Founders in Motion with Thea Ngo 
About Will Bodewes
Will Bodewes is co-founder and CEO of Phonely, which builds AI voice agents that answer business phone calls for sectors such as healthcare, insurance and contact centres. Phonely came out of AI research at the University of Melbourne, where Bodewes was a PhD researcher, and he started it in 2023 with co-founder and CTO Nisal Ranasinghe. It went through Y Combinator's Summer 2024 batch, is based in San Francisco and in April 2026 raised a US$16 million Series A led by Base10 Partners.
Before Phonely, Bodewes founded Spoke Sound, which made wall-hung speakers that look like pictures. He studied mechanical engineering at the University of New Hampshire, where he raced cross-country skiing at NCAA Division I level.
On Founders in Motion with Thea Ngo, he described moving Phonely upmarket to call centres and keeping customers through early reliability problems.
- Talks about
- AI, Founder Journey, Growth & Scaling
In conversation.
1 episode
Founders in Motion with Thea Ngo Go straight to the good bits.
Key moments from The D1 Athlete Who Built a $100M Voice AI Company | Will Bodewes, Phonely (YC S24).
The path so far.
- Now
Co-founder & CEO · Phonely
- Earlier · Startup
Founder & CEO · Spoke Sound
Sources: bodeweswill.wixsite.com
Phonely on Day One
Phonely builds AI agents that answer and handle business phone calls, and also work across chat and SMS, for customers ranging from small businesses to large contact…
1 person · 1 episode
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