Tanay Kothari: Creating a Post-Keyboard Future
Thu Oct 16 2025
In this episode of Generative Now, Lightspeed Partner Michael Mignano sits down with Tanay Kothari, the co-founder and CEO of Wispr Flow, an AI-powered voice dictation platform. Tanay traces his path from building dozens of apps as a teen in Delhi to now, and how those experiences inspired him to make one of the first “zero-edit” voice products. Tanay gets into training in-house models, beating sub-second latency, and explains his approach to onboarding customers with the goal of changing behavior. He also discusses what’s next for the future of voice products and why he predicts a post-keyboard future.
For more information on Wispr Flow, please visit https://wisprflow.ai and
https://wisprflow.ai/careers
00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome
01:26 Tenay's Background and Early Inspirations
02:29 Building and Selling Feather X
03:52 The Birth of Whisper Flow
04:25 Early App Development and Challenges
06:39 Innovative Projects and User Impact
11:45 Whisper Flow's Differentiated Approach
18:57 Technical Challenges and Solutions
22:23 Design and User Experience23:19 Personal Onboarding Experience
23:40 Building User Habits
24:43 Inspiration from Video Games
26:11 Onboarding Mechanics in Whisper
29:00 Challenges of Deep Integration
32:10 Transition from Hardware to Software
38:30 Future of Voice Technology
47:42 Upcoming Features and Opportunities
Stay in touch:
www.lsvp.com
X: https://twitter.com/lightspeedvp
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lightspeed-venture-partners/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lightspeedventurepartners/
Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: generativenow.co
Email: generativenow@lsvp.com
The content here does not constitute tax, legal, business or investment advice or an offer to provide such advice, should not be construed as advocating the purchase or sale of any security or investment or a recommendation of any company, and is not an offer, or solicitation of an offer, for the purchase or sale of any security or investment product. For more details please see lsvp.com/legal.
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In this episode of Generative Now, Lightspeed Partner Michael Mignano sits down with Tanay Kothari, the co-founder and CEO of Wispr Flow, an AI-powered voice dictation platform. Tanay traces his path from building dozens of apps as a teen in Delhi to now, and how those experiences inspired him to make one of the first “zero-edit” voice products. Tanay gets into training in-house models, beating sub-second latency, and explains his approach to onboarding customers with the goal of changing behavior. He also discusses what’s next for the future of voice products and why he predicts a post-keyboard future. For more information on Wispr Flow, please visit https://wisprflow.ai and https://wisprflow.ai/careers 00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome 01:26 Tenay's Background and Early Inspirations 02:29 Building and Selling Feather X 03:52 The Birth of Whisper Flow 04:25 Early App Development and Challenges 06:39 Innovative Projects and User Impact 11:45 Whisper Flow's Differentiated Approach 18:57 Technical Challenges and Solutions 22:23 Design and User Experience23:19 Personal Onboarding Experience 23:40 Building User Habits 24:43 Inspiration from Video Games 26:11 Onboarding Mechanics in Whisper 29:00 Challenges of Deep Integration 32:10 Transition from Hardware to Software 38:30 Future of Voice Technology 47:42 Upcoming Features and Opportunities Stay in touch: www.lsvp.com X: https://twitter.com/lightspeedvp LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lightspeed-venture-partners/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lightspeedventurepartners/ Subscribe on your favorite podcast app: generativenow.co Email: generativenow@lsvp.com The content here does not constitute tax, legal, business or investment advice or an offer to provide such advice, should not be construed as advocating the purchase or sale of any security or investment or a recommendation of any company, and is not an offer, or solicitation of an offer, for the purchase or sale of any security or investment product. For more details please see lsvp.com/legal.