FINAL DAY TO INVEST ON START ENGINE
If Mycroft sales don't make you want to invest, nothing will

Last week, we opened the Mycroft Store to pre-order for the Mark II private voice assistant. With over $1M in reservations, we are not surprised to announce that orders came streaming in and we are approaching $100,000 in units sold after one week.

Mycroft blasted through $500,000 in new investments on Start Engine yesterday. We know the world needs a private voice assistant. Voice Technology is the future and the market is ripe for an alternative to the Big Tech offerings currently out there.

Today is the FINAL day to invest in Mycroft at a pre-production valuation

Mycroft is changing the trajectory of the ever-diminishing right to privacy, right to repair, and user agency. This is a rare opportunity where an interested investor has the ability to peak at the projections of a company’s success. If you were able to see Amazon future revenue before their IPO, would you have invested in them early on? Who wouldn’t?

Thank you for sticking with us throughout our crowdfunding campaign on Start Engine. We appreciate your continued support.

CAMPAIGN HIGHLIGHTS

• Mark II opened for pre-orders
• Production Roadmap laid out by Mycroft CEO, Michael Lewis
• Mycroft Developer Community currently has ~70K contributors (+6K since July 2021)
• Mycroft partner, Unified Patents, invalidated one of two patents held by VoiceTech. Further details on this stellar news at our blog...
• See the Mark II in action - Developer Demo Videos
• $100K in revenue for the Mark II (one week of sales)

Tomorrow is the last day to invest in Mycroft at a pre-production valuation 

We’ve hit various milestones over the last 6 months of this campaign and we’re more excited than ever about the future of Mycroft. 

• Michael Lewis, Mycroft CEO, laid out the roadmap for Mark II production in 2022. 

• As part of Michael’s roadmap, Mark II pre-orders are now available. Get one!

• We're approaching a developer community of 70,000 contributors. That's 6,000 more than 6 months ago when this campaign began and growing literally every day.

• Mycroft channel partner, Neon AI, signed a contract with a Fortune 100 industrial giant using Mycroft core. Demonstrating further proof that Mycroft can be integrated into large enterprise scenarios. 

"Neon chooses Mycroft above other options because they are the major voice technology player in the open source community. Open Source is important to us because it provides for community, transparency and ubiquity. When we share code we all gain. We know that Mycroft shares these values and we look forward to a long business relationship with Mycroft and their well-established developer community."

-Richard Leeds, CEO, Neon AI

There’s so much more on the horizon and we just want to get to work. Next up: getting a privacy-focused, open source, customizable voice assistant out to the masses. If you'd like to receive our weekly newsletters which contain hardware, software, and business development updates, sign up at https://mycroft.ai/newsletters/

If you haven’t already, we hope you’ll join our community by investing in THE private voice assistant.

Mark II pre-orders are available at the Mycroft Store. 

Have you seen the videos of hackers accessing baby monitors? We don’t want to lose your attention, but you should look it up. It’s weird. All right, here’s one.

In a demo presented by Mycroft developer, Mike Hansen, he shows how the Mark II can be used as a secure baby monitor using a minion - a very thoughtful symbol for a child we thought. 

Invest in your peace of mind. We don’t mean to rush you but you have 2 days so… hurry up. 

You can now pre-order the Mark II/baby monitor at the Mycroft store. 

You can now make your Mycroft more secure by setting it up to work offline. In our senior developer’s recent video, Mike Hansen demonstrates Mycroft’s functionality with the Home Assistant software. 

In the video, Mike’s speech to text (his speaking to Mycroft) is being translated offline. This means that what the user is doing and how they’re acting in their home is not being made available over the internet. All interactions are happening on-device and staying within the home.

This makes Mycroft more secure and the interaction with your digital assistant more private.

Think about the plethora of cameras and microphones that we’ve invited into our homes which can be accessed by any hacker, government, or peeping tom who chooses to snoop. Mycroft just wants to be voice assistance - THAT’S ALL. 

No marketing, no tracking, no weirdos. 

Get the Mark II now.

There’s only 3 days left to invest in the leading privacy-focused voice assistant… 

Mycroft is more than a company, we are a collection of dedicated employees. Those employees bring their expertise for not only a private and open-source voice assistant, but also their personal passions. Here is a collection of our series, “Who are you and what are you doing here?” In each video, Mycroft employees explain what drives them to make Mycroft a success. 

Kris Gesling, Director of Developer Relations, explains how Mycroft addresses indigenous populations and invites them to the global party.

Mike Hansen, Senior Software Developer, talks about how Mycroft offers users the chance to maintain their privacy rather than handing it off to trackers and marketers - which is then used to sell them more.

Leanna Pohevitz, Mycroft Paralegal, explains how customization and the ability to use voice technology in the user’s native language is more than an operational issue, it’s a social justice issue. 

Companies who do good, do well. We’re trying to do our part. 

Invest in more.

If you'd like to receive our weekly newsletters which contain hardware, software, and business development updates, sign up at https://mycroft.ai/newsletters/

We are proud and excited to announce that as of today, we have a date for the beginning of Mark II mass-production. 

