I remember the exact moment I thought voice tech was a complete joke. It was 2013, and we were building MovieLaLa. We had this killer idea for a feature: just say a movie title, and the trailer plays instantly. Simple, right? Turns out, it was a nightmare. We blew through $50,000 and three months of engineering time trying to get a clunky speech recognition API to work. It was so bad it became a running joke in the office. "The Wolf of Wall Street" came out as "The Wolf of Ball Street." We killed the feature, and I wrote off voice for years.
Fast forward to today. I’ve now got angel investments in over 200 companies, including big names in the AI space like Anthropic, OpenAI, and Scale AI. And I can tell you, what’s happening in AI voice isn’t just another small step forward. It’s a totally different ballgame. That feature that cost us a fortune and failed so spectacularly? A high school kid could build a better version in a weekend for the price of a pizza.
We’re Finally Past the Clunky Robot Voice Era
For the longest time, voice AI was a party trick. It was Siri telling you a bad joke or Alexa setting a timer for your laundry. Cute, but not world-changing. The tech was just too fragile. It was built on old-school phonetic models that would fall apart if you had an accent, if there was a dog barking in the background, or if you just talked like a normal human being. You had to talk to it like you were dictating a telegram.
I didn’t just see this with MovieLaLa. I saw it in the hundreds of pitches I heard as an investor. Everyone was hyped on the idea of voice, but the demos were always a letdown. It felt like we were trying to build a rocketship with rubber bands. The engine just wasn’t there.
That all changed when deep learning hit the scene. Suddenly, with massive datasets and powerful models, we could move beyond just recognizing sounds and start understanding language. The AI could grasp context. It was the breakthrough we were all waiting for, the one that finally made voice a viable platform.
Welcome to the Age of Real Conversation
Now, we’re seeing the payoff. Voice AI is no longer about just recognizing a command. It’s about having a real conversation. Think about the difference between an automated phone menu that makes you want to tear your hair out and a smart customer service agent who actually gets your problem. That’s the leap we’re making.
I’m seeing it in the companies I’m backing. They aren’t just building another voice assistant. They’re building AI sales reps that can cold call and actually close deals. They’re building AI-powered reading tutors for kids. They’re even building AI companions that can have surprisingly deep conversations with lonely people. The applications are exploding in every direction.
One of my portfolio companies, for instance, is using voice AI to completely eliminate the painful process of doctors taking patient notes. The doctor just has a normal conversation, and the AI handles all the transcription and structuring of the data in the background. This frees up thousands of hours for doctors and leads to better care. It’s not a small improvement; it’s a total transformation of a workflow that’s been broken for decades.
Why I’m All-In on Voice
So what’s the next play? I’m convinced we’re heading toward a future where voice is the main way we interact with our technology. Keyboards and touchscreens will still be around, but they’ll be secondary. We’ll talk to our cars, our homes, our computers, and our devices will talk back. And these conversations will feel as natural as talking to a friend.
This isn’t some distant dream. The tech is here. The models are powerful. The data is available. Now it’s about execution. That’s why I’m so bullish on this space. After getting burned a decade ago, I’ve learned my lesson. I’m not just investing, I’m going all-in.
Of course, there are still hurdles. We have to get the ethics right. We have to solve for privacy and bias. But these are solvable problems. The upside is just too massive to ignore.
After that first failure with MovieLaLa, it would have been easy to walk away and say "voice is not for me." But as an entrepreneur, you learn that failure is just tuition. You pay for the lesson. The lesson I learned was that I wasn’t wrong, I was just early. Now, the timing is perfect, and I’m not planning on missing this ride.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the most common pushback you get on this?
People often push back by citing exceptions or edge cases. And they're usually right that exceptions exist. But building a strategy around exceptions rather than patterns is a losing game for most founders.
Do all experts agree with this view?
No, and that's fine. The best ideas in business are often contrarian. I share my perspective based on my experience and data, but I encourage you to seek out opposing viewpoints and form your own conclusions.
What experience informs this perspective?
This perspective comes from over a decade of building companies in Silicon Valley, two successful exits (RemoteTeam to Gusto, MovieLaLa to Gfycat), and investing in 200+ startups including Anthropic, OpenAI, and Scale AI. I write about what I've lived.
How can I apply this thinking to my own situation?
Start by identifying the core principle behind the opinion, not the specific example. Then ask yourself: does this principle apply to my context? If yes, test it in a small, low-risk way before going all in.