CA startup just raised one point three million for glasses that read your silent mouth movements.
MSubvocal. The money came from Y Combinator and Afore Capital.
CShay Boloor posted on X that these hit over two hundred words per minute while you barely move your lips.
MTwo hundred is the company's claim. No independent test. And the hardware is pre-production, shipping target early 2027.
CEven half that beats my typing. Hands-free, silent input is a real category.
MThe post goes further. Quote: "two people could have an entire conversation while barely moving their mouths."
CThat part is pitch-deck fantasy. Full stop.
MIt's not just fantasy, it's the pitch! The product doesn't exist yet.
CThat's how hardware startups work—
MNo, no, wait. Two hundred words per minute is a performance claim with zero independent verification.
CSo flag it, which you did. But YC doesn't back a nothing idea.
MThey back an early bet. One point three million isn't a hundred million.
CThe use case is strong. You can dictate an email without anyone hearing. Train, meeting, hospital.
MWe already have throat mics and bone conduction. Why glasses?
CBecause glasses are already on your face. One less gadget.
MUnless you don't wear glasses. Then it's a weird camera you strap on to mouth words.
CThat's why early buyers will be people who need silent communication, not you.
MSo who exactly? Commuters? Call centers?
CDoctors charting notes without waking a patient. Pilots. Noisy factory floors.
MNow those are better than two people on a date mouthing at each other.
CNo one said date night.
MThe post said entire conversation. I'm taking it literally.
CAnd I'm taking the useful version: quiet command input.
MThen sell that, not the telepathy fantasy.
CThey kind of did. Both.
MFine. I'll wait for the demo.
CNo one's taking pre-orders, Matilda.
MNot yet. They will.
CA funding account on X says a company called Broccoli raised fifty-two million to sell AI agents to HVAC and plumbing shops.
MThe AI assistant for plumbers is named Broccoli?
CFundable AI posted that Khosla Ventures led both rounds, with Y Combinator in there too. The number's unverified.
MOwen Gregorian posted on X about a Fortune profile: a plumbing owner became COO of two Gen Z AI founders.
CSo the plumber knows the work and the kids know the model?
MRight, but the Fortune details are still just a profile claim.
CEven if that exact story is shaky, the idea holds. The trades are a huge market for this.
MHere's my problem. A bot answering the phone doesn't know a dripping faucet from a flooded basement unless someone builds that in.
CThat's exactly why you hire a former plumbing owner as COO! She knows the difference.
MThen she'd better review every call, because one wrong quote and the customer is gone.
CYou train the agent on the company's own estimates and escalation rules. It's filling out a form.
MAnd if a customer calls panicking and the bot asks for an account number, they hang up.
CThen the owner gets an angry call. That already happens with voicemail.
MNo, with voicemail they hear a human or a clear callback. This is a bot pretending to be the office.
CYou're holding AI to a higher bar than the average overworked front desk.
MBecause the average front desk didn't, according to that post, raise fifty-two million from Khosla Ventures.
CThat's ... actually fair.
MI'm not anti-automation. I want it to book the job and send the invoice, not make judgment calls.
CThen we agree on the goal. We disagree on whether a language model can handle emergencies.
MI'll take the human for the burst pipe. The bot gets routine bookings.
CApparently, per that post, Broccoli got the funding, so somebody's buying that split.