Texting is good for situations when you can’t talk, or when a quick (yes/no) reply will do.

If the next software to come out is somethign that reads you text messages back to you, then yes we’ve sort of solved the “texting while driving” problem, but isn’t an actual phone call better then having software like YAP act as a middleman? think about it…

@24 Val, we’re quite respectful of Vlingo’s contributions to date in advancing the art, especially within the search vertical (while we were founded on the premise of messaging). Although with over 1 BILLION phones shipping per year (as your intuition already reinforced), I’m certain there’ll be plenty of room for all interested parties. That said, it requires a deeper level of discussion for me to describe how our platforms differ when you look at them end-to-end. I’m not sure this venue is appropriate for that but I’m happy to do so offline (send me an email if interested).

Their technology works so well that…

:)

@20 Ryan, there’s no reason to get defensive; I characterized their solution as being a hybrid similar to your assertion, so I’m not sure that we’re not saying the same thing. That said, calling their mixed platform the next stage of evolution in speech recognition is like announcing that my eyeballs are the newest innovation in HD video recording; but that’s a marketing distinction not a technical one. Compare that to other entities that are more upfront about their solutions, which work quite well for their intended uses. While I appreciate your experiences therein, my perspective is formed after interacting with a number of their (talented) executives and…wait for it…my somewhat relevant background as a speech scientist.

SpinVox uses technology first… and if the message does not pass QA — it goes to a team that transcribes the messages for accuracy. How do I know this? Because I contracted with them on a project.

What you are saying is borderline libel. I would be very careful…

Ryan

Imagine the possibilities: by combining the strengths of Yads and Yap, you will be soon able to leave a voice message to anyone using a cellphone. Yads and Yap will redefine the way humans communicate by sending voice messages as mail.

Our new service, Voice-Mail Beta 1.0 will be released soon.

For more info, please call us at 123 555 0010 and leave a message after the tone.

YADS Inc
Yet Another Dumb Startup Incorporated
42 VC Street - 94087 - Palo Alto

@16 Peter, there’s always an opportunity for them to participate when we formulate our strategic alliances in a succeeding round. We’re quite confident with SB/HVP supporting our near term strategies. And being “stuck” in the East Coast is quite deliberate, since we want to stay in business in the long term.

@17 Aandarian, already implemented!

Question - why did you not approach Kleiner, Bessemer, Index or other Tier 1 VC to participate? - I’m not knocking your existing VC’s. I realize that you stuck to the east coast where Greylock is located…of course I wouldn’t go to Greylock either.

However, my point was technology does not get you relationships with those companies that have $$$ to spend on marketing. A company must spend something to develop those business reltionships. McDonald’s CMO doesn’t just say, “Cool technology, sign me up.”

A company has to have direct relationships with companies or relationships with agencies that control their ad-spend, and those relationships require massive capital (look at Federated Media, that’s their primary value add, not the open-source ad serving technology).

@10 We will have an announcement that will go well beyond this shortly.

@11 Frank, while that business model seems an obvious route for this work, we are already profitable due to the contributions of one of our unannounced business units. That said, we have discovered/secured the IP required to inject realtime advertisements based on the context of incoming/outgoing messages. One of the device maker CEOs called this capability “push search” and you can see an early version of it in our website’s admittedly poor “Travel Demo” (watch what happens after I say “I need a coffee”.

@12 Ryan, the market is unfortunately misinformed; they raised debt to support the burden of having thousands of transcribers working for them.

“While other startups may claim the same, those guys use mostly humans on the back end to manually transcribe your messages.”

Wow… bold claims. I know for a fact that SpinVox uses true voice to text technology… in MULTIPLE languages.

Oh, and they raised A LOT more money than Yap.

Yet, the obvious revenue model is to integrate advertising in some fashion. Are you really saying that Yap will not utilize any of this capital to establish, build, and maintain the business relationships necessary to become a marketing channel?

Now lets get an iPhone ap out so that we can do all of our email and texting by voice!