Competing against AWS & Google in Text-to-Speech w/ Eric Jung, Founder & CEO at Unreal Speech | #28
“I’m more worried about other startups than AWS or Google” — Eric Jung
After testing over 12 ideas and founding 3 companies, Eric Jung is currently focused on building Unreal Speech, a Text-to-Speech software service that he claims is better and 8x cheaper than AWS. The text-to speech uses an ultra realistic AI narrator that is trained to sound audiobook-esque. The software can for example read any piece of text in the voice of Jordan Peterson or Gary Vee.
Eric is a South Korean founder living in San Francisco, and he became inspired to work on tools to help people consume information after learning to speak English by watching YouTube videos in English with closed captions in Korean.
Eric recently launched on Product Hunt, earning the #3 spot for the day and also raised $300K from the founders of Readwise, Shaan Puri, and Furqan Rydham.
💬 Discussed in this episode...
0:00 Intro
4:30 Where does your purpose come from?
6:00 Why did you move to SF?
9:45 How did you end up becoming a founder?
11:10 AI & the value of automation
14:28 Will everything be automated? Should everything be automated?
16:28 Why did you start Unreal Speech?
20:02 What is Unreal Speech and what problem are you solving?
21:47 How the hell are you competing with AWS and other giants?
27:30 How would you respond to AWS and other competitors lowering their price?
28:08 “I’m more worried about other startups than AWS or Google”
30:25 How do you handle criticism? Finding faithful critics
33:20 What stage are you at right now and what challenges are you facing?
39:32 The concept of WHO not HOW
40:50 Have you found PMF?
41:55 How do you find PMF?
44:25 How Eric raised $300K
51:05 Work-life balance: Eric surfs almost every day as a founder
57:55 If you don’t know how to rest, you don’t know how to work.
1:00:38 What do you want to become, create, achieve, and give in your life?
Check out Unreal Speech at: https://unrealspeech.com
Follow Eric on Twitter: / automationism
Connect with Eric on LinkedIn: / automationist
________________________________________________________________________
🎙️ This podcast was recorded in a studio provided by Founder's Inc in San Francisco. F.inc is a community of relentless founders building epic companies: https://f.inc
🙋🏻♂️ YOUR HOST: Julian Alvarez is the Co-founder & CEO at Mindflow, a social app centered on personal growth that makes the journey of becoming 1% better every day fun and easy. Check out Mindflow on the App Store, grow alongside your friends, and learn more about me through my growth journeys on the app (@infinitejulian) https://apple.co/3QFdPlE
🚀 OUR MISSION: Our mission is to introduce you to the ideas and entrepreneurs that will inspire and empower you to solve the world's biggest problems.
🌐 OUR WEBSITE: https://inventingthefuture.ai ➡ Read the full show notes and listen to other episodes
🦜 FOLLOW US
▶️ TikTok: / inventing.the.future
📷 Instagram: https://bit.ly/itf-ig
🎙 Spotify: https://bit.ly/itf-spotify
🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/itf-apple (please leave a review!)
📧 Newsletter: https://bit.ly/itf-newsletter
📅 More About Julian & Contact: https://julian.ai
#28 #entrepreneurshippodcast #entrepreneurship