Duo Back With Learning Startup Oboe Years After Selling Anchor to Spotify

Nir Zicherman

A duo that sold its previous startup to Spotify for a reported $140 million five years ago is back with a new venture — to educate the world.

Oboe has been presented by co-founders Nir Zicherman and Michael Mignano as a new age school but premised on a questionable assumption that human IQ has been in steady decline. Zicherman serves as CEO of the New York-based Oboe, while Migano, who is a full-time partner at Lightspeed Ventures, is on the company’s board.

“Oboe’s mission is to make humanity smarter,” the founders say in a statement on Oboe’s website, adding the claim that “[o]ur IQs have been dropping for decades, our standardized test scores are at historical lows, and our attention spans continue to plummet.”

“Today, so much of our focus is spent on making machines smarter. At Oboe, we believe it’s time for machines to make humans smarter,” they add.

Oboe’s focus on learning is in line with what Zicherman and Mignano did with their previous startup Anchor, which taught people how to create podcasts.

Oboe expects to help people gain knowledge in various areas. Initially, it will focus on a few verticals, including programming, and target students who are past K12, according to TechCrunch. The startup intends to “differentiate itself from others in the space by leveraging AI to both customize the curriculum materials and enable an interactive experience,” TechCrunch said, adding that synthetic AI voices will be part of Oboe’s programs.

Oboe recently raised $4 million in a seed round. The roster of angel investors is revealing. New York’s Eniac Ventures led the round, with participation from Haystack, Factorial Capital, Homebrew and Offline Ventures. Angel investors included 4-Hour self-book series author Tim Ferriss, Gimlet Media’s Matt Lieber and author Scott Belsky, all of whom are no strangers to the content development market.