AiC Episode 99

In this episode, Teri has a conversation with Collin Borns of VoicePunch about voicefirst startups and the investment side of voice technology.

Welcome, Collin!

Collin Borns is a creator/host of the Voicing Startups Podcast and has a background in institutional investment consulting. He worked for VaynerMedia as a financial analyst, before finding a passion for audio, voice, and conversational technology a few years back.

He now works with an early stage venture fund, VoicePunch.VC, and is trying to invest in and bring awareness to the different startups and founders in the voice space who are shaking up industries.

Working with VaynerMedia

  • He was a financial operations analyst for VaynerMedia and had a great experience working there.
  • He thinks the VaynerSmart team (the voice team at VaynerMedia) is doing fantastic work and recommends them for anyone looking at doing a voice related project.

His Flash Briefing and Podcast

  • He was looking to do some things in the voice space and felt that a flash briefing was an interesting format to start playing around with voice and also put out valuable content consistently.
  • He wanted his flash briefing to be fresh and to consist of everything that he finds interesting in the world of audio and voice that businesses should be considering.
  • He focuses on batching up a number of episodes and recording them ahead of time so he can be able to release them consistently.
  • He started his Voicing Startups Podcast to bring more awareness and attention to the founders and companies that are trying different things in the audio and voice space.

Voice First Startups with Collin Borns of VoicePunch

The VoicePunch Fund

  • They look for consumer apps like games and different types of experiences that have some sort of voice aspect to them.
  • They are also interested in the picks and shovels of the voice space like design tools and content management tools.
  • They invest in early stage companies that are yet to raise their Series A funding and also look for founders who are determined and highly focused on achieving their core goal with their company.
  • They look into whether a company is in an interesting market that has the potential to come into fruition.
  • They expect to close their sixth investment by the end of 2019 and raise a closed-end fund in 2020 that will enable them to invest in more companies in the voice space.

List of resources mentioned in this episode:

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