About Us

How it Started

It was sometime after 9 pm.

I decided to go to bed early, so I did what I always do: I removed my hearing aids, brushed my teeth, and headed to bed.

Something happened. At least, I didn’t know right away. I found out a couple of days later.

After returning from work a few days later, I went to my mailbox and received a letter from the property management. The letter informed tenants that a fire drill had occurred several nights before and that they were disappointed in how people didn’t evaluate the building.

I was being tested. I failed. Except this time, I was alive and realized a change was needed.

The current solutions for alerting devices couldn’t match my always-on-the-go lifestyle. Sometimes, I live in condos, apartments, or small camp-size trailers in rural communities. Each place adds new complexity to my living situation, which no solution could match.

After seeing speech-to-text applications on the market, I knew artificial intelligence (AI) could modernize alerting devices.

I waited, and then I waited some more. Then I thought maybe I should take the lead. And that’s how Lisnen was born in 2017.

For most of my life, I hid my hearing loss from my friends and community.

But that stopped until I started Lisnen.

Lisnen has been my wake-up call for change: not to hide away from the stigma of having a hearing loss, to dismantle the inequalities our lives bring us, to find a home where we can be understood, and to live a life worth living (when society makes decisions to exclude us).

I like to think that Lisnen is more than an alerting device for the deaf and hard of hearing community. It’s about progress from where we are today to a better experience tomorrow. Our challenges shouldn’t set us back but rather move us forward. 

Lisnen is a journey that I want to share with you. Together, we’re co-creating the lives that we want to see and have. It’s time we take matters into our own hands. Let’s work together to make this happen!

Vision Statement

Our vision is to destigmatize hearing loss, design opportunities where limitations exist, and expand more ways to live our lives to the fullest.

Mission Statement

Our mission is to provide access to information using technologies. We support people who are d/Deaf, hard of hearing or have any auditory impairment by removing systematic and safety challenges every day in a world predicated on hearing.  

Core Values

Enable – We believe in providing our community with the tools to confidently achieve the things they want to do. Everyone deserves to be the CEO of their life.

Acceptance – We value the underdogs, the people overlooked for authentically showing up as who they are. We like to change the narrative and give them a platform to be outstanding. 

Awareness – Information is power. We want to empower you with information to give you choices at any moment of the time.

Mobility – We want to take you where you want to go and get you to enjoy the ride along the way.

Transparent – We say what we do and do what we say, all while creating a trusting environment for others to engage with us and feel safe. We admit when we make mistakes to help us become better versions of ourselves.

Empathy – We pause to take time to understand one another, despite our differences and life experiences.