SoundHound CEO Keyvan Mohajer: Building Technology So Advanced, It Feels Like Magic'

A humble beginning in Iran, a long journey to the new home, and a desire to make science fiction become reality. That's the story of SoundHound SOUN CEO Keyvan Mohajer — the boss behind the leading voice artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

After completing the first acquisition since going public, Mohajer spoke to Benzinga about his life story, experiences, and aspirations.

A Three-Step Journey: Although metaphorical and literal seldom overlap, Mohajer's case shows that with hunger. Growing up in Iran, he was ambitious and hungry for knowledge.

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"I developed big ambitions and there was no limit to that imagination. That first phase taught me that I can aim high, but that's not enough to succeed," he said, explaining that books and Sci-Fi movies played a big role in that process.

Still, it was the second phase that shaped his character. The immigration process to Canada took several months, during which the family was separated, and he experienced literal hunger.

"I was alone in Turkey for two months. I ran out of money and I didn't eat for one week," he admitted, noting that family hardship and sacrifices built his character. By the time he arrived in Canada, he knew that failure was not an option and that he would fight for his goals instead of expecting to get lucky.

"Being in North America and having the concept of the land of opportunities and the American dream made it possible to aim high without limits of imagination."

Realistic Science Fiction: Moving to Canada opened many doors for Mohajer. But it was science that continued to captivate him, becoming a path he focused on early.

"I learned that you could know the temperature on the Sun just by coming up with the formula and proving it scientifically. Science so advanced, it felt like magic."

Mohajer looked at science fiction technologies and tried dissecting what would be achievable during his lifetime.

"I remember telling my brother how I just love AI and want to be a part of it when it happens. I looked at these fantastic technologies like the replicator, teleportation and I picked voice AI because I thought it would happen within my lifetime," he noted, clarifying that even if we removed the boundaries of possible, he'd still focus on voice AI.

"I think voice AI can become powerful enough to pave the way to create these other products," he added, taking note that a replicator would be his second pick.

The Obstacle Was The Way: Mohajer's early life experience gave him the confidence to pursue these goals. While people tend to start by defining their competencies, Mohajer first defined his goals. He then set to change himself to become a technical founder who can fulfill them.

"I think you could evolve as a person and you could fit into places you want to fit but it needs to be a long-term strategy," he said, adding that venture capitalists didn't like this, at least initially.

"I said I had a 20-year vision and they didn't want to talk to me anymore. They said, "We only invest in three-year visions." That has changed a bit because now they've learned that you could make big bets for things that can change the future."

Still, Mohajer and his team had a decade-long R&D process, which needed funding and talent. Leveraging the experience obtained during his Ph.D., he managed to tackle a problem Google couldn't do – query by humming.

Solving this problem resulted in a SoundHound Music App.

"That demo gave us our first funding that allowed us to become the company that we're today," he admitted.

Fighting The Giants: Although SoundHound is small compared to tech giants, hard work and specialization made it a leading voice AI company.

"This is a big market where there will be multiple winners. It was important to us to have focus, not go after too many things," Mohajer noted, explaining the so-called three-pillar revenue strategy.

"The first pillar is providing branded digital assistant to physical products like cars, TVs, IoT devices and earn royalties from device manufacturers," he said, pointing out that as some of these products get smaller and smaller, they lack physical interfaces but still feature small and inexpensive microphones.

"The second pillar is AI customer service. We focus on businesses that don't have call center capacity, but now they can have it in a matter of minutes for a very good price," Mohajer noted explaining how these two create a third pillar.

"We bring the services that we voice-enabled in pillar two to the products that we voice-enabled in pillar one. For example, while you're driving a car and you're talking to your car, you can also order food or make appointments," he clarified.

"Pillars one and two can succeed independently, and once we have scale in both, we can make pillar three happen. This creates the flywheel effect as pillar one and two customers know they have more incentive to adapt our technology."

Welcoming The First Acquisition: Reflecting on the first two years as a public company, Mohajer points out the importance of setting realistic short-term goals.

"Looking at the projections of our SPAC presentation, we beat those and did everything that we said we would do. The market was hard and we did have to change the nature of our company as there was no appetite for a high-tech, high-growth at a high cost and high burn," he noted, thinking about the recent high interest-rate environment.

Still, the company is growing. Its first acquisition was SYNQ3, a provider of tech solutions to the restaurant industry.

"The founders of SYNQ3 were McDonald’s operators, and we really believe that drive-through is one of the perfect places for voice AI.  For that purpose, we invented a new technology called Dynamic Interaction, " he said, explaining the advanced capabilities behind it.

"It's always listening, so you don't have to say a wake word. You can talk to the person next to you, you can change your mind. It just follows the whole conversation and takes action. It could be scary, but when it's focused on the case, it's actually very delightful as it's there to do exactly what you wanted at the right time."

Toward The Voice-Powered Future: Being a futurist is not easy. It often means swimming against the current and in SoundHound's early days — against the venture capitalist's shortsightedness.

However, being smaller, nimbler and future-oriented had its perks.

"We pioneered the concept of voice AI and conversation as a platform. We have patents that date back to 2014 before big companies were even considering it," Mohajer noted, stating that although he sees his team as futurists, he embraces the collective effort to better the world.

"We're not the only smart people. We respect other companies and embrace community innovations. We embraced deep learning, large language models and that makes our product better," he said.

Innovation isn't easy, but Mohajer believes it is all worth it.

"It's been a hard journey. Sometimes, you kind of say – well, I don't want to do it again. It is hard 99% of the time, but that 1% when things work are so rewarding that it pays for all the rest," he concluded.

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Image: Courtesy of SoundHound