After growing up in Denver, John Goscha left nearly two decades ago to begin building businesses on the East Coast.
He landed in Boston and founded two companies that raised nearly $125 million in venture capital.
The first, Idea Paint, was a dry-erase paint startup that sold to private equity company Audax in 2019. He followed that up by founding Finally Light Bulb Co., an energy-efficient lightbulb company.
Now, he’s back in his home state to capitalize on the momentum of the local innovation scene and build his next venture.
“I used to tell people I need to be in Boston and San Francisco to build a company, and now Denver makes a lot of sense,” he said.
Goscha has long been “obsessed” with voice technology and, about a year ago, he decided to try his hand at building a company in the space. He launched Native Voice, an on-demand voice services library that puts your favorite brands in one place.
Users can access a growing library of branded voice services, like 'Hey Spotify' and 'Hey Alexa,' all in the same place, with tap-to-talk and always listening capabilities. Goscha said people compare Native Voice to Roku in that it brings a library of brands onto a single platform.
The company already has partnerships with Alexa, Siri and Spotify and Goshca said they’ll be announcing an expanding library as time goes on.
To fuel that growing product, Native Voice announced the close of its seed funding round on July 19, raising $14 million from Gutbrain Ventures, PBJ Capital and Signal Peak Ventures with participation from Revel Partners, Ideaship, Technexus and others.
The round was oversubscribed by three times its initial amount and Goscha said it will largely be put to growing the number of devices Native Voice is on, expanding its library and adding to its team of nearly 10 full-time employees.
The abundance of local talent was part of the reason Native Voice relocated from Boston for its headquarters, and Goscha is excited to tap into it.
“Denver to me is an interesting place, there’s been an influx of technology, specifically software and firmware developers to the city,” he said.
While his Native Voice is a departure from his past efforts, Goscha said there is much to lean on from his prior experiences. Namely, a focus on user experience.
“What I’ve learned at my past companies is all that matters is the end-user experience,” he said. “You have to get the product right.”
And, while a large seed funding round might encourage the company to grow beyond its means, Goscha is focused on a sustainable future for a startup still in its infancy.
He compared it to a “go slow to go fast” mentality.
“We’re trying to build a house here and let’s build that house one brick at a time,” he said.
