FutureWork Playbook Fast Co. “Most Innovative Companies” Slang.ai: A Non-Traditional Route to Becoming a Technical Founder
Gabe Duncan combined his unique experience – including stints as a musician, data engineer, and data science manager – with his entrepreneurial spirit to co-found Slang.ai five years ago. In Slang.ai, he envisions a “utopian vision.”
If you dine at restaurants, you’ve probably called to book a reservation, only to be put on hold by a harried host. If you’re a host, you’ve probably had to navigate buzzing phone calls when other duties called. Slang.ai leverages voice AI to power its digital phone concierge platform. “In the utopian vision, we are helping restaurants level-up their hospitality by removing, one, the need to do these tasks. And two, the frustration that can not only affect the caller but also the person standing in front of the host at that time, too,” Gabe explains to host Natalie Pierce,
Gabe discusses his non-traditional past and his innovative future – and how AI fits into it. That future includes Slang.ai’s exciting partnership with OpenTable, the global leader in restaurant tech. Launched last month, the partnership involves Slang.ai helping OpenTable operators with their phones and communications.
As for AI, Gabe believes “we should use this opportunity to get better as humans doing what humans should do well, which is connecting with each other and learning to live better lives – human lives – without being pulled into things that frustrate us.”
Episode Highlights
- Slang.ai’s mission is to create a great conversation between restaurant customers and staff that isn’t stilted and is intelligent enough to save time on both ends.
- Gabe’s early repetitive stress injury from playing guitar eventually led him to work on Spotify’s hands-free voice assistant. Today, Slang.ai has several voice capabilities.
- “Inclusive” is the keyword at Slang.ai, where technology is democratized so users aren’t trapped by a big corporate voice assistant.
- Gabe suggests that entrepreneurs should think like sailors, not race car drivers. “If you start with an idea of where you're going, and you have to keep directing yourself back, it's more like sailing a ship than it is driving a car. You just have to keep going back, tacking through the wind to find your course.”
💡 Meet Your Host 💡
Name: Natalie Pierce
Organization: Gunderson Dettmer
Connect: LinkedIn
💡 Featured Guest 💡
Name: Gabe Duncan
Organization: Slang.ai | LinkedIn
Connect: LinkedIn
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