Nir Zicherman and Michael Mignano, co-founders of Anchor, the podcast company acquired by Spotify, have launched Oboe, an AI-powered application designed to create flexible learning courses. Users can generate these courses on various topics by entering a prompt into the platform.
Oboe offers nine distinct course formats at launch, enabling diverse learning preferences, according to Zicherman. These formats include text with visuals, audio courses, games, and interactive tests. The platform provides two audio formats: one resembling a university-style lecture and another featuring two hosts discussing a topic, similar to podcast content.
Zicherman, who co-founded Oboe with Mignano after both departed Spotify in October 2023, stated his inspiration for an AI educational product stemmed from his work scaling Spotify's audiobooks business. He emphasized that Oboe distinguishes itself from conventional AI chatbots by offering structured learning modules rather than back-and-forth conversations.
The platform's functionality relies on an internal, multi-agent architecture, Zicherman explained. This system orchestrates parallel processes for course development, material verification, script writing, and the integration of real images and visuals, rather than AI-generated ones. Some agents within the architecture are tasked with auditing content to ensure accuracy, quality, and personalization for the user.
Oboe's courses are structured to be lightweight and engaging. The development team is also working on a recommendation engine intended to facilitate deeper exploration of topics, should a user choose.
The service is launching with a tiered access model. Users can consume any existing courses for free and create up to five new courses monthly without charge. Paid subscriptions include Oboe Plus, offering 30 additional courses for $15 per month, and Oboe Pro, providing 100 courses for $40 per month.
A $4 million seed round, led by Eniac Ventures—which also led Anchor’s seed funding—has supported Oboe's development. Additional investors in the round include Haystack, Factorial Capital, Homebrew, Offline Ventures, Scott Belsky, Kayvon Beykpour, Nikita Bier, Tim Ferriss, and Matt Lieber. Oboe is initially available via web and mobile web, with native iOS and Android applications planned for future release. The core team comprises five full-time members, including Zicherman, while Mignano serves on Oboe's board as a co-founder and is a full-time partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners.