Here is a letter from our CEO, Michael Lewis:

I promised I wouldn’t announce the Mark II for sale until I was sure about the ship date. Well, now I’m sure. Eight months from the time we place the orders for parts, the first mass-production Mark II will roll off the line. The sale of 1000 units will be enough to finance the set up costs (NREs), and when we’ve hit that milestone we’ll start the clock ticking. If we can sell 1000 by the end of the year, I’m confident that our ship date will be Sept 19th 2022.

When I joined Mycroft in 2020, the circumstances weren’t great. There was the patent thing. There was the pandemic thing. There was a Mark II prototype that cost $2000 each to make. The software needed a little work too. In retrospect…

But I was sold on the idea, the team and the need. Just look at this Mycroft vs. Amazon video to see just one example of what drives me crazy about modern technology. Amazon is relentless with their constant attempts to get your attention and “feed you content”. Mycroft just does what you ask it to. That’s the kind of device I want in my house.

Now the Mark II really exists. I have two on my desk and one in my kitchen. And, finally, we have a solid plan to make more. Lots more.

Personally, I’m very excited to have the date finally pinned down and I can’t wait for you to get yours. Thank you once again for your support.

Sincerely,

Michael Lewis
CEO, Mycroft AI inc.
p 408-834-9398
michael.lewis@mycroft.ai

EVT = Engineering Validation Testing

DVT = Design Validation Testing

PVT = Production Validation Testing

DFM = Design for Manufacturing

UL = Underwriters Laboratories

FCC = Federal Communications Commission

CE = Certified for European Economic Area

RoHS - Restriction of Hazardous Substance Directive

EE = Electrical Engineering

ME = Mechanical Engineering

Pre-order your Mark II now. Shipping starts 19th Sept  2022*.

If you want not just the speaker in your hands but also to be part of this growing tech startup as it brings privacy, data sovereignty, and access to many communities: invest at Start Engine.

* See order page for details.

Mycroft senior developer, Mike Hansen, has put together a demo video showing the Mark II in action. Using Home Assistant - a big open source project (yay open source!) - the Mark II can be seen turning the lights on and off, securing the house with a "good night" setting, and even answering the front door to a friendly, familiar, (albeit slightly neurotic) Fozzie Bear.

Check out the Mark II's capabilities and invest in THE private voice assistant at its pre-production valuation.

It's coming...help us shape the future of AI. 

If you'd like to receive our weekly newsletters which contain hardware, software, and business development updates, sign up at https://mycroft.ai/newsletters/

Mycroft paralegal, Leanna Pohevitz, has an extensive background in linguistics and went to school to focus on civil rights law. How does Leanna’s personal pursuits align with Mycroft values? She can probably tell you better than we could, but a short synopsis: Mycroft wants to provide a voice technology to everyone. This means allowing users the freedom to speak to their voice assistant in their native language, which can have a startling ripple effect on culture and community. Leanna views providing an all inclusive voice assistant as a social justice issue. That is why she is on our team.

Leanna has written about the importance of native language voice detection in a previous blog entitled Cultural Genocide if you’d like to learn more about what drives Leanna and Mycroft to be the best we can be. 

Native language detection matters. Join the nerds. 

If you'd like to receive our weekly newsletters which contain hardware, software, and business development updates, sign up at https://mycroft.ai/newsletters/

The Mycroft Michaels sat down to have a discussion about what makes our newest development hire, Mike Hansen, tick. In our series, “Who are you and what are you doing here?”, CEO of Mycroft, Michael Lewis, asks employees what their passions are and how Mycroft facilitates accomplishing those values. Mycroft is first and foremost the open source, private voice assistant. But the company has come to be a harbinger for social change. 

Mike Hansen sees that change through Mycroft’s efforts in making an open source, privacy-focused technology. Coupled with his experience in the Rasspy Project, Mike wants to provide the Mycroft community with a robust hardware that delivers THE much-needed private voice assistant. 

Privacy is priceless. Join the nerds. 

If you'd like to receive our weekly newsletters which contain hardware, software, and business development updates, sign up at https://mycroft.ai/newsletters/

Unified Patents reported: “On December 13, 2021, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) issued a final written decision in Unified Patents, LLC v. Voice Tech Corporation holding all claims of U.S. Patent 10,491,679 invalid.”

This is the first major victory in the patent troll saga, and we are grateful for the public support of our community and the attention they brought to our cause. Unified Patents was one of those who took notice of Mycroft’s make-no-mistakes response to the irrelevant and poor-quality patents asserted against us last year. Unified independently chose to file a petition to invalidate one of Voice Tech's patents and we could not be more pleased with the result. 

Mycroft ideologically opposes the use of patents for what we believe to be extortion by non-practicing entities that invent nothing, produce nothing and serve only to slow innovation. A decision on the second patent is due in May 2022 and we expect to be fully vindicated. 

We are incredibly gratified to not be alone in protecting the open source ecosystem from patent abuse. However, we are compelled to restate this message from our April 2020 blog post: 

“Our patent abuser … [is] trying to cast themselves as the victim when in fact they are the aggressor. […] It is never okay to threaten someone with bodily harm or harass them. Don’t. Just don’t.”