Tim DraperFounder and Managing Partne, Draper Associate · I back the ideas that look crazy first

No access to an ENT? No problem. 👂

8 Dec 2025 · 1 min

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1:06

Tim Draper and a co-speaker present OMNI, a $1,300 remote audiometry device that lets one audiologist in a central office test hearing and program aids for patients in Nigeria, Bangladesh, or Kenya. Each test costs a few dollars instead of requiring a full-time specialist on-site.

The world can wait for the next dating app. The world can definitely wait for the next super cool marketing app. These people need help, and that's where we come in. This machine is a solution to the shortage of audiologists.
Now, I mean, it's a very low-cost device.
$1,300 for this testing device.
This is the audiologist.
A test has to be run for every single hearing aid. How can you make money if that's $20 and you've got somebody full-time, an audiologist full-time? I keep this machine anywhere in the world. It doesn't have to be an audiologist. My audiologist could be sitting in the Draper's office here, and my machine could be in Nigeria, in Bangladesh, or in Kenya. It's a very simple solution to an extremely complicated problem.
With OMNI, this remote audiometry device, we are able to solve the problem of diagnostic. It can do the otoscopy, it can do live audiometry, it can do the programming of the hearing aids and the fitting of the hearing aids for the person who doesn't have an access to walk up to an ENT. And accordingly, the audiologist suggests the hearing aid, and that hearing aid, is then digitalized and fitted to the patient.