Willow is a San Francisco-based AI voice dictation startup that replaces the keyboard with voice input across any app. Built by two Stanford dropouts, the product delivers sub-500ms latency, 40%+ higher accuracy than built-in dictation tools, and context-aware transcription that handles technical jargon and proper nouns. Backed by Y Combinator and a $4.5M seed round, Willow targets knowledge workers - engineers, managers, sales teams - helping them type 4x faster by speaking naturally. Enterprise customers include Uber, Gusto, Canva, and GitHub.
Ryan Peterman went from new grad to Staff Engineer at Instagram in three years, then left one of tech's most coveted jobs to build what he wished existed. His newsletter 'The Developing Dev' has 106,000+ subscribers, his podcast 'The Peterman Pod' features career stories from top engineers, and his hardware company Compose is building an ultra-low-profile ergonomic keyboard. Based in San Francisco, he is the rare engineer who codes, writes, interviews Turing Award winners, and designs keyboards with equal intensity.