Voicing Startups

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!

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

Follow VoicePunch

Website: VoicePunch.vc

Twitter: @VoicePunchVC

Follow Voicing Startups & Collin:

Website: VoicingStartups.com

Twitter: @CollinBorns

LinkedIn: @Collin Borns

Have your own startup in voice? Pitch:

VoicePunch.VC

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!

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

Follow Wunder:

Website: hellowunder.com

Facebook: Hello Wunder

Twitter: Wunder_App

Follow Voicing Startups & Collin:

Website: VoicingStartups.com

Twitter: @CollinBorns

LinkedIn: @Collin Borns

Have your own startup in voice? Pitch:

VoicePunch.VC

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!

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

Follow VOIQ:

Website: VOIQ.com

Twitter: @VOIQinc

Linkedin: @VOIQ

Follow Voicing Startups & Collin:

Website: VoicingStartups.com

Twitter: @CollinBorns

LinkedIn: @Collin Borns

Have your own startup in voice? Pitch:

VoicePunch.VC

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!

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

Follow Bamboo Learning:

Website: BambooLearning.com

Twitter: @LearnWithBamboo

Follow Voicing Startups & Collin:

Website: VoicingStartups.com

Twitter: @CollinBorns

LinkedIn: @Collin Borns

Have your own startup in voice? Pitch:

VoicePunch.VC

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!

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

Follow Phebi:

Website: Getphebi.com

LinkedIn: @Phebi

Follow Voicing Startups & Collin:

Website: VoicingStartups.com

Twitter: @CollinBorns

LinkedIn: @Collin Borns

Have your own startup in voice? Pitch:

VoicePunch.VC

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!

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

Follow Home Service AI:

Website: HomeService.AI

LinkedIn: @Home Service AI

Twitter: @homeserviceapp

Follow Petar: @petarojdrovic

Follow Voicing Startups & Collin:

Website: VoicingStartups.com

Twitter: @CollinBorns

LinkedIn: @Collin Borns

Have your own startup in voice? Pitch:

VoicePunch.VC

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!

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

Follow Emitrr:

Website: Emitrr.com

Twitter: @emitrr

Linkedin: @Emitrr

Anmol: @obanmol10

Follow Voicing Startups & Collin:

Website: VoicingStartups.com

Twitter: @CollinBorns

LinkedIn: @Collin Borns

Have your own startup in voice? Pitch:

VoicePunch.VC

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!

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

Follow Instreamatic:

Website: Instreamatic.com

Twitter: @Instreamatic

Linkedin: @Instreamatic

Stas: @Tushinskiy

Follow Voicing Startups & Collin:

Website: VoicingStartups.com

Twitter: @CollinBorns

LinkedIn: @Collin Borns

Have your own startup in voice? Pitch:

VoicePunch.VC

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!

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

Follow Bespoken:

Website: bespoken.io

Twitter: @bespokenio

Youtube: @Bespoken

Diego Twitter: @diegotestsvoice

Follow Voicing Startups & Collin:

Website: VoicingStartups.com

Twitter: @CollinBorns

LinkedIn: @Collin Borns

Have your own startup in voice? Pitch:

VoicePunch.VC

This weeks episode of Voicing Startups will be a little bit different. As opposed to me sitting down and interviewing a different company in the audio and voice space, I am sharing with everybody an interview where the tables were turned. I was the one being interviewed talking all about the world of audio and voice but from the lens of my day to day work with a thematic focused venture fund called Voicepunch with an interest in the audio and voice space. In this episode you can hear all about why I got interested in voice and how I ultimately ended up at Voicepunch as an investor in the space. Aside from my story, we talk all about the world of voice both from a general perspective but also from an investment perspective. I feel having the tables turned gave me the ability to show some of my true colors and passion for this space so I hope you all enjoy it!

My interview was with Nick Myers on the Artificial podcast. The Artificial Podcast is a weekly podcast series that breaks down trending topics in the world of AI and #VoiceFirst so everyone can understand how these technologies are impacting our lives personally and within organizations. They interview and showcase experts from across the industry who are making waves in AI and Voice, and who are actively working to innovate the space every day. They cater to an audience of everyone, but specifically, those actively working in AI and Voice, marketers, IT leaders, and tech-savvy business professionals. The Artificial Podcast is brought to you by RedFox AI.

Follow The Artificial Podcast:

Anchor: Link

Spotify: Link

Apple Podcasts: Link

Follow Nick: @therednickm

Follow Voicing Startups & Collin:

Website: VoicingStartups.com

Twitter: @CollinBorns

LinkedIn: @Collin Borns

Have your own startup in voice? Pitch:

VoicePunch.VC