Say it.
It’s filed.
Tap where you are, say anything in your own words, and the AI works out what you meant and files it how you want it, where you want it: the job log, the shop spreadsheet, your own to-do list. No word list to learn.
Watch one get filed.
Tap a sticker, hold the button and talk, let go. The mic is only on while your thumb is down. Pick your line of work below and tap a move. It starts you off with a tech on a rooftop, gloves on.
Talk the way you already talk. Spanish is on the way. Example records; names and numbers are made up.
Every move, explained.
What the fob does, how each move works, and what shows up in the record.
Tap to set the place
Stick a small NFC tag on anything that matters: a room door, a gate, a truck, a machine, a shelf. Touch the fob to it and every note after that knows where it happened. Tags cost about twenty cents. Metal-backed ones go on trucks and equipment.
In the record: the place name and the time.
Hold to talk
One button. Hold it, say what happened, let go. Up to a minute per note. It works with gloves on, hands wet, or phone buried in a pocket.
The mic is live only while the button is held down.
Photo on double-press
Two quick presses while you talk and a photo rides along: the gauge, the scale, the damage, the finished job.
In the record: the photo, attached to the same note.
Talk normal. It keeps up.
No commands, no word list. Tally understands everyday speech and pulls out the numbers, names and places. Spanish in, English out is on the way. A class gives it a head start on your line of work, never a limit.
Planned: it learns your own words. Correct a name once and it gets it right from then on.
It tells you with a buzz
No screen to check. A buzz and a light tell you what happened, so your eyes stay on the work.
You feel it without looking.
No signal? It waits.
Basements, back lots, dead zones. Notes save on the fob and send themselves the next time your phone is close. Nothing gets lost.
Oldest notes go first, in order.
Files where it belongs
The first build files to a shared Google Sheet. Reminders, task lists and hookups to the job software shops already run come next.
You pick the destination once. After that it just lands.
It never listens. It can’t.
No wake word, no always-on mic, no speaker, no GPS in the fob. If the button isn’t held, nothing is recorded. The light shows when it is.
Push-to-talk is the whole privacy design.
MORE ON THE WAY
Crew mode, records that hold up in a dispute, asking it back (“what did batch twenty-two dry down to?”) and a daily report written for you.
One fob. Whatever you’re doing.
Scroll and watch each note get filed.
It shows up where you already look.
No new software to learn. Each record lands in the spreadsheet, job platform or list it belongs in, with the place, the time and the photo attached.
Carried, not worn.
Leather over a printed core, brass hardware, a stitch line you can feel. The target size is a Zippo lighter, three millimetres thicker. It rides your keys and takes your name in a stamp.
It never listens. It can’t.
No wake word, no speaker, no GPS in the fob. The mic is off unless the button is physically held down. When it’s recording, the light shows.
Small parts, no ceremony.
An ESP32-S3 brain with camera, mic and microSD, a 500 mAh battery, an NFC reader and a vibration motor. The first units are being soldered by hand.
Built in the open, one level at a time.
First prototypes on the bench
The firmware is written. Parts are in hand and the first fobs are being soldered and stitched by hand.
Ten field testers
Four weeks of real jobs. Each unit is a labeled prototype that comes back at the end, along with everything it taught us.
A numbered founder run
A small batch of hand-built fobs for the people on the list, once radio certification is lined up.
Smaller, and made for crews
A custom circuit board, a slimmer fob, crew plans, and direct hookups to the software shops already run.
Getting smaller takes a custom board, tooling and a real production run — which means an investor or a big enough pre-order list behind it. Investor info →
POWER-UPS
Tap to set the place
UNLOCKEDNFC stickers on rooms, racks and freezers. Every note after a tap knows where it happened.
Hold to talk
UNLOCKEDOne button. The mic is live only while it’s held down.
Photo on double-press
UNLOCKEDTwo quick presses and a shot of the scale rides along with the note.
Files to a spreadsheet
UNLOCKEDRecords land as clean rows in a shared Google Sheet.
Learns your words
LOCKEDFix a strain name once and it gets it right from then on.
Spanish in, English out
LOCKEDTalk the way you talk on the job. The office gets the record in English.
Crew mode
LOCKEDA live feed of what the crew logged today, and spoken reminders that become tasks.
Records that hold up
LOCKEDTime-stamped and sealed when made, original audio kept, for inspections and disputes.
Ask it back
LOCKED“What did batch twenty-two dry down to?” The answer comes from your own records.
Your ID card, in the leather
LOCKEDAnyone taps their phone on your fob and your card pops up — name, trade, number. No app on their end.
Reads your tools
LOCKEDPull readings straight from the meters and probes you already carry, so the numbers file themselves.
Daily report, written for you
LOCKEDEnd of shift, the day’s notes become a report the office can send.
Backing the smaller build.
Tally is being hand-built now: the first fob is on the bench. Making it small, cheap and repeatable is a manufacturing problem, not an idea problem — and that part takes money.
Where it stands
The firmware is written and builds clean. The first fobs are being hand-wired on the bench. The website, the app plan and the filing pipeline are all mapped. Nothing here is waiting on an invention.
World 1 on the map. You are here.
What money changes
A custom circuit board instead of stacked modules. Radio certification, which is required before a single unit can be sold. Tooling and a production run, which is what finally makes the fob small and brings the cost per unit down. Then a real batch instead of ten at a time.
Same product, a third the size and a fraction of the build time.
Why it is not just an app
Most voice-note tools live on a phone, and the ones you wear don’t know where you are or file anything. A phone does not work with gloves on, in a crawlspace, at night, or when your hands are full. The fob does one thing in one motion, and the tap tells it where you are. That combination is not on the market.
Hardware plus tap-context plus filing. Checked repeatedly; nobody ships all three.
How it makes money
The fob is sold once. The service is a monthly subscription for transcription, filing and storage, with crew seats for whole teams. Small operators who get judged on records they do not have are the buyers.
Figures on the Join the list page are targets, not commitments.
