I've been a tech executive for close to 30 years. I'd worked on my communication throughout my career. I read books, take courses, put effort in every important meeting, but the progress was terribly slow. Then I read a transcript of myself in a job interview, filler words ("you know", "like") burst in clusters throughout the meeting. I had no idea that I was saying them.
Filler was just one issue that I worked on. I had plenty of good advice in my head: I shall lead with a clear point of view, be structured, don't over-explain. But the moment I start talking, none of it reaches me. I realize that knowing and doing are two different things, In the meeting I was busy answering questions, and I had no bandwidth in my head to remember those advice and apply them when I talk.
When I did remember those advice and tried to monitor myself when I talk, things just got a lot worse. I could not focus on the questions any more, and the self-monitoring adds load, and load itself is the exact reason that causes my breakdown in the first place.
So I built Altura to offload the monitoring job, monitor a specific issue that I work on, and also remind me when I talk so I course correct when I still have a chance, and hopefully change my bad habits by have the right practice continuously over time.
Altura is a native macOS app. It listens to you and coaches you when you speak, either when you are in a real video call (interview, all-hands, pitch) or in solo modes when you practice for a topic, run a drill for a specific skill, or have a full interview rehearsal.
During a session:
Filler Coach: you see a small floating breathing orb. It doesn't alert you for every filler. Fillers themselves aren't the problem. The problem is when the same word bursts in a short window (clustering), which is what breaks clarity. The orb shifts color with the severity of the clustering. With just a glance, you know right away.
Live Nudges: you pick one bad delivery habit to work on (e.g. burying your point, over-explaining, long answers) and Altura nudges you only when the issue shows up, so you can adjust quickly.
Reference panels that bring you clarity: (You choose which panel to use) 1. it decodes long, messy questions and tells you what's actually being asked; 2. It shows you the exact words being said, a live transcript; 3. it “mirrors” your own speech so you know how you're coming across. It shows which topics and key points you've covered and how your time is distributed across them. All these panels work in real time, so you can judge whether you're on topic, structured, or missing something, and adjust right away.
After each session you get an assessment across five dimensions (opening, answering the question, structure, conciseness, filler discipline) and can track trends over time.
Privacy and architecture: audio processing, including speech-to-text and text to speech, is 100% on-device. Audio never leaves the machine and is never recorded. Transcripts stay local by default. The technology choices used for deeper analysis is tiered: always use on-device heuristics first, leverage local LLM second, and only send to cloud LLM when needed (Only send text, never audio). It runs on Apple Silicon.
Three questions I wish to get your feedback on:
1. Privacy: I process all audio locally on-device. There are recording-consent laws in many US states, and company rules on audio recording and storage. Those make cloud processing a real problem for some people. Here I wonder if local-only processing actually matter to you in practice, or is it a nice-to-have?
2. Platforms: local processing allows us to have the low latency that makes the in-the-moment coach possible. Today the app depends on Apple Silicon and Apple Intelligence, and which is why this is macOS first (iPadOS is planned). If you'd want this on a non-Mac platform, which one? I'm trying to figure out which one to build next.
3. The reference panels (question decode, live transcript, the speech mirror): I think these are helpful in almost any meeting, not just high-stakes ones. But these are new concepts, and I wish to know whether you find it useful or not.
The Altura coach app for macOS is live, and everyone is welcome to try it out. If you'd rather not download anything but want to know how your own speech delivery sounds, and whether Altura can help. There's also a free online assessment: no download, works on any platform (sign-in via Google/Apple or a magic link).
Hi HN! I'm Sheryl, founder of Altura (https://www.altura.coach).
I've been a tech executive for close to 30 years. I'd worked on my communication throughout my career. I read books, take courses, put effort in every important meeting, but the progress was terribly slow. Then I read a transcript of myself in a job interview, filler words ("you know", "like") burst in clusters throughout the meeting. I had no idea that I was saying them.
Filler was just one issue that I worked on. I had plenty of good advice in my head: I shall lead with a clear point of view, be structured, don't over-explain. But the moment I start talking, none of it reaches me. I realize that knowing and doing are two different things, In the meeting I was busy answering questions, and I had no bandwidth in my head to remember those advice and apply them when I talk.
When I did remember those advice and tried to monitor myself when I talk, things just got a lot worse. I could not focus on the questions any more, and the self-monitoring adds load, and load itself is the exact reason that causes my breakdown in the first place.
So I built Altura to offload the monitoring job, monitor a specific issue that I work on, and also remind me when I talk so I course correct when I still have a chance, and hopefully change my bad habits by have the right practice continuously over time.
Altura is a native macOS app. It listens to you and coaches you when you speak, either when you are in a real video call (interview, all-hands, pitch) or in solo modes when you practice for a topic, run a drill for a specific skill, or have a full interview rehearsal.
During a session:
Filler Coach: you see a small floating breathing orb. It doesn't alert you for every filler. Fillers themselves aren't the problem. The problem is when the same word bursts in a short window (clustering), which is what breaks clarity. The orb shifts color with the severity of the clustering. With just a glance, you know right away.
Live Nudges: you pick one bad delivery habit to work on (e.g. burying your point, over-explaining, long answers) and Altura nudges you only when the issue shows up, so you can adjust quickly.
Reference panels that bring you clarity: (You choose which panel to use) 1. it decodes long, messy questions and tells you what's actually being asked; 2. It shows you the exact words being said, a live transcript; 3. it “mirrors” your own speech so you know how you're coming across. It shows which topics and key points you've covered and how your time is distributed across them. All these panels work in real time, so you can judge whether you're on topic, structured, or missing something, and adjust right away.
After each session you get an assessment across five dimensions (opening, answering the question, structure, conciseness, filler discipline) and can track trends over time.
Privacy and architecture: audio processing, including speech-to-text and text to speech, is 100% on-device. Audio never leaves the machine and is never recorded. Transcripts stay local by default. The technology choices used for deeper analysis is tiered: always use on-device heuristics first, leverage local LLM second, and only send to cloud LLM when needed (Only send text, never audio). It runs on Apple Silicon.
Three questions I wish to get your feedback on:
1. Privacy: I process all audio locally on-device. There are recording-consent laws in many US states, and company rules on audio recording and storage. Those make cloud processing a real problem for some people. Here I wonder if local-only processing actually matter to you in practice, or is it a nice-to-have?
2. Platforms: local processing allows us to have the low latency that makes the in-the-moment coach possible. Today the app depends on Apple Silicon and Apple Intelligence, and which is why this is macOS first (iPadOS is planned). If you'd want this on a non-Mac platform, which one? I'm trying to figure out which one to build next.
3. The reference panels (question decode, live transcript, the speech mirror): I think these are helpful in almost any meeting, not just high-stakes ones. But these are new concepts, and I wish to know whether you find it useful or not.
The Altura coach app for macOS is live, and everyone is welcome to try it out. If you'd rather not download anything but want to know how your own speech delivery sounds, and whether Altura can help. There's also a free online assessment: no download, works on any platform (sign-in via Google/Apple or a magic link).
I would appreciate your feedback.