“In a rainforest, everyone lives in their own privileged acoustic niche,” he said. “As a result, it allows the soundscape of the rainforest to be an organized orchestra of information. So in a single frame, standing in a single place, you can hear literally tens of thousands of pieces of information, and it’s all accessible, where you can be so removed from your environment.”
At the time, Harper was senior director of voice at autonomous driving startup Zoox (acquired by Amazon in 2020). And though he was thinking about sound, he found himself wondering what this idea might mean visually.
Unlike the thousands of pieces of audio information that ears can detect, when it comes to screens — “the most advanced interfaces in the world” — Harper was struck by the idea of how limited they can be, how little we can see at once. . (After all, how many tabs can you successfully view at once? For me, it’s probably two.)
“We can do better than that,” Harper said.
Harper went on to found the original Soot space file system (stylized as SOOT). The company recently raised a $7.2 million seed round led by Upfront Ventures, including Michael Mente, co-founder and co-CEO of Revolve, and former Beats executive Omar Johnson. Village Global and Compound provided pre-financing.
It’s not at all easy to describe what Soot does if you don’t see it. Harper describes it as “allowing you to visualize large data sets, import and organize different file types, collaborate with AI, and deploy AI creative tools to generate new content.” Both Harper and Upfront Ventures general partner Kobie Fuller use the phrase “vector data,” which Fuller explains to me as “a super-organized filing system for information.”
“Rather than simply storing data as text or numbers, [a vector database] it stores data as points in a large multidimensional space,” Fuller said. “Every piece of information is on a giant map.”
In the end, you have to see it (and you can here). But looking at it eases another question: what’s actually the use case for this? Mente, a Soot investor, says he sees both consumer and enterprise use cases. The technology can be used to create a browser interface for customers who, like me, are constantly looking for a specific type of clothing (say, in my case, a blazer dress). Or, Mente says, Soot’s technology could be used as an internal organization tool for a company with fundamentally visual products.
“Seeing the value from both sides is exciting,” says Mente, who co-founded online fashion juggernaut Revolve in 2003. “Companies tend to focus on one side or the other.”
Among Soot’s early clients is Jefferson Hack, co-founder of Dazed Media. Hack is using Soot to build an AI-powered search for the digital version of the company’s magazine and expects to make “first explorations” in the fall, he said wealth your email
“I’m personally excited about what it can do for creators with large archives and how it can help engage their fans with deeper and broader discovery,” said Hack, noting that he believes that Soot’s technology can be applied to many different aspects of digital media and content delivery, from online shopping to museums and cultural institutions.
Now I’m messing around with different Soot interfaces, from Pokémon ones (I was immediately drawn to water Pokémon) to photography (I dig negative space) to clothes. And even though the interface seemed intuitive, I felt like it was all for fun—until I found a dress I was ready to buy.
“Having assets in this format actually makes logical sense,” Fuller said. “For me, right away in my mind, it was like ‘this is the future.'”
And that’s the bull case for Soot. No more endless page scrolling, just a visual interface that lets you follow your instincts as you gravitate towards what you find most interesting. As it turns out, it’s like those rainforest sounds after all: Like your ears in a rainforest, your eyes, in a sea of images, can find what you want.
In case you missed it…Ilya Sutskever, who co-founded OpenAI but left the company in May, has created a new company with Daniel Levy and Daniel Gross called Safe Superintelligence, or SSI for short.
See you tomorrow
Allie Garfinkle
Tweet: @agarfinks
Email: [email protected]
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Joe Abrams curated the deals section of today’s newsletter.
UNDERTAKING AGREEMENT
– Vecna Roboticsa Waltham, Mass.-based provider of self-driving robotics, pallet jacks and other robots, raised $100 million in Series C funding from Tiger Global Management, Profit Capital PartnersAND impulse.
– GreyMatter Roboticsa Gardena, Calif.-based company that develops autonomous manufacturing robots raised $45 million in Series B funding. Wellington MANAGEMENT led the round and joined Capital NGP, Euclidean capital, Advanced Venture Partners, Enterprise partners SQNand others.
– PQShieldan Oxford, UK-based cybersecurity company raised $37 million in Series B funding. increase led the round and joined Chevron Technology Ventures, Legal and Generaland others.
– Carbon LDa Seoul, South Korea-based company that develops eco-friendly materials from old tires raised $28 million in Series C funding. Knitted capital led the round and joined Meritz Securities, Invest withand others.
– Tandem Healtha Sweden-based developer of AI copilots for doctors, raised $9.5 million in seed funding. North Zone led the round and joined Amino Collective and angel investors.
– Archa New York-based customer feedback platform, raised $3.5 million in seed funding. Oceans Ventures led the round and joined Converge VC, Atman Capital, Alumni Ventures, BDMIand others.
PRIVATE CAPITAL
– Riverpoint Medicala portfolio company of Arlington Capital Partnerswon CP Medical, a manufacturer based in Norcross, Ga. of devices for closing surgical wounds and animal health. Financial terms have not been disclosed.
OTHERS
– Workiva (NYSE: WK) won Stay. Life, a New York-based carbon accounting platform. Financial terms have not been disclosed.
#Soot #supported #startup #level #file #system
Image Source : fortune.com
