Tellme Networks is a company.
Key people at Tellme Networks.
Tellme Networks was a pioneering Silicon Valley company founded in 1999 that developed telephone-based applications using speech-recognition technologies, offering voice portals for news, weather, sports, stock quotes, driving directions, and more, accessible via any phone.[1][2] It served both consumers seeking on-the-go information and businesses needing voice-enabled customer service and marketing applications, solving the problem of delivering internet-like content and functionality through voice interfaces before smartphones dominated.[1][2] The company achieved rapid growth, processing over 2 billion unique calls in 2006, before Microsoft acquired it in 2007 for approximately $800 million.[1]
Tellme Networks was founded in April 1999 in Mountain View, California, by Mike McCue and Angus Davis, alongside a team including Rod Brathwaite, Jim Fanning, Kyle Sims, Brad Porter, Michael Plitkins, Hadi Partovi, John Giannandrea, Andrew Volkmann, Anthony Accardi, Patrick McCormick, Danny Howard, Vicki Penrose, and Emil Michael.[1] The idea emerged from combining internet innovation with voice technologies to transform phones into portals for information and services, at a time when mobile internet was nascent.[1][2] Early traction came in 2000 with a free voice portal service featuring time-of-day announcements, weather, news, and a "Phone Booth" long-distance calling perk to attract users, despite competition from players like BeVocal, Hey Anita, and Quack.com (acquired by AOL).[1] As a venture-backed startup, Tellme debated strategies like partnering with internet giants such as Yahoo! while building its own portal.[2]
Tellme rode the early 2000s trend of voice-enabling the internet amid slow mobile web adoption and the dot-com boom, capitalizing on phones as the universal access device for information and services.[1][2] Timing was ideal post-1999 funding surge, with competitors proliferating but Tellme's scale (2 billion calls by 2006) and partnerships positioning it as a leader in telecom-software convergence.[1] Market forces like venture capital influx into speech tech and demand for "always-on" info services favored it, influencing the ecosystem by proving voice platforms' viability and paving the way for modern voice assistants like Siri (via acquired talent).[1][2] Its Microsoft acquisition integrated these capabilities into products like Tellme Studio, accelerating voice tech in enterprise and consumer apps.[1]
Post-2007 acquisition, Tellme's tech and team fueled Microsoft's voice initiatives, with alumni like McCue (Flipboard founder) and Davis (Salesforce co-founder) driving broader innovation; remnants evolved into 7 Customer for multichannel support.[1][3] Looking ahead, Tellme's legacy underscores voice AI's resurgence amid AI agents and multimodal interfaces, shaping trends like conversational commerce and accessible tech. Its influence endures in today's ecosystem, where phone-voice hybrids power global services, tying back to its original mission of connecting people and info seamlessly via voice.
Key people at Tellme Networks.
