AirCaps

What do they actually do

AirCaps sells a hardware + software bundle: lightweight smart glasses paired with an app that shows live captions and translated subtitles in your field of view during in‑person conversations. It also identifies speakers, reduces background noise to improve transcription, and generates meeting notes and summaries after the conversation. The product supports 60+ languages and is available via preorder, with glasses currently listed at $499 and the next batch slated to ship in February 2026 AirCaps homepage AirCaps shop.

The company targets people who need hands‑free, real‑time understanding and recall of what’s said in person (e.g., hearing loss, travel/translation, meetings). They monetize through device sales and an optional Pro subscription ($20/month) that adds features like 60+ languages, speaker labeling, and AI summaries. AirCaps reports early traction and engagement from users, including power users averaging 6+ hours/day, day‑30 retention of 91%, and $93K in October revenue, as cited in their YC materials YC profile YCRM summary of YC profile.

Who are their target customer(s)

• People with hearing loss: Struggle to follow in‑person conversations while maintaining eye contact; phone captioning is awkward, and lipreading is unreliable. Need discreet, hands‑free, real‑time captions to participate fully AirCaps homepage.
• Travelers and language learners: Miss details in foreign‑language interactions and rely on slow phone apps or interpreters. Want immediate, in‑view translation to converse naturally AirCaps homepage.
• Doctors and other clinicians: Must capture accurate details during visits without looking away or typing; end up with documentation gaps and after‑hours admin. Need hands‑free capture with concise visit summaries that fit clinical workflows YC profile.
• Field salespeople and on‑site service workers: Move between many in‑person meetings where taking notes is impractical; follow‑ups and details get lost. Need automatic capture, speaker attribution, and fast summaries to convert visits into revenue YC profile.
• Meeting‑heavy professionals and executives: Spend many hours in face‑to‑face meetings and lose focus taking notes; decisions and action items are hard to reconstruct. Want a discreet assistant that transcribes, highlights, and stores searchable notes AirCaps homepage.

How would they acquire their first 10, 50, and 100 customers

• First 10: Direct outreach to hearing‑loss advocacy groups and local audiology clinics; place 8–10 devices with high‑need users on free/discounted trials with white‑glove onboarding to gather feedback and testimonials YC profile.
• First 50: Convert early testers into paid preorders; run 2–3 tightly scoped pilots with small medical practices and field‑sales teams while recruiting language‑school/traveler communities for paid trials. Amplify wins via short clips and quotes; test lean paid social/search YC profile.
• First 100: Stand up two repeatable channels: (A) a simple demo → 30‑day paid pilot → case study flow for clinics and sales teams; and (B) partnerships with audiology suppliers, assistive‑tech programs, and travel/tour operators to bundle devices. Support with conference presence, referrals, and 1:1 onboarding to drive subscription attach AirCaps homepage YC profile.

What is the rough total addressable market

Top-down context:

Globally, about 430 million people have disabling hearing loss requiring rehabilitation, and nearly 20% of the world’s population has some degree of hearing loss; in the U.S., roughly 15% of adults (≈37.5M) report some trouble hearing WHO NIDCD. On the professional side, there are about 1.08 million licensed physicians in the U.S. who conduct frequent in‑person conversations where hands‑free capture could help FSMB 2024 Census.

Bottom-up calculation:

Near‑term wedge TAM (U.S./EU): assume 150,000 hearing‑loss users + 50,000 professionals adopt AirCaps initially (200,000 units). Hardware at $499 implies ~$100M device revenue if sold once, with optional Pro upsell creating recurring revenue. If 40% upgrade to Pro at $20/month, that’s ~$19M/year in subscription revenue on top of hardware AirCaps shop.

Assumptions:

• Initial wedge focuses on U.S./EU users who are actively seeking assistive captioning or hands‑free meeting tools; 200k units represents a small fraction of the top‑down populations.
• Hardware revenue considered one‑time per device; subscription attach rate assumed at 40% for Pro ($20/month).
• Does not include broader traveler/language‑learner consumer demand or future AR‑platform distribution, which could expand TAM materially.

Who are some of their notable competitors

• Ava: Phone/desktop app for live captions and transcripts aimed at deaf and hard‑of‑hearing users and organizations; competes on accessibility use cases but lacks a glasses‑mounted visual overlay.
• Otter.ai: Meeting transcription and AI notes with deep Zoom/Google/Teams integrations; overlaps on summaries/workflows but is built for phone/desktop/cloud rather than live, in‑view captions on glasses.
• Timekettle: Translator earbuds and app for real‑time two‑way spoken translation; competes on instant translation but is audio/earbud‑based rather than visual captions on AR glasses.
• Google (Live Caption / Translate / Pixel Buds): Provides on‑device live captions and translation at the OS/app level and interpreter mode on earbuds; broad reach but delivered via phones/earbuds, not a dedicated AR‑glasses overlay.
• Microsoft (Teams live captions / Translator): Enterprise live captions and translated transcription in Teams and a Translator app for multi‑device conversations; strong in enterprise/clinical workflows but PC/cloud‑centric versus in‑field AR display.