At Best Startup California we track over 300,000 Californian startups and over 1,500,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and organisations we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
We’ve ranked the top 97 Audio companies in San Francisco, California. The companies, startups and institutions listed in this article are all exceptional companies, well worth a follow. We have included links to their websites, socials and CrunchBase (if you’re interested in their financials).
We selected the organisations listed in this article based on:
- Track record
- Executive leadership
- Market share
- Innovation
- ESG rating
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Top Audio Companies & Startups (San Francisco, California)
Umano
Umano is an audio streaming service
Founder(s): Anton Lopyrev, Ian Mendiola, Prabhdeep Gill
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Mobile, News
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Dipsea
Where storytelling meets sexual wellness
Founder(s): Faye Keegan, Gina Gutierrez
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Media and Entertainment, Sex Tech, Women’s
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Himalaya Media
Himalaya builds a podcast platform, audio content network, and original production studio for podcasters.
Founder(s): Yu Wang
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Advertising, Audio, Internet, Podcast
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Plivo
Plivo is a leading cloud communication platform that helps companies quickly program voice and SMS capabilities into their applications.
Founder(s): Michael Ricordeau, Venky Balasubramanian
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Cloud Computing, Developer APIs, Mobile, SMS, Telecommunications
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Castbox
Castbox is a global podcast platform that enables anyone to easily find, access, create and enjoy spoken audio content.
Founder(s): Renee Wang, Shibin Li, Xiaocong He
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Media and Entertainment, Mobile, Mobile Apps, Music, News, Podcast
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Deepgram
Deepgram is an AI Speech Platform that provides developers with a simple to use Speech-to-Text API
Founder(s): Noah Shutty, Scott Stephenson
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Artificial Intelligence, Audio, Developer APIs, Speech Recognition
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Speechki
Speechki is an audiobook recording platform for publishers to scale their audiobook inventories by several times using synthetic voices.
Founder(s): Dima Abramov, Kirill Parinov, Sergey Baranov
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Audiobooks, Publishing
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Descript
Descript is building a platform for creative tools, making audio and video creation as fast, accessible, and collaborative as Google Docs.
Founder(s): Andrew Mason
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Consumer Software, Music, Music Venues, Software
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Doppler Labs
Doppler Labs is a wearable technology company creating products that enhance the way you experience your world.
Founder(s): Fritz Lanman, Noah Kraft
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Consumer Electronics, Wearables
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Drivetime
Drivetime provides an online platform designed to help users play games while they drive.
Founder(s): Cory Johnson, Justin Cooper, Niko Vuori
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Apps, Audio, Automotive, Casual Games, Consumer Software, Gaming, Information Technology, Media and Entertainment, Software, Video Games
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Smule
Smule develops music-making apps that connect people online.
Founder(s): Ge Wang, Jeff Smith
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Mobile, Mobile Apps, Music
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Audigo
Audigo is an information technology company that features a software application platform that specializes in audio recording.
Founder(s): Armen Nazarian
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Apps, Audio, Mobile Apps, Software
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Swell
Swell is a podcast-like application where listeners also participate in the conversation.
Founder(s): Arish Ali
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Apps, Audio, Podcast, Software
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Synth
Synth is an app that captures information such as text, audio, and video, and makes it easy to search and retrieve the information.
Founder(s): Suneel Matham, Urvin Soneta, Vaibhav Saxena
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Software, Video
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Podo Labs
We make Podo, Jack, Belle, and a whole lot more to come.
Founder(s): Eddie Lee, Edmond Lee, Jae Hoon Choi, Sam Pullman
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Consumer Electronics, Hardware, Mobile, Photography, Product Design, Software, Wireless
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Vinci
Vinci is an intelligent headphone that understands you.
Founder(s): David Zhu, Wei Wu
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Artificial Intelligence, Audio, Consumer Electronics, Sensor
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Senstone Inc.
We help busy professionals to be more productive and focused with the portable voice assistant.
Founder(s): Markiyan Matsekh, Nazar Fedorchuk
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Artificial Intelligence, Audio, Internet of Things
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Volley
Volley builds voice-controlled entertainment experiences for Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and smartphones.
Founder(s): James Wilsterman, Max Child
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Casual Games, Consumer Software, Digital Entertainment, Digital Media, Media and Entertainment, Podcast, Software, Speech Recognition, Virtual Assistant
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Quest
Quest is an audio Q&A platform where experts can share advice and stories in short audio clips.
Founder(s): Robert Gaal
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Information Technology, Internet
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Mixhalo
Mixhalo is a real-time audio platform that delivers an immersive experience for live events.
Founder(s): Ann Marie Simpson, Mike Einziger
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Consumer Electronics, Enterprise Software, Media and Entertainment, Music, Music Streaming, Software
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PonoMusic
PonoMusic is a company founded by Neil Young and sells high quality audio players and recordings.
Founder(s): Neil Young
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Digital Media, Music
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Dolby Laboratories
Dolby creates surround sound, imaging, and voice technologies for cinemas, home theaters, PCs, mobile devices, games, and more.
Founder(s): Ray Dolby
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Broadcasting, Consumer, Hardware, Media and Entertainment, Video
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VSporto
Connecting true sports fans with unlimited quality audio content of their favorite teams.
Founder(s): Keith Jasper
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Content, Sports
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Phonio
Phonio provides a platform that allows influencers to deliver audio content to mass audiences via mobile phone calls.
Founder(s): Matt Caspari
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Social Media
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The Podcast App
The Podcast App is an audio platform that helps millions of people in their pursuit of happiness.
Founder(s): Juan Ignacio Catalano, Martín Siniawski
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Podcast, Software
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FxSound
Software to boost your sound quality, clarity, volume, and bass.
Founder(s): James Titchener
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Software
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Dacast
Dacast offers API-based and easy-to-use streaming solutions to host, manage, monetize and deliver OTT video worldwide.
Founder(s): Stephane Roulland
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Broadcasting, Developer APIs, Music Streaming, Video, Video on Demand, Video Streaming
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Breaker
Breaker is an audio company that develops a podcast listening and discovery application.
Founder(s): Erik Berlin, Leah Culver
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Digital Entertainment, Mobile Apps, Podcast, Software
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Simon Says
‘Figma for video editing’ — collaborative, browser-based video editing for video pros, enabled by AI
Founder(s): Shamir Allibhai
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Artificial Intelligence, Audio, Document Management, Media and Entertainment, Software, Video
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Detour
Detour is a Bay Area-based mobile application for location-aware audio walks.
Founder(s): Andrew Mason, Yishai Lerner
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Apps, Audio, iOS, Location Based Services, Mobile, Mobile Apps, Music, Travel
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Humanoid
Humanoid is a software company providing solutions for computer programmers to utilize human intelligence in software applications.
Founder(s): Matt Mireles, Matt Swanson, Tyler Kieft
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Developer APIs, SEO, Social Media, Software, Speech Recognition, Video, Video Streaming, Web Development
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Chalk
Chalk is a communication application designed to help users to talk instantly.
Founder(s): Juyan Azhang, Michael Garnica
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Apps, Audio, Messaging, Private Social Networking, Social, Social Network, Software
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Zencoder
Zencoder is web-based video encoding SaaS, designed to convert any video into web and mobile-compatible formats in real-time.
Founder(s): Brandon Arbini, Jon Dahl, Steve Heffernan
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Cloud Computing, Cyber Security, SaaS, Software, Video, Web Development
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Voice123
Voice123 is an online voice-over talent database, with over 500,000 voice industry professionals registered.
Founder(s): Alexander Torrenegra, Tania Zapata
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Advertising, Audio
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Instanza
FREE group video, voice and messaging made for global communication
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Android, Apps, Audio, iOS, Messaging, Mobile, Photography, Social Media, VoIP
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Scrapblog
Scrapblog is a web-based multimedia scrapbook editor enabling users to combine images, audio, and video onto ‘scrapblogs.’
Founder(s): Carlos Garcia
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Video, Web Hosting
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Vitaminic
Vitaminic was one of the firts Digital Music Platform in Europe, founded in 1999, it had from the start an international footprint with
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Digital Entertainment, Music
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Spinlet
Spinlet offers a mobile platform that enables music fans to buy, listen, share and manage music.
Founder(s): Sami Leino
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Cloud Computing, Mobile, Music, Social Media
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Monster Store
Monster is leading manufacturer of Headphones, Speakers, HDMI Cables.
Founder(s):
Location: South San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Consumer Electronics, Electronics, Manufacturing, Music
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Imagine Research
Imagine Research identifies and labels sounds, making media files searchable and adds a set of ears to computers and mobile devices.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Music
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Allmuze
Allmuze is an audio sharing platform to record, publish, listen and listen together to any user, channel or mood.
Founder(s): Awnee Banna, Zaher Elias
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Internet, Social Media
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Kiptronic
Kiptronic offers a platform for inserting video and audio ads into digital media for consumption on any device.
Founder(s): Jonathan Cobb
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Advertising, Audio, Content, Digital Media, Video
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Spacebar
Spacebar helps artists broadcast their live performances to the world and allows fans to support their favorite artists.
Founder(s): Gregory Miller, James Nash, Jonathan Cottrell
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, iOS, Mobile, Music, Video Streaming
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MyPrimeTime Inc.
MyPrimeTime Inc. is a media company that creates and distributes content through print, broadcast television, radio, the internet, and more.
Founder(s): Craig Forman
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Digital Entertainment, Digital Media, E-Commerce, Music, Video
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Dialup
Dialup is a mobile voice-chat app for connecting you with other people.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Mobile Apps, Telecommunications
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Rooftop Media
Rooftop Media develops systems to produce audio and video programming for media channels.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Content, Content Syndication, Logistics, Music, News, Product Design, Video
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LibriVox
LibriVox is free public domain audiobooks, read by volunteers from around the world.
Founder(s): Hugh McGuire
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audiobooks
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Modacity
Mobile App
Founder(s): Andrea Nysen, Marc Gelfo
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Music, Music Education, Productivity Tools, Software
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Voicepods
Voicepods is an easy to use service that can convert your content into realistic voice and deploy to voice based devices!
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, EdTech, Natural Language Processing, Podcast
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Sample Focus
Sample Focus is a sound library in the web.
Founder(s): Daniel Trostli
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Internet, Music Streaming
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Blink Messenger
Blink Messenger is a group messaging app that lets users send self-destructing photos and text messages.
Founder(s): Kevin Stephens, Michelle Norgan
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Messaging, Software
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Soniox
The Most Advanced AI for Understanding Speech in Real-World Environments
Founder(s): Klemen Simonic
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Artificial Intelligence, Audio, Human Computer Interaction, Natural Language Processing, Speech Recognition
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Siavash Records
Siavash Records international Company’s
Founder(s): Siavash Shahsavari
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Brand Marketing, Internet Radio, Multi-level Marketing, Music, Music Education, Music Label, Music Streaming, Music Venues, Personal Branding
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Castfire
Castfire is a video and audio publishing platform that helps companies manage and monetize large libraries of media content.
Founder(s): Brian Walsh, Brian Walsh, Christoph Khouri, Robert Kohler
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Mobile, Video, Video Streaming
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Touchbase
Google Maps for virtual meetings –helping remote workers hold shorter meetings by guiding them through a list of objectives.
Founder(s): Joe Taylor
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Internet, Video Conferencing
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Kadoink
Kadoink provides short messaging service, instant messaging and single-hosted voice system integration services.
Founder(s): Ronna Tanenbaum
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Developer Tools, Mobile, Music, SMS
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Soundwave
Soundwave is the new social media for sound.
Founder(s): Joe Walsh
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Apps, Audio, Internet, Mobile Apps
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Headroom
Headroom is a technology company operating in the United States.
Founder(s): Adam Hertz
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Government, Information Technology
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Twist
Twist turns written-content published online into audio stories.
Founder(s): Arthur Boivin, Samuel ROY
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Content, Internet, Music, Video
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Podcast Rental
Podcast Rental is an online marketplace for pod-casters to rent or share a professional podcast studio.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Podcast
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Squawk Mobile
Squawk is chat gone WILD. We took everything you aren’t supposed to do in a text messenger and put it all in one app.
Founder(s): Alex Karweit, Chloe Bregman
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, iOS, Messaging
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Cyber Resonance
Cyber Resonance is a software based technology company.
Founder(s): Troy Stone, Wayne Lappi
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Artificial Intelligence, Audio, Computer, Software
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Stilla Inc.
Stilla is a smart, elegant and flexible motion detector that keeps your valuables and loved ones secure.
Founder(s): Elin Elkehag
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Consumer Electronics
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Andromedia
Andromedia is an Audio company.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Video
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Vocal Point
Vocal Point mission is to provide the most effective voice solutions for delivering web content and commerce.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Speech Recognition, VoIP
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Volio
Volio develops and distributes interactive experiences which feature personality, video, and voice technologies.
Founder(s): Ronald Croen
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Market Research, Video
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CBF Electric & Data
CBF Electric & Data offers engineering services in electrical, data, security, audio-visual, design-build and life safety services.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Electrical Distribution, Security
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Melt
Melt is a mobile application that allows a platform for users to establish deeper social connections.
