and the world of voice. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did!

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Today on the Voicing Startups podcast I interview John Best of Best Innovation Group and the FIVE (Financial Interactive Voice Experience) Platform. The FIVE Platform helps Credit Unions keep with the times and give the ability to adopt voice-driven technology as customers expect to do the same transactions that they do via a mobile app or online using their voice.  The benefits of this results in Speed, Convenience and Security for the users.

To start out on this episode of Voicing Startups, John gives a background of himself in the credit union space and why he ultimately started the FIVE platform. We then start to dig in on some of the different parts of the platform and business including the target market and business model. Following this John gives a deep dive on some different features of the FIVE platform. Some other topics we touch on is why domain expertise is important as well as launching a financial product in the financial industry and what that means with security. To wrap things up John talks about what we can expect from the platform in the future as well as what gets him most excited for the future of voice.

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Today on Voicing Startups, I interview David, the Founder of Voices.com. Voices.com is the industry-leading website that connects businesses with professional voice talent. People from all around the world working at radio and television stations, advertising agencies and Fortune 500 companies rely upon the Voices.com marketplace to search for, audition and hire voice talent with the help of their SurePay™ escrow service and award-winning website and mobile apps.

In this episode we start the conversation with David’s background, how he ultimately decided to start Voices.com and an explanation of the 2-sided marketplace that makes up Voices.com. Further on we touch on the target market both from the demand and supply side of the market. We also touch on the differences between voice actors and synthetic vices and the best places to utilize each. To wrap up the podcast David talks about their $18,000,000 round they raised last year and what we can expect from the product going forward.

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Today on the Voicing Startups podcast I interview Zohaib, the founder of Resemble. Resemble creates high-quality synthetic voices that capture human emotions. Their goal is to democratize audio content and allow anyone to craft dynamic content in unique voices - all in real-time. They work with brands, media companies, creative agencies, and game studios to clone and scale existing voices or create completely fictitious voices that fit a character profile.

This podcast starts with a background of what Resemble is and why Zohaib and his team ended up creating the product in the first place. We go on to talk about the business model, target market and customers to date. Before getting into a discussion of Deep Fakes and how Resemble is positioned to avoid them, we talked about the future of AR/VR and how this product fits well in that ecosystem. We wrapped up the episode with some discussions about Resembles recent Voice Summit award and where Zohaib sees the company going over the next few months.

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Today on Voicing Startups I had the chance to talk with Braden Ream, Co-Founder and CEO of Voiceflow. Voiceflow is a creative platform to help people design, prototype, and build voice apps without coding for Alexa + Google Assistant. One reason I really liked this interview was that Voiceflow was the product of Braden and his team scratching their own itch as Voice app builders for a tool that had a little more muscle behind it and would fit their needs.

In this episode of Voicing Startups Braden talks about the origin of Voiceflow while also digging into other pieces of the business like their target market, business model and competitive landscape. Braden also touches on the selection process for feature selection in the product and some differences in the pro version of the tool.  We wrap up the episode with some use cases in voice, the Voiceflow community, and Braden’s vision for voice going forward.

Check below for the best places to follow the Voiceflow team and the Voicing Startups Podcast! If you liked this episode, please Subscribe, Review, and Share it with someone!

Follow Voiceflow:

Welcome to Voicing Startups where I, Collin Borns, interview founders and operators changing the world through audio, voice, and conversational technology. Today on the show I am talking to Beth Carey, Co-Founder and CEO of Pat Inc. Pat Inc is a Natural Language Understanding company, better put Pat Inc enables meaning of human language for machines. If you are interested in the work being done by this company and are an investor, Pat would love to hear from you. They are currently raising a round focused on increasing Pat’s knowledge.

In this episode we get into what exactly separates Pat Inc from the typical way companies approach Natural Language Understanding (NLU). This approach, based on the Patom Theory, has resulted in awards like the Best Algorithm for AI in 2018/19 and being a finalist for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation XR Education Prize in 2018. We also touch on how Pat Inc is unique as compared to some of the large tech legacy companies like Google (Assistant), Amazon (Alexa), Apple (Siri), Microsoft (Cortana), and Samsung (Bixby). Towards the end of the show Beth gives her view on generalized artificial intelligence (AI) and the potential of cracking meaning for machines. If you are interested in working with, investing in, or learning more about this company make sure to look below for the best way to get in touch with them.

Follow Pat Inc.:

Website: Pat.ai

Twitter: @PatisNLU

Facebook: @pat.is.nlu

Medium: @Pat Inc

LinkedIn: @Pat Inc

Follow Founder on Twitter:

Beth: @BethCarey12

Follow Voicing Startups & Collin:

Website: VoicingStartups.com

Twitter: @CollinBorns

Thanks for listening to this episode of Voicing Startups. Today on the show I am talking to Justin, Jordan and Hunter of YAC.chat and at the core they are voice messaging for remote teams, but have plans for a whole suite of tools. Since our chat they released a tool that is a part of the YAC suite called Backtrack that lets you record all those conversations, you forgot to click the record button for, by over-writing a 60 minute window of audio over and over throughout the day, locally on your Mac that only saves if you tell it to and its already broke the top 100 in the app store and has had great success on producthunt. The YAC.chat team just opened a $3M seed round so if you are an early stage investor and find the company to be of interest now is the time to talk with them! If you are a potential customer, early access ends soon so make sure to sign up now and reserve your spot.

In this episode we jump around and touch on multiple different subjects. The show starts out with some background on the founders and what ultimately led to YAC becoming a product. Spoiler, it was partly inspired from a Product Hunt competition. We go on to talk about early successes of the first iteration of the product and what has ultimately led the product from a walkie-talkie type tool into A-Synchronous communication but I will let the founders get into details on that. In the meat of the interview they go on to chat about how meetings are broken and how YAC can help with that, their target market and business model, benefits of voice vs text, how they view their competition and a bunch more about what we can expect to see from the team in the future.

Check below for the best places to follow the YAC team and the Voicing Startups Podcast! If you liked this episode, please Subscribe, Review, and Share it with someone!

Follow YAC:

Website: YAC.chat

Twitter: @YACchat

Facebook: @YACchat

IG: @YAC.chat

Follow Founders on Twitter:

Justin: @Jmitch

Hunter: @Huntermoonshot

Jordan: @jordanlwalkerrr

Follow Voicing Startups & Collin:

Website: VoicingStartups.com

Twitter: @CollinBorns