Engineer Rejects Google’s Offers To Build His AI Device That Acts As Advanced Voice Recorder

Akshay Narisetti is an engineer who did something that most engineers probably wouldn't. 

He rejected not one, not two, but multiple offers from Google and decided to focus on building his own tech startup called Pocket. 

According to his LinkedIn profile, Akshay Narisetti has worked as a software developer for various companies like BharatX, Questbook, and The Residency. 

In October 2024, he founded Open Vision Engineering, a California-based tech startup that aims to innovate and introduce user-friendly AI devices to the market.

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THE DINOSAUR THAT MADE GOOGLE WANT AKSHAY

But how and why did Google approach Akshay Narisetti multiple times?

According to NDTV18, the Indian-origin engineer developed a hack that made the dinosaur in Google's Dino Game to automatically keep jumping. 

For the uninitiated, the Dino Game is one which appears on Google Chrome when users lose access to their Internet connection. 

When the game popped up for Akshay, he decided to spend some months applying complex algorithms blended with unique features to make it different and more interesting than the original one.

This Project got me an interview at Google pic.twitter.com/eb7nlcIA5E

— akshay (@AkshayNarisetti) January 12, 2025

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Narisetti explained the whole experience in an old LinkedIn post. 

He wrote, “Today this screen popped up saying ‘No Internet’ Play the Dino Game, ‘oh no, this Airtel Network Again.’ I had two options, either make a fun project out of this and tag Airtel or call Airtel Customer Care who don’t Care. I quickly grabbed a LDR which could easily tell the difference between white and black surfaces. I taped the LDR to my Laptop’s Screen where it can find obstacles and put a small motor on top of the space bar for a hard click. Everything put together this worked really great the Dino is Jumping in Joy. I would like to thank Airtel for its wonderful internet services which inspired me to make this project.”

This had caught Google's attention and Akshay Narisetti was then made multiple offers that he kept turning down.

I was offered a job at Google multiple times over the last two years. In fact, our entire team at @OpenVisionEng was invited to join the Google VR Team. We never accepted. Instead, we built Pocket, check it out!https://t.co/9ZHUqbT6i5

— akshay (@AkshayNarisetti) January 13, 2025

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POCKET: AI VOICE RECORDER

Akshay Narisetti and his team have innovated Pocket. 

It is a highly advanced AI voice recorder that is loaded with the capabilities to immediately capture, transcribe, and organize conversations. 

Pocket does all of this with unbelievable accuracy. The device is also touted to be completely secure. 

As per the video that Narisetti shared on X, Pocket has a battery life of 4 days. It has templates like Podcasts and Business Meetings that users can select and record their voice, meetings, and even their live phone calls. The recordings can then be exported to multiple applications.

Pocket not just transcribes but also summarizes the conversation into clear action items.

It's available in the colours of baby pink, baby blue, and space grey.

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