Airchat

Naval Ravikant, Brian Norgard and a team of 6 engineers.

In 2023, I had the privilege to directly work under Naval Ravikant, he is the founder of AngelList, greatly articulate, known for his Joe Rogan podcast appearance, and his best selling biography "The Almanack of Naval Ravikant".

Brian Norgard, previously CPO of Tinder, founded Airchat in 2020 to rival Clubhouse. Naval and Brian later joined hands to launch Airchat in 2024. It’s a social app built around voice: posts and replies are audio recordings, with automatic transcripts.

We were a team of eight. I worked on web, analytics and audio. As described in Techcrunch, “Airchat wouldn’t be worth using if the transcriptions were sub-par, but it’s the best speech-to-text product I’ve ever used.”

At launch, we peaked at 2 million daily active users. Airchat was later acquired, marking an exit for the company.

In the press

  1. TechCrunchRead more
    · Anthony Ha

    Naval Ravikant’s Airchat is a social app built around talk, not text

    “The difference is that the posts and replies are audio recordings, which the app then transcribes.”

    Airchat’s transcribed voice feed, as pictured in TechCrunch’s launch article.
  2. TechCrunchRead more
    · Amanda Silberling

    Airchat, the buzzy new social app, could be great — or, it could succumb to the same fate as Clubhouse

    “Airchat wouldn’t be worth using if the transcriptions were sub-par, but it’s the best speech-to-text product I’ve ever used.”

    TechCrunch illustration of yellow Airchat logos on a black background.
  3. TechCrunchRead more
    · Amanda Silberling

    Talky social app Airchat gets a major overhaul, making it more like an asynchronous Clubhouse

    “The concept of Airchat is fun, especially if you’re someone who loves to send voice memos instead of typing out long paragraphs on your phone keyboard.”

    TechCrunch illustration of Airchat logos on a yellow background.

A few moments along the way

Naval and me standing on a sunny San Francisco street.
A two-hour walk with Naval in San Francisco, before joining Airchat.

Meeting Eric Jorgenson

With Eric Jorgenson, holding a copy of The Almanack of Naval Ravikant.
Eric signing my copy of The Almanack of Naval Ravikant.

More photos