A Chicago startup that makes an app to improve your public speaking got some love from Apple this week as it looks to help more people conquer their stage fright.
Speeko, a Chicago startup founded in 2018, is a digital speech coach app that uses artificial intelligence to give you feedback on your public speaking. It was featured on Monday by the Apple App Store as its App of the Day, which provided the company with a typical week's worth of new downloads in just one day, co-founder Nico Aguilar said.
"For us, it was really significant," said Aguilar, the CEO of the five-person startup. "It's a big vote of confidence by the App Store editors that they picked us."
Aguilar said Apple reached out to Speeko two months ago requesting promotional materials and other information from the startup before featuring the app this week. Speeko has been used by 100,000 people, who've downloaded to app to build confidence in their public speaking and learn tips on how to improve.
Speeko's app lets you record yourself speaking and uses artificial intelligence to give feedback on your pace, word choice and other techniques. It lets you know if you're using filler words, and how you can sound more dynamic. It also lets you know if your speaking could be more inclusive by ditching phrases like "hey guys."
To date, its app has identified, and helped correct, more than 1 millions "ums" from speakers, Aguilar said.
The startup, which was part of the 2018 Techstars Chicago class, has so far been used to help speakers evaluate their performance after the fact. But it's working on a new product that will evaluate your speaking in real time, building into products like Zoom and Google Meet to provide instant feedback during work meetings and other virtual calls.
It's a pivot born partly of Covid, which suddenly turned much of corporate America into virtual public speakers.
"We think of this as a grammar checker for your voice," Aguilar said.
Speeko was born out of Aguilar's own anxieties with public speaking, and his desire to help others get over their own stage fright.
"We want to help people like my old self, who didn’t have confidence in their voice, have confidence," he said.
