the manifesto
after a meeting, a date, a hard call with my mom — i’d remember the feeling, not the words. and then i’d question my feeling.
we have transcription apps. plenty of them. they hand you back a wall of text and call it a day.
we have coaching apps. they make you practice imaginary speeches into your phone in your bedroom.
neither of them help with the actual conversation that just happened — the one you wish you could replay because you can't quite remember if she really said that, or if you're being dramatic.
on-device ai got good enough.
whisper.cpp transcribes a meeting on your phone in seconds. gemini nano on android and apple's foundation models on ios can run real analysis without a cloud round-trip. small llms (llama 3.2, qwen 2.5) fit on a 4gb phone.
for the first time, you can have a real coach that hears your real life — and the audio never leaves your phone. that wasn't true a year ago.
you tap a button before something that matters. ascolio listens. when you stop, it tells you the truth — how you sounded, where you hedged, what the other person did, what was promised.
over time, it remembers. you can ask it: what did sarah say in october? did mom contradict herself again? am i talking less when i'm nervous?
it isn't a meeting transcriber. otter does that.
it isn't a public speaking practice tool. yoodli does that.
it isn't a friend you chat with. pi does that.
it's a coach for the conversations you actually have, in your actual life — and a memory that holds them, on your device, forever.
what we believe
transcription, analysis, memory — all on your device by default. cloud only for the optional weekly report, opt-in, summary only, deleted in 24 hours.
apple won't tell you 'that was gaslighting.' google won't either. we will. politely, with evidence, and with the option to disagree.
transcripts are exhaust. what matters is the pattern across them: who keeps their promises, who gets defensive when you push back, where you sound smaller than you are.
one person, with claude as a build partner, in the open. i’ll write about what works and what doesn't. you'll see the receipts.
marwan samir
solo founder · building ascolio in public
i’m one person. i answer my own emails. if you find a bug or have an idea or just want to tell me i’m wrong about something on this page — [email protected].
drop your email. you’ll get the testflight link the day it’s ready.