Founder(s): Jason Lew, Shane Wey, Shane Wey
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Apps, Audio, Blogging Platforms, iOS, Mobile Apps, Social Media
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Razz
Razz provides content service of audio entertainment for mobile content and social network users.
Founder(s): Jeff Kirschner, Jeff Malkin, Ron Bouganim
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Digital Entertainment, Music
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Conductant
Conductant, a small startup that focused on orchestration.
Founder(s): Bill Farner, David Chung
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Information Technology, Internet, Music, Musical Instruments, Software
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Voicendo
Voicendo provides a user interface for small businesses and independent professionals to manage their incoming phone calls.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Cloud Computing, Mobile, Telecommunications, VoIP
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Lexy
Lexy is an audio content creation and distribution platform.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Mobile, Music
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Neyrinck
Neyrinck produces audio software tools for empowering people to create music, movies, TV and live shows.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Music, Software
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Reaper
REAPER is a digital audio production app for Windows and OS X, offering a full multitrack audio and MIDI recording, etc.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Software
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Trex
Truly Wireless Earbuds. No cords. No wires. No hassle – Finally.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Mobile Devices, Wearables, Wireless
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Podclear
PodClear is a browser-based tool that allows for pristine remote interview audio quality. Individual files for every person and a mix track.
Founder(s): Hannah Russell-Goodson, Josh Lankford, Spencer Handley
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Podcast, Software, VoIP
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Audiobasket
A provider of audio news for web.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Internet, News
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Parasound Products
Parasound, from the 1980s as market leaders in affordable high-end audio and home theater products.
Founder(s): Richard Schram
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio
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TheVR Studio
Virtual Reality Development Company, Specializing in Combining the Real World with the Virtual.
Founder(s): Randolph Aarseth
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Mobile Apps, Virtual Reality
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Tockable
Tockables combine jewelry with technology to create a beautiful, practical audio wearable.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Fashion, Wearables
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Geotrio
Geotrio is company which provides courier clothing pick-up, laundry, and dry cleaning services.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, iOS, Mobile, Tourism, Travel, Universities
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Roam
The next generation of earphones
Founder(s): Steven Lamar
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Consumer Electronics, Mobile Devices
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Hyde Street Studios
Hyde Street Studios is an American music recording studio that offers commercial voice recording services.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Music, Music Education
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Silent Way
Silent Way Media Asset Management and Remote Audio Recording.
Founder(s): Tony Brooke
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio
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AudioTranscription.Org
AudioTranscription.Org is a leading general transcription company. Having carefully produced over 8,000 transcripts, AudioTranscription.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Content, Content Discovery
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Wahwah Networks
The Wahwah Bar offers a persistent, above-the-fold, bottom-bar radio player that allows publishers to provide personalized music to users,
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Music, Personalization
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Dan Dugan Sound Design
Dan Dugan Sound Design has been providing technologies and products to the audio industry for management of multiple live microphones.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio
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ClarO Earbuds
ClarO Wireless Headphones are the world’s smartest, Waterproof true wireless stereo headphones with HiFi sound.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Music
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Cleartech Solutions
Computer and Audio/Video Solutions
Founder(s): Ali Shamsi, Graham Goddard
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Consulting, Information Technology, Video
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Avista Rentals
Avista is a premier provider of audiovisual production services and rentals for meetings, conferences, and other live events.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Consumer Electronics, Rental
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GoForCrew
GoForCrew is a free global service that connects film producers and more to make a product.
Founder(s): Fred Madrid, Misha Sundukovskiy
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Film, Photography, Product Design, Video
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Audio Troupe
Amazing headphones sent straight to your front door
Founder(s): Deven Desai, Safe Kalouti
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Consumer Electronics, Electronics
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Audiograph
Audiograph operates a shareable podcast community where listeners can discover and engage with the shows.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Content, Podcast
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Claus Creative
Helping brands and creatives better tell their story with graphic design and customized music.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Advertising, Audio, Graphic Design, Media and Entertainment, Music, Web Design
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Audiosteps
AudioSteps is took a walking tour and decided that they loved the information,but hated carrying a heavy guide book.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Guides, Professional Services
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Bugid
Bugid is a audio video company located in San Francisco.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Product Design, Video
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Impact Technology
Impact Technology Group is a professional audio/visual production company.
Founder(s):
Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Industries: Audio, Content, TV Production, Video
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