Martha Stewart Co-Founds Hint AI Home App
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- Martha Stewart joined as a working co-founder of Hint, with CTO Kyle Rush saying she is "not a figurehead" — she lives nearby, holds equity, and visits about twice a week to vet the app's accuracy on soil, home systems, and branding.
- Hint began in 2024 as a tool to navigate home decarbonization incentives before pivoting into an "AI for your home" platform that builds a profile from public property records, weather, soil, and utility data once users enter their address.
- The app delivers proactive maintenance push notifications, an overall "home score," and a chatbot that can field questions ranging from when the AC was last serviced to whether a HELOC makes sense for tapping home equity.
- Hint runs on commercial OpenAI libraries with Gemini handling image work, and currently earns revenue through affiliate links to service providers that Rush says are firewalled from the AI's recommendations to avoid bias.
- The startup is backed by $10 million from Montauk Capital, Brian Kelly (The Points Guy), Slow Ventures, Tusk Venture Partners, Energy Impact Partners, Amplo VC, and Hannah Grey.
- The iOS app is free at launch with no subscriptions or ads, with a premium tier for managing multiple properties planned later; Rush led engineering at Casper during its growth phase, while CEO Yih-Han Ma was previously SVP at Red Ventures.
Why it matters: Stewart attaching real equity — not a paid endorsement — to a practical AI utility is notable when most consumer AI is still chatbot-shaped. Hint's plan to charge a premium for managing multiple properties is a concrete early test of where applied AI might find its first durable consumer revenue stream beyond subscription chat.
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