Bob Summers

bit maker, hokie, runner, pilot, wave rider, xoogler, lab lover and father of 2.

[Google Cloud @googlecloud]

Discover how @goodcallanswers AI phone agents, powered by Google Cloud, help businesses like @calldrdave automate customer interactions.

Goodcall empowers @calldrdave’s computer repair to save time, improve efficiency, and free up valuable resources ↓

[Bob Summers @bobs]

@garrytan Gary - yes we have built it at https://t.co/JJ8foFsikt. Can do this and more with no code, no prompt and 100% accurate. DM and happy to demo. Google Area120 project originally.

[Cartesia @cartesia]

@bobs prior led Google’s Text-to-Speech product and co-founded a business phone assistant within Google’s product incubator, Area 120. Today, Bob’s new company, Goodcall, announced that they have switched 100% of their text-to-speech generations of 2,217 unique voice agents from Eleven Labs to Cartesia.

Here's why they chose Cartesia:

⚡️ Industry-leading Latency: 90 ms average time-to-first-audio including model and network latency. 3X faster than comparables.

🔊 Best-In-Class Conversational Quality: Bob was able to silently switch his voice provider to Sonic with 0 customer complaints and consistently hit 97% interaction rate, with several customers asking how he got the voices to be so human-like

🎨Voice Design Capabilities: Cartesia gives Bob the ability to clone voices and blend them in a couple of clicks

Read the full story and try Goodcall's Sonic-powered agents here 👇

[Lulu Cheng Meservey @lulumeservey]

GO DIRECT: THE MANIFESTO

I. TRADITIONAL PR IS DEAD.

For too long, founders have yielded control over their narratives to media and middlemen.

Before the internet, it was by necessity. The way to reach large audiences was through the media, and the way to get media coverage was through professional publicists.

Today, most of the planet is directly reachable by social media or email. There’s no longer a need to go through traditional gatekeepers of information and brokers of reputation — especially as their own credibility has plummeted.

The old PR playbook of relying on third parties with misaligned interests is obsolete.

But while the world has changed, comms norms have not. Still encased in amber are the old habits: prioritizing media over social media, fishing for clicks instead of fostering communities, and avoiding risk by recycling worn-out tactics.

“Corporate communications” itself is now an oxymoron, as nothing meaningful can be communicated by a faceless committee. If press releases read like they were written by a baker’s dozen of middle managers, that’s because they were. Their only discernible purpose seems to be to avoid upsetting anyone and jeopardizing the future job prospects of those middle managers.

The resulting stories are bland and generic, with passion reduced to pablum. Traditional comms is an anachronism.

II. COMMUNICATION IS THE FOUNDER’S JOB.

For a decade, we’ve been told that tech founders are cartoon villains, venture-funded startups are grifts, and new technologies will destroy us all.

Maybe there was a time when founders could just focus on building — they were seen by the media establishment as a curiosity, not a threat to the natural hierarchy who needed to be put in their place. But if that time ever existed, it is now long gone.

You may not be interested in The Discourse, but it is interested in you. And if you bow out, you are forfeiting your license to build a movement and thus build a company.

Building a movement is hard, but it must be done, and it must be done by founders. A founder’s passion, vision, and conviction can’t be simulated by others — least of all the press-release-enjoying middle managers already scouting for their next jobs.

The best spokesperson for any endeavor is not the one who has the most polish, the longest tenure, or the “right” credentials. It’s the person who holds the secret knowledge upon which the enterprise is built, the person who can not only describe the idea but, in the face of inevitable opposition, fight for it and win.

Founders need to take their narrative as seriously as they take the rockets or robots. They would never outsource their product — and when it comes to convincing others to support the mission, the story is the product. Outsourcing comms is as bad as outsourcing code.

As evangelists, founders are irreplaceable.

III. GO DIRECT OR GO HOME.

Going direct to the people who matter is how founders retain control over their narratives and preserve their companies’ uniqueness. Those who are stubborn, unorthodox, and disagreeable should never have their edges filed down for fear of offending entrenched interests.

But going direct doesn’t mean going it alone. It doesn’t mean refusing help or spurning others who can amplify your message. And it certainly doesn’t mean just poasting more.

Going direct means crafting and telling your own story, without being dependent on intermediaries.

Just as founders might have more natural talents at product, management, or engineering, some founders will be naturals at communicating while others have a harder time.

The good news is that going direct and building a movement, while not easy, are skills that can be developed with discipline and time. The bad news is that, unlike with engineering or management, communications failures are immediately public and personally humiliating. It’s not surprising that many are loathe to take on this responsibility.

At the same time, founders willing to pick up that gauntlet will find that it gives them a massive edge in recruiting, fundraising, selling, and shaping the information environment needed for their companies to thrive.

IV. IT’S TIME TO REBUILD THE ROSTRA.

At the center of Rome, as it transitioned from a Republic to an Empire, stood a speaker’s platform from which the city’s leaders would address the public directly.

It was called the Rostra, so named because it stood atop the captured battle rams (or rostrums) of enemy warships. From here, speeches were given that would sway opinion, change regimes, and alter history.

That physical structure has been lost to time, but we now have something much more powerful: a free and open internet with which to build a speaker’s platform of limitless scale. All we need is the will to build it.

The conventional way of communicating has its allure. Outsource your message, let some removed third party go through the motions of getting “impressions,” and spare yourself the risks and discomfort that come with putting your own name on the line.

But that way is incompatible with greatness.

Reject convention — build your own platform, build your own audience, and build your own narrative.

Go direct.

[Justine Moore @venturetwins]

🚨 New market map alert!

Our team @a16z consumer dove into the first killer use case of AI: making creative content.

A recap of the companies tackling generation and editing + what we're hoping to see next 👇

[goodcallanswers @goodcallanswers]

🚀 Huge thanks to @msft4startups! Bob shares the exciting journey of Goodcall, bridging AI with local businesses across the nation, while offering key insights for budding entrepreneurs. #aistartups #airforsmallbusiness https://t.co/Y1QiOriEtN

[Microsoft for Startups @msft4startups]

Have you ever tried calling a small business and had a hard time getting someone on the phone?

Learn how @goodcallanswers is using Microsoft Azure AI to help these businesses seamlessly answer every call.

Watch the video: https://t.co/94GdO3IXf3.👍

[Bob Summers @bobs]

Excited to get a ticket to the first OpenAI DevDay! @OpenAI #ai #gpt #SF

[Bob Summers @bobs]

Conversational AI is a tool that all businesses should have access to because it can dramatically increase productivity.  @google @googleai a key part of us delivering wonderful AI and cloud services accessible to anyone: affordable, easy, and helpful. https://t.co/x2SfTlen37

[Bob Summers @bobs]

Thank you @google for this blog sharing how @goodcallanswers + Google AI is a "game changer" for local businesses. 10,000+ small businesses are increasing efficiency and revenues with Goodcall Phone Assistants.

https://t.co/CYNbELbBZO

[Bob Summers @bobs]

Goodcall made @inc Magazine 2022 Power Partner Awards list honoring the best firms that support small businesses with their work. AI is increasing productivity of service, sales and more tasks to boost revenue. Enterprise AI for main street. https://t.co/mS6UJncKzj

[Bob Summers @bobs]

It’s been a little over a year since we launched Goodcall. From integrations, awards, 5K+ customers, and more than 1M successful automated calls – it’s been an indescribable year for us. Thank you for your support!

https://t.co/kJXOz4X5JT

[goodcallanswers @goodcallanswers]

Goodcall has been selected as a finalist for #BestTechforGood for the Timmy Awards by @Tech_in_Motion! You can help us win the Regional Timmy Award by voting here: https://t.co/0LpTwIc8S0

[Megan Rozanski @megan_rozanski1]

SO excited to finally share what
@HaveTheDeetz and I have been working on for months!! Mind and Match exists to help anyone, anywhere find the right mental health professional for them

[Bob Summers @bobs]

Thank you @BusinessInsider for recognizing @Goodcallanswers as Brick-and-Mortar Power Player for helping small businesses scale as more consumers shop in-store. Our Goodcall AI answers inbound calls so staff can focus on in store customers. @anngehan:https://t.co/514730n3sa

[Bob Summers @bobs]

Congrats to @VSCVentures on its $21M seed fund to back startups across the future of work, wellness, and world-saving climate tech: https://t.co/B3CCykiqGY

[Bob Summers @bobs]

It’s an exciting time for Wix users, as Goodcall and @Wix have partnered up to bring #conversationalAI to all of Wix’s business owners via the Wix App Market. Users will now be able to deploy our 24/7 virtual phone assistant, immediately! Learn more here: https://t.co/MhvSwA7jKH

[Bob Summers @bobs]

The impact of Covid-19 and the staffing shortages are crippling America's small businesses. Here's my piece in @Forbes on how #AI can be used to fight back: https://t.co/GZukc8ESJW

[Picard Tips @PicardTips]

Picard management tip: Don't negotiate absurd schedules with engineers. Encourage truth telling and reasonable time estimates.

[Ali Partovi @apartovi]

We @Neo just raised $150M. We back amazing startups and help with hiring & diversity. Since 2017, 45% of our money has funded female & underrepresented minority CEOs. We’ve recruited dozens of awesome engineers to @Bubble, @Kalshi, @CoProcure, @trustVanta. https://t.co/0EVobHtYD9