The software we use is intended to be intuitive and accessible to everyone, but many of us are left confused and overwhelmed. The fundamental challenge is that it’s really difficult to build a product for different users—each with their own unique goals, history, and expertise. As the world becomes increasingly reliant on technology, its accessibility correspondingly grows in importance. and are two experienced engineers exploring how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can help make software more intuitive for users. Their company, , is focused on building AI software that makes more advanced software accessible to a wider community.
Driven by a passion for innovation, Dunne and Tepel have executed numerous high-profile projects. Dunne built a Hyperloop pod that levitated and traveled in an evacuated tube during his time at the University of Edinburgh. This led him to an opportunity to pitch his tech to Elon Musk at the finals of the annual Hyperloop competition at the SpaceX headquarters. In his final year of university, Dunne founded Scotland’s first amateur rocket development team, which has grown every year since. He went on to succeed in several positions at startups focused on software, gaining experience building software, exploring entrepreneurship, and learning what it takes to be a CTO.
Tepel began his career studying engineering in Germany and then at Cambridge University. He was initially focused on management consulting and venture capital. However, he was inspired by his passion for building companies from the ground up to join Tier Mobility, which is changing the way people move around cities by providing eco-friendly and accessible transportation options. He played a pivotal role in growing the company from a small team to a multi-billion-dollar enterprise, and he oversaw marketing, sales, growth, and strategy. After successfully scaling the company, Tepel was ready for a new challenge: partnering with Dunne to bring their shared vision for Telepathic to life.
Telepathic will allow people to use software they otherwise would not be able to understand. Dunne gained an intimate understanding of the user assistance space when he was CTO of Homeland (a startup that provides on-demand, pay-as-you-use customer service for hotels). There, he built a suite of user assistance tools to allow their team of agents in 17 different countries to provide services for some of the hottest names in the industry—including HotelMap.com. He feels that even if people who aren’t technologically savvy are able to operate software on a basic level, they are still missing out on the greater benefits the software can provide. Telepathic makes software easier to use, with a focus on those who most need help.
During this time, Dunne built in-house co-browsing software to allow Homeland’s agents to assist software end users like HotelMaps—all by performing actions autonomously on the end user’s screen on their behalf. This complex solution helped solve countless user issues with the software and consistently wowed users, particularly where co-browsing was involved. This experience led directly to Dunne’s enthusiasm for Telepathic. Not only did it prove that Telepathic was needed, but it also taught Dunne to embrace tackling complex problems even when he did not have all the answers at the outset. He took that mindset into his work on Telepathic, which he has been building and revising over the last year.
The main version of Telepathic consists of an AI bot that can scrape software, capture how it works, and synthesize it for the user. It sounds simple, but it is actually a very complex problem. Instead of having an agent navigate open websites, Telepathic can navigate closed, gated web apps, which makes their technology completely unique. Dunne has worked tirelessly on the platform, carefully building each stage of the process, from understanding web interfaces and making them searchable to creating walkthroughs, tours, and guidance for users.
This impressive, comprehensive understanding of how software works and how users interpret it makes Dunne the perfect person to build Telepathic. With Tepel by his side handling the company’s growth, they are positioned to take Telepathic to the next level.
