Can AI Read Your Mind? Sesh Raises $1.6M

Leslie Ignacio

Leslie Ignacio is dot.LA's editorial intern. She is a recent California State University, Northridge graduate and previously worked for El Nuevo Sol, Telemundo and NBC and was named a Chips Quinn Scholar in 2019. As a bilingual journalist, she focuses on covering diversity in news. She's a Los Angeles native who enjoys trips to Disneyland in her free time.

Can AI Read Your Mind? Sesh Raises $1.6M
Sesh Corp.

Sesh Corp. wants to read your mind through artificial intelligence. And the Los Angeles-based startup just brought in some help with a $1.6 million pre-seed round to further develop their centerpiece product called Empath.

The software, launched in July, uses Al to help understand emotions and states of mind of individuals on video. Sesh is holding it up as an essential business tool during the pandemic when in-person meetings are near impossible and drawn out Zoom calls are the norm. The company calls it EQ or emotional intelligence on demand.

"With most of the world now communicating by video, being able to truly understand the non-verbal cues, situational context and culture of your meeting participants is crucial to quickly establishing trust, and building meaningful relationships," said co-founder and CEO, David Dorfman in announcing the raise.

Empath reads each user's emotion and they are identified in clouds that show up in the corner of their heads as they are interacting, allowing companies to see what works best in terms of communication. The data is traced and analyzed over time so the user has a better understanding of the subject's state of mind.

The funding will be used to further develop and prepare an Empath Beta that is set to launch next month while increasing customer access, expanding the team and aiming to have a market leader in cognitive Al.

While the application is especially useful during the pandemic when people are relying on video calls to communicate, Sesh thinks it can be a useful tool for sales teams, as a training tool and for market research.

"Whether selling a product, measuring audience reaction, or leading a training and education seminar, effective empathy-powered communications saves time and money, and helps you find consensus and understanding," said Dorfman.

The $1.6 million was raised in a pre-seeding funding round and brought together old and new investors like DreamHost co-founder Josh Jones and venture capitalists Behzad Kianmahd, co-founder of TAU Ventures Kyle Schlotman, partner and CIO, Connetic Ventures and Radest Ventures.

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Sports Stadiums Are Turning to Immersive Sound to Keep Fans Engaged

Samson Amore

Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He holds a degree in journalism from Emerson College and previously covered technology and entertainment for TheWrap and reported on the SoCal startup scene for the Los Angeles Business Journal. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter @Samsonamore.

Sports Stadiums Are Turning to Immersive Sound to Keep Fans Engaged
Photo: Edge Sound Research

In 2020, the Minnesota Twins experimented with a new technology that brought fans the ability to physically feel the sounds they were hearing in the stadium in the back of their seats as part of a new immersive way to experience baseball.

The tech was made by Riverside-based startup Edge Sound Research, which built a mobile lounge – basically, a small seating section equipped with its technology and on wheels to travel around the stadium – for Twins fans to experience what it calls “embodied audio” around Target field. It was a bid on the Twins’ part to keep fans more engaged during the game, and Edge Sound Research CEO Valtteri Salomaki said the Twins were impressed.

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LA Venture: B Capital’s Howard Morgan on What To Look For in Potential Founders

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

LA Venture: B Capital’s Howard Morgan on What To Look For in Potential Founders
Provided by LAV

On this episode of the LA Venture podcast, B Capital Group General Partner and Chair Howard Morgan discusses his thoughts on early stage investing and the importance of company ownership.


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Mullen Automotive Pays Millions to Settle Lawsuit with Qiantu

David Shultz

David Shultz reports on clean technology and electric vehicles, among other industries, for dot.LA. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Outside, Nautilus and many other publications.

Mullen Automotive Pays Millions to Settle Lawsuit with Qiantu
Image Courtesy of Mullen Automotive

Like a zombie from the grave, Mullen Automotive’s electric sports car grift lives once more. Earlier this week, the Southern Californian company announced that it had resolved its contract disputes with Chinese manufacturer Qiantu and would begin to “re-design” and “re-engineer” the DragonFLY K50 platform for sale in the United States.

On the surface (or if you just read the press release) this would seem to be excellent news for the Californian EV startup. But the saga of the Mullen/Qiantu partnership is long, and in the context of their shared history, the deal’s terms look considerably less favorable for Mullen.

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