Listening
1 known investors
Listening is an app that converts documents — including research papers, PDFs, books, websites, emails, and ebook formats like EPUB and MOBI — into audio using a library of synthetic voices. It offers features such as adjustable playback speed, section-by-section listening, one-click note transcription, and turning photos of physical books into audio.
Also known as Listening.io
Investors · 1
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Listening (listening.io) is a text-to-speech application aimed at students and researchers who want to consume written material as audio. Users can upload PDFs and Word documents, paste text, submit website URLs, import MOBI and EPUB files, use a Chrome extension, or photograph physical book pages, and the app converts the content into speech using AI narrators offered in several voice options.
The product is built around academic reading workflows. It parses papers into their standard sections so listeners can jump to the abstract, results or other parts rather than playing a document end to end, and it automatically skips inline citations, footnotes and reference lists. Playback speed is adjustable in 10% increments across a range that reaches roughly 3x. A one-click "+note" button captures the last two sentences heard, with notes auto-timestamped and synced across devices.
At launch the product was positioned differently: it turned saved web articles into audio and delivered them as a personal podcast feed that synced to podcast players including Spotify, with native iOS and Android apps and email forwarding for newsletters.
Founding story
Founder Derek Pankaew said he built the product because he preferred listening to podcasts and audiobooks over reading, found existing read-later apps easy to forget and their text-to-speech quality poor, and wanted an app that pushed article audio directly into his podcast player using state-of-the-art voices.
Business model
Consumer/prosumer software sold directly to end users through web and mobile apps, with a free trial and a paid subscription; Product Hunt lists the product under free options.
Subscription-based access to the app, following a two-week free trial that requires a credit card on file, according to user reviews.
Traction
The website states more than 50,000 students and researchers use the app. The Product Hunt launch received 243 points and a #6 day rank, and the product page has 584 followers.
Latest developments
The current website markets the product around academic and research papers, with support for PDF, Word, MOBI and EPUB files, website URLs, a Chrome extension, scanning of physical pages, multiple AI voices, speed control up to about 3x, and one-click note capture.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies
Market position
Operates in the text-to-speech and podcasting-tools category alongside products such as Audioread, Matter, Ad Auris Play and Speechify, differentiating on an academic-paper focus. Its Product Hunt page shows an average rating of 1.7 from six reviews and 584 followers.
Specialization in academic material: section-level navigation of papers, automatic skipping of citations, footnotes and references, and one-click note capture. At launch the founder cited broader podcast-player support including Spotify, native iOS and Android apps, and email forwarding for newsletters relative to comparable article-to-audio tools.
Technology
AI-generated synthetic voices for narration, document parsing that identifies paper sections and filters out inline citations, footnotes and references, ingestion of PDF, Word, MOBI, EPUB, pasted text and web URLs, optical capture of photographed physical pages, variable-speed playback, and cross-device note syncing.
Go-to-market
Direct-to-consumer distribution via the website, a Chrome extension, and iOS and Android apps, supported by a Product Hunt launch, testimonials from students and researchers, a newsletter, and a referral program.
Students, graduate students and academic researchers who read large volumes of papers, plus general readers who want articles and books delivered as audio.
Geography
Sold online with users described as students and researchers around the world.
History
The product was introduced publicly on Product Hunt by maker Derek Pankaew, who described having worked on it for a few months and said PDF support was expected within about a week of launch. Product Hunt records the product as launched in 2022. The offering later shifted toward academic reading, with document upload, page scanning, section selection and note-taking features.
Risks & controversies
Product Hunt reviews average 1.7 out of 5 across six reviews. Reviewers reported slow uploads of links and PDFs, inability to upload PDFs from the phone app, inconsistent section splitting of NLM links, poor output quality on some academic PDFs and plain text files, unanswered support email, and an absence of a subscription cancellation option on the website, with several reviewers describing the billing experience as a scam or predatory.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Timeline · 1
launches, deals, and filingsListening.io was launched on Product Hunt as a tool that turns saved articles into audio delivered as a personal podcast feed to podcast players; it reached #6 day rank with 243 points. Maker Derek Pankaew said PDF support was expected shortly after launch.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
In the news
▸Research sources · 8
primary sources listed
- Listeninglistening.io · web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Listening do?
- Listening is a text-to-speech app that turns academic papers, PDFs and other documents into AI-narrated audio.
- Who are Listening's investors?
- Listening's investors include Expansion Venture Capital.