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In 2018, Relay launched a screenless walkie-talkie so parents could reach their kids without handing over a smartphone. Then the orders started arriving 500 at a time. Hotels, mills and hospitals had figured out that a device built for a seven-year-old was exactly what a frontline worker needed. Nothing to learn, nothing to break, one button. This week Relay raised $36 million, led by International Paper, which uses it in its own mills. Now that button connects to AI that transcribes, translates across 35 languages, routes and logs what workers say while they're saying it. The insight is that most frontline tech fails because it asks workers to change their routine. Stop, take off gloves, find a tablet, log in, type. By that time, what you intended to report is forgotten, or maybe never reported in the first place since it was too much of a pain. Relay leaves the routine alone and changes what happens after the button is released. Push-to-talk hasn't changed since the Handie-Talkie in 1940. It turns out that was never the problem. My conversation with CEO Chris Chuang on why the most valuable operational data in any building is spoken, and then gone: https://lnkd.in/gG7m9QGi