ElevenLabs, TwelveLabs, ThirteenLabs

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^ Zach is the founder of Uberduck, which was massively popular. He got into YC with it.

More story:

ElevenLabs launched a few years after FakeYou and Uberduck. ElevenLabs got a lot of attention for their remarkable zero shot model, but their pricing and enterprise focus created an enduring niche.

Companies like Musicfy.lol were what ultimately drew the ire of the music labels and created a lot of friction for consumer UGC audio tools. They ruffled feathers and that created headwinds.

I distinctly remember talking to their founder on a Monday at Founders, Inc. in SF. They were in talks with a16z to raise $10M or so after their first few weeks of wild success - viral marketing and clever positioning for the first RVC music models. By that same Friday the music labels had them shut down the majority of their offering and the funding offers fell apart.

A year or so later, Suno and Udio ultimately took that side of the market. They were more consumer-friendly than raw vocal models and appealed to a broader set of users. Both companies launched to great success despite the risk of lawsuits.

15.ai, FakeYou, UberDuck, and Weights.gg (a latecomer) all gradually wound down due to the founders being pulled in different directions. Weights.gg joined OpenAI, Fifteen.ai became anti-AI and built an art community website, I went into movies/film, and Zach (Uberduck) forged a new path too.

ElevenLabs kind of lost the plot with audio. They've been building a bigger, more comprehensive offering that has scaled their revenue well beyond just TTS and audio. But it also left something of a void to fill.

Last year, Fish Audio launched in our old segment (consumer / UGC TTS fine tunes and zero shot) and built a massive user base and revenue stream. The market was wide open for it. They raised a $40M seed round.

Ha, I also happen to be in the middle of trying to register a .ca.us domain right now! As you say, they can be very plain-looking but unique :)

And (unlike many of the -labs companies) at least there's some logic behind using your physical address for a domain.

Oh man, this is a blast from the past. Played TF2 with him a few times, he hasn't been online on Steam for a long time, but apparently he just left AI behind before it turned into the dystopian techbro circlejerk it is now, and still continues to work on other things he likes today, which is great to hear.

It does feel like the "hacker" part of Hacker News is all but gone at this point, the only thing people are trying to "hack" anymore is their bank account balance. I will remember 15.ai as a landmark from the tail-end of the "people doing cool things just for the sake of doing them and showing it to others" era of the internet.

I'm guessing at least some of these are named after their street addresses. 47 Smith St -> 47 Labs