After Grandmother Loses Ability to Speak, Man Uses Tech to Get Her Voice Back
Danny Weissberg is a perfect example of how anyone can turn tragedy into inspiration.
After witnessing his grandmother suffer a stroke that left her with intelligible speech, Danny realized the hardships one faces after losing their basic ability of voiced communication — a privilege that we so often take for granted.
That’s why he created Voiceitt, a speech recognition technology that enables people with speech disabilities to communicate with anyone, anywhere.
“I was frustrated by the lack of options, and created Voiceitt to foster independence, empowerment and social inclusion for the speech impaired”, Danny explains.
There is no other voice assistive solution like Voiceitt in existence. The app records and learns a user’s personal speech patterns and pronunciation. After a brief training period, the app can turn statements into clear speech in real time for immediate use in audio, text messaging, and face-to-face communication. Not only that, but it can identify unclear words that cannot be understood by other people or generic speech recognition software like Siri or Google Voice.
The service is catered towards children and adults with conditions such as autism, Down syndrome and ALS, so that it can offer them the chance to be heard.
A civil engineer turned serial entrepreneur with more than 15 years of experience in Israel’s high-tech scene, Danny started his career at the leading cyber firm, Checkpoint. He worked at several other cutting-edge technology companies, and ultimately co-founded a mobile device brand called YubiTech, where he served as CEO until launching Voiceitt in May 2012.
The Tel-Aviv-based startup has received a total of $3.7M in grants and competition prizes alone, and Danny spends time sharing his knowledge and wisdom through lectures on non-traditional fundraising and social entrepreneurship.
Danny set out to become an entrepreneur who could create something positive in this world — and that is exactly what he has accomplished. He says, “I’m completely fulfilled. My work and my life goals are intertwined. I’m part of a venture that is not only for money, but also one that’s meaningful and can improve the lives of millions.”