Interview with Yacine Achiakh. He is the CEO and co-founder of Wisear, a company working on building the neural interface and human-machine interface platform technology of the future. Their goal is to enable people to have seamless, voiceless, and touchless control over their everyday devices. Their first application of this technology is earbuds outfitted with electrodes that can pick up biosignals (EEG, EMG, EOG, etc.) and convert them into control signals for various devices. This episode is jam-packed with interesting and useful information from start to finish.
Yacine and I talk for over an hour discussing a range of topics like: his career journey before founding Wisear, quitting his job to start the company, inspiration from Neuralink, scrappy early stage building & prototyping, development of Wisear’s technology stack, techniques to reduce electromagnetic noise, strategic decisions to get their product into more hands, the value of collecting data, hardware agnostic technology frameworks, possible research partnerships, neural interfaces & human-machine interfaces of the future, the changing form factors of our devices & interactions with technology, advice for students, advice for founders, the interconnected neurotech community, why its hard to bootstrap in neurotech, why its useful to raise a large first round of venture capital funding in neurotech, short term future of neurotechnology, long term future of neurotechnology, and neurotech’s upcoming eventual “GenAI moment.”
At the conclusion of the episode, Yacine gives a brief demonstration of Wisear’s technology and discusses opportunities to become part of Wisear’s alpha testing group, beta testing group, or the broader community that they are working to build. Recorded March 28, 2024. Host: Robert Murcko
Key Moments:
0:00 Introduction
3:00 Initial Interest in Neurotechnology/Neuroscience
4:04 Inspiration from Neuralink (SF Soccer Game)
7:55 Wisear’s Founding
8:49 Quitting Job and Scrappy Tinkering
10:24 Human-Machine Interface: Control
11:42 Early Prototype
12:47 Early Funding and Hiring a Small Team
13:54 Product and Technology Overview
20:32 Neural Interface Platform Tech: Form Agnostic (Earphones, Glasses, etc.)
21:47 A Community of Users
23:02 Wisear Silent Speech Controls
25:51 Use Cases of Wisear’s Existing Products and Technology
30:18 Wisear Applications in Augmented Reality
33:15 Neurotech CEO: Day-to-Day
38:02 Background in AI and Management at Criteo Informing Wisear
43:07 Wisear’s Competitors and the Vibrant Neurotech Community
46:37 Next Steps and Future Vision for Wisear
50:25 Advice for Breaking Into Neurotech
54:49 Advice for Neurotech Founders
58:13 Neurotechnology Predictions
1:00:52 Wisear Demo
1:03:38 Conclusion
Free Neurotechnology Newsletter: https://neurotechnologynews.beehiiv.com/subscribe
Wisear Website: https://www.wisear.io/
Yacine Achiakh’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yacineachiakh/
Robert Murcko’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-murcko/