Why We Invested in Orai: The Future of Public Speaking Training

We’re thrilled to announce our partnership with Orai, a focused team behind an elegant mobile product designed to help people become more confident and effective communicators. Welcome Danish, Paritosh, Aasim, and the Orai Team to the Prototype Capital family!

There are three fundamental reasons we decided to join:

1. Miscommunication in the workplace is costly: According to the Holmes Report, among 400 organizations with 100k+ employees, miscommunication in the workspace results in over $37b in lost value per year (or around $62.4m per year per company). Think about how many projects in your company have been delayed because of some kind of poor communication — whether in sales, engineering, or even marketing — and think about how much more efficient and effective we could be if everyone was a better communicator.
2. Machine learning can make previously expensive solutions inexpensive: Through the years, we’ve seen companies like Uber coming into the market providing a solution at a lower cost than incumbents and creating their own class of buyers. With public speaking, current solutions offered via consultants, trainers, and workshop-centered organizations are not only expensive and hard to come by, but we’ve found no means of measuring the effectiveness of post-program results. Over 80% of the American workforce want to improve their communication skills, but do not have access to high-ticket workshops or trainers. Machine learning promises to provide a solution at a fraction of the price and in everyone’s pockets.
3. The best way to improve something is to make it fun: Enterprise learning and development programs provided to employees and employers tend to be dull, inefficient, and ineffective in most cases, and so most employees don’t tend to take advantage of it. But what if becoming a better public speaker was as fun and gratifying as learning a new language on Duolingo? What if people want to become better communicators, not because their manager is asking them to, but because it’s fun? And not only that, what if that game was right in your pocket, just as addicting as the latest Angry Birds?

We believe Orai offers the best solutions to these trends. Orai offers a beautifully designed mobile app that leverages natural language processing and machine learning to help the end user improve their communication skills in real time via quantitative feedback, a process more effective than the current workshop solutions. Orai in a friendly manner reminiscent of Duolingo tells you if you’re speaking too fast or slow, if you have too many filler words, and if you’re too monotone. Orai’s enterprise solution also allows teams, divisions, and organizations to measure and intricately improve each of its members’ communication skills, with lessons customized to fit each user’s level of skill.

Our most important consideration was Danish and his team. Danish’s experience as a captivating public speaker with an incredible set of international life experiences gearing him as the designated leader of such a product, advancement, and mission within our economy and community. Orai’s effectivity is cheered among their core group of partners, including Comcast and Mandel Communications. We’re excited to be a part of the journey with Orai in improving mankind’s confidence and communication skills.

To taking steps forward,

Team Prototype Capital