company foundry portfolio
pfb, inc.
(actual name still TBD)
PFB, Inc. (launching soon) is an EdTech company focused on supporting ESL/EFL teachers (and their students) with tools to help them understand the components of pronunciation and accent, and how a student’s manifestation of those components might be interfering with the intelligibility of their speech. Powered by bespoke LingCosms analysis technology, PFB, Inc.‘s assistive technology provides graphical (and auditory) pronunciation feedback in a form that is actionable (i.e., not just the thumbs up / thumbs down assessment provided by most pronunciation apps). Some of that cutting edge feedback is available in real-time to a student, but PFB, Inc.‘s apps are primarily designed as support for teachers, removing the pressures inherent with face-to-face pronunciation analysis and coaching. Our AI-based system enables ESL/EFL teachers (even those without deep pronunciation coaching experience) to provide quality feedback to their students, highlighting actionable pronunciation issues to help guide the refinement of the student’s pronunciation.
Though PFB, Inc. will launch with a full tech stack backing it and fully-prototyped initial apps (i.e., it’s well beyond the idea phase), we expect that it will follow a more traditional start-up funding trajectory with the goal of eventually being a publicly traded company serving a sizable share of the ~1.4 billion learners of English world-wide. If you would be interested in hearing more once PFB, Inc. begins seeking investment (i.e., if you are a potential investor, be it at the “friends and family”, angel, or early stage VC level), let us know here.
Additional foundry companies will be documented here as they come closer to launch.
One crucial bottleneck with respect to converting ideas into viable (spin-out) start-ups is the identification of / availability of the person(s) to serve a co-founder(s)/CEO/COO-like roles. LingCosms, as a strictly bootstrapped company, is not (at least currently) in the position of generously funding foundry start-ups, but if you are interested in startup leadership and have what it takes to drive an idea (with strong technological support) through the startup process to success, drop us a line here.