Stenobird

Episode

He Built a $130M Company That Changes How You Sound | Ep. 399 with Shawn Zhang CTO and Co-Founder of Sanas

Podcast
Founder's Story
Published
May 18, 2026
Duration seconds
2319
Processing state
not_requested
Canonical source
https://bleav.com/shows/founders-story/episodes/he-built-a-130m-company-that-changes-how-you-sound-ep-399-with-shawn-zhang-cto-and-co-founder-of-sanas/
Audio
https://clrtpod.com/m/pscrb.fm/rss/p/mgln.ai/e/1184/afp-969439-injected.calisto.simplecastaudio.com/a7765f3f-02e4-4ded-bca1-01a20b7f82a5/episodes/d932529c-4fa7-4cd8-89cf-77e3884d9caa/audio/128/default.mp3?aid=rss_feed&awCollectionId=a7765f3f-02e4-4ded-bca1-01a20b7f82a5&awEpisodeId=d932529c-4fa7-4cd8-89cf-77e3884d9caa&feed=NVPdHs07
JSON
/v1/public/podcasts/founder-s-story-648906/episodes/he-built-a-130m-company-that-changes-how-you-sound-ep-399-with-shawn-zhang-cto-and-co-founder-of-sanas
Markdown
/podcast/founder-s-story-648906/he-built-a-130m-company-that-changes-how-you-sound-ep-399-with-shawn-zhang-cto-and-co-founder-of-sanas.md

Actions

  • POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/founder-s-story-648906/episodes/he-built-a-130m-company-that-changes-how-you-sound-ep-399-with-shawn-zhang-cto-and-co-founder-of-sanas/transcription-requests
    Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
  • GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/founder-s-story-648906/he-built-a-130m-company-that-changes-how-you-sound-ep-399-with-shawn-zhang-cto-and-co-founder-of-sanas.md
    Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

Summary

Daniel Robbins sits down with Shawn Zhang, CTO and co-founder of Sanas, to unpack the real human problem behind “accent translation.” Shawn shares how COVID made college feel pointless without people, how a friend working in a Nicaragua call center was punished for his accent, and how that moment became the spark to build Sanas. They also talk backlash, founder pressure, unknown unknowns, Silicon Valley energy, and what happens when a startup goes from zero to $62M in revenue in two years.