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Yoodli co-founder Varun Puri demonstrates his companys speech analysis software. (Yoodli via YouTube)

Six months after coming out of stealth mode, a Seattle AI startup called Yoodli is raising the curtain on a free website thats designed to improve your public speaking.

And as if thats not enough, Yoodli is throwing in some free games as well.

Think of these as Wordle, but for communication skills, Yoodli co-founder Varun Puri said in an introductory video.

Yoodlis main training program can be enough of a brain-teaser by itself: You can upload an audio or video clip, or do a real-time recording of your speech using the app. Hit a button, and the software analyzes what you say to point out filler words (such as um or ah), repetitive phrases, hedging words (like, you know), non-inclusive words (such as saying guys instead of folks) and whether youre talking too fast or too haltingly.

At the end, Yoodli give you a confidence score and points out ways to improve. Check out this example, which picks apart a speech given by billionaire Elon Musk. (The talk earned a 2 on Yoodlis five-point scoring system).

Puri emphasizes the view that public speaking should be fun, not a chore. That attitude applies even to the companys name, which riffs on the word yodel. Six months ago, Puri explained in an email the name has a fun and catching ring and represents our playful company culture (try saying Yoodli quickly three times, youll end up smiling).

Yoodlis public-speaking games reflect that same sort of playfulness: One of the games challenges you to see how long you can talk without, um, saying a filler word. Another one feeds you seemingly random words to work into a real-time conversation. Yet another game asks you to make analogies on the fly. (For example, A blueberry is like a toilet because)

Building your speaking skills is like training a muscle, Puri said in a news release. The same way we warm up before athletic events, or calm our minds through meditation, we can train our bodies before we speak. At Yoodli, we think that speech preparation can be fun and stress-free. Thats why weve built daily AI-powered drills to help people improve their impromptu speaking and interview skills.

Yoodli, which was spun out from the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligences AI2 Incubator program last year, has already picked up some endorsements from experts in the field such as Craig Valentine, who won Toastmasters Internationals World Championship of Public Speaking in 1999.

But you could argue that one of the best endorsements comes from Puri himself, who said he uses the software to prepare for his presentations. Puri and his fellow co-founders were persuasive enough to attract $1 million in pre-seed funding last year from AI2 and Madrona Venture Group.

Puri and another one of Yoodlis co-founders, Esha Joshi, are among the finalists in the 2022 GeekWire Awards Young Entrepreneur of the Year category. Head over to the GeekWire Awards website to check out all the finalists, vote for your favorites, and reserve your spot for the May 12 awards ceremony at the Showbox SoDo in Seattle.

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Yoodli opens up its free website to improve public speaking and adds in some games - GeekWire