Where do ideas for startups come from? Some arise in dorm rooms or garages. They emerge during a run or simply from observing life and discovering a problem to be solved. Startups also come from passion, perseverance, and the recognition that one new iteration of an idea might mean the difference between success and failure.
The backstory on Hearsight, a startup with an augmented reality solution for the d/Deaf and hard-of-hearing, involves two co-founders with a desire to develop an idea with the potential to create an immediate impact. Both left their day jobs and enrolled in ESTEEM, the University of Notre Dame’s Master of Science in Entrepreneurship program.
“I was working as a software engineer in St. Paul, Minnesota. After two years, I realized I wanted to work at a higher level, expand my skills in business, and work for myself. The ESTEEM Program was right up my alley,” explains Danny Fritz.
After studying pre-med in college, Riley Ellingsen left Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and moved to New York City to work for the Eye Bank for Sight Restoration. After a year, Ellingsen decided that medicine was not for him. “The intersection of business and science led me to the ESTEEM Program,” he says.
Not long after the program began, Fritz and Ellingsen were chatting in their kitchen about ideas for the McCloskey New Venture Competition that would be useful to the world.
“I shared an idea with Riley I’d been thinking about for a while. I had dated a girl who was hard of hearing. During the COVID-19 pandemic, communicating in public was nearly impossible because she relied on lip reading. What if we put words in smart glasses to live caption conversations in real time? Riley liked the idea. When we talked to our mentors, they thought it was an idea worth pursuing,” recounts Fritz.
And so, the startup Hearsight was born.
When the duo first started working on their idea, people's reaction was, “Why doesn’t this already exist?” Ellingsen’s response: “It’s a simple idea but not simple to execute.”
Complicated, but not impossible: The beauty of the Hearsight idea was that some of the technology already existed. “We knew we didn’t want to build our own hardware and software,” explains Fritz. “Smart glasses were on the market, but functionality was somewhat primitive. Transcription apps were also available. No one was putting them together.”
Adds Ellingsen, “The opportunity to leverage existing third-party hardware would be faster and less costly. We identified two options for the smart glasses and began developing our own prototype apps that would allow captioning.”
The options brought different qualities to the table. Option one was ENGO, a French startup company that had a line of smart glasses developed for cyclists. The ENGO glasses were lightweight, comfortable to wear, and supported by a wireless connection to smartphones. The only downside was that the display of text was not robust. Option two, XREAL, had smart glasses with higher resolution and a computer-like display but were bulkier, corded, and less mainstream in appearance.
“Stigmas are prevalent in the deaf and hard of hearing community, so the aesthetics of our product are very important,” Fritz says. “Our goal is to offer a product that blends as seamlessly into the user’s life as possible. The more we can normalize the glasses, the better.”
The Hearsight app provides real-time transcription of spoken words on the screen of a smartphone or on the lenses of smart glasses. Using the app with or without the glasses, the user gets accurate, real-time transcription. Pairing with smart glasses is enabled by Bluetooth. When the user clicks stop, the conversation is logged, and the transcript can be saved or discarded. Hearsight currently works best in environments without significant ambient noise, such as one-on-one conversations, watching television or participating in work meetings.
With their minimally viable product (MVP) in hand, the co-founders did A/B testing with the ENGO and XREAL glasses and apps with the Hearing Loss Association of America‘s Lincoln Park Chapter and Accenture’s Accessibility Lab, both in Chicago. The ENGO glasses, which could be mistaken for popular brands like Oakley and Costa, were the clear favorite of participants.
“Cool is not a term you get from people describing assisted tech,” smiles Fritz. “But we got that a lot.”
Buoyed by the results, Fritz and Ellingsen continued to iterate based on feedback. This supported their commitment to a user-led design process. This included creating a webpage to briefly explain Hearsight’s mission to empower people who are deaf and hard of hearing with innovative solutions that contribute to better speech comprehension and improved quality of life.
Equally important, the landing page was designed to create a waitlist for Hearsight by collecting the names, contact information, and stories of potential customers. Ultimately, the landing page would amass the data of 1,500 people whose stories would help drive design as well as create a lead list for sales.
Hearsight’s official commercial launch was in June 2024. Instructions for use on the website are clear: Pick a monthly or annual plan that includes a free trial, download the app, purchase glasses to pair with the app, and get started. The site links directly to Hearsight’s Instagram page, which features numerous videos on how to use it and customer testimonials.
From day one, Fritz and Ellingsen have worked hard to engage waitlist members and customers to gather more feedback. What customers share provides great insight. One customer reported she’d bought two pairs of glasses to support her active lifestyle. She hikes, bikes, and sails; Hearsight pairs perfectly with her active lifestyle. A dentist who is deaf is using Hearsight to improve communication with patients.
Much of the co-founders’ attention is currently on marketing. They are in the process of converting their waitlist to customers. They have done some social media marketing, the biggest success of which came from a collaboration with a deaf influencer on Instagram. Grassroots efforts such as presenting at various hearing-loss-related organizations are also effective.
Scaling a startup is often a grind, and Hearsight has had its challenges. Ellingsen attributes some of the hurdles to being a first-time founder. “It’s proved to be an exercise in ‘you don’t know what you don’t know.’ Founders live in a dream state of what the product will be in the future. The reality is progress is a journey, and it’s sometimes hard to appreciate the progress we’ve made.”
Fritz concurs, sharing an example. “We’ve proven that Hearsight performs well in controlled spaces. However, the biggest request we get is making it work in loud, crowded environments like a restaurant or bar. The competing sounds, like music and other conversations, make it hard for the app to transcribe accurately. This will be hard to achieve, but we’re improving.”
Since 2022, the Hearsight co-founders have had a number of wins, but Ellingsen admits they have been so busy it’s hard to take time to celebrate. “When we launched the product in June, it was ‘Yay, we launched!’ Now we’re off to new chapters like marketing, how to handle customer support, and working on our pricing model.”
However, they both agree their partnership with ENGO has been a huge win because of the French company’s willingness to collaborate. “Our product wouldn’t be the same without them. We’ve engaged with a lot of different hardware companies, and ENGO has been very accommodating. They are happy to fulfill orders and engage when customers need support. Positive work relationships make life easier,” Fritz says.
Both Fritz and Ellingsen are proud of how capital-efficient they have been. “We closed on a pre-seed round of $302,000 in January 2023, and we now have two apps, an MVP, and are actually selling products. I honestly never thought we’d accomplish so much so quickly. It’s taken guts, time, and energy, but it’s rewarding to see things come together,” Fritz says.
As for now, the Hearsight co-founders are focused on gathering insights and feedback from customers to inform their next fundraising round and further product development. There are numerous enhancements they’d like to make, but determining the best return on investment is driving their decision-making.
Asked what advice they had for others who wish to create their own startup, Fritz and Ellingsen offered this:
“Be fearless and go for it. Don’t keep your ideas to yourself. Get as much feedback as you can and allow others to help you. Whether you do or don’t succeed, you have to try,” Fritz says.
The rewards make the hard work worthwhile, says Ellingsen. “You have the potential to profoundly impact lives. Along the way, there will be really good days and really bad days. Choosing to work on things you are passionate about and that have a sense of impact will help get you through the down days.”