Dave , Vlingo Corporation1

Cambridge - MA United States

The big idea: In 25 words or less, please tell us how this Fast 50 Nominee is helping to address the planet's problems.

Vlingo offers a mobile speech recognition technology that allows consumers to speak into any mobile phone text box and have their speech converted into text.

Please describe how this nominee is using business as a force of positive change. What technology, idea, or strategy is the nominee using -- and what problem, such as global warming, poverty, or pollution, does it address? (suggested length: 100 words)

Backed by Yahoo! and top venture capital firms including Charles River Ventures and Sigma Partners, vlingo is the first and only open and unconstrained speech recognition technology for the mobile market. Using vlingo, consumers can simply speak into any application on their mobile phones and have their speech converted into text. For example, consumers can launch applications and complete text fields such as Web search or messaging by simply speaking into their phones.

This technology is important because it is the first real solution that opens up new revenue streams for wireless carriers by making mobile applications more discoverable and more usable. Vlingo makes new data features on phones more discoverable because users do not need to memorize a limited set of commands or structure input in particular ways (for example, 411 requires users to first name the city and then the state). For carriers and applications developers, vlingo enables them to deploy a wide range of applications without having to construct the applications around the constraints of a limited speech recognition solution.

To make this innovation possible, vlingo built its technology on top of the IBM speech recognizer, and created an advanced set of technologies called Adaptive Hierarchical Language Models (A-HLMs). A-HLMs adapt a complex set of statistical models based on usage – including adapting to the details of how users sound, how they pronounce words, and what they say into particular applications on their mobile phones.

What are the results, both financial and social? How has the nominee's business performed, and what impact has it had on the problem it addresses? (suggested length: 100 words)

Vlingo launched its beta service in August 2007 and has already signed a major deal with Yahoo! to power the voice recognition engine for Yahoo! oneSearchTM. In April 2008, the vlingo-powered oneSearchTM functionality went live for Blackberry users in the United States and was announced by Marco Boerries, Yahoo!’s executive vice president of Connected Life, at a keynote during the CTIA Wireless industry event.

Also, in the first quarter of 2008 IDC named vlingo one of the “Ten Emerging Mobile Players to Watch in 2008” and AlwaysOn named vlingo a 2008 100 Top Private Company Award Winner. Most recently vlingo has been named one of ten FiReStarters by Future in Review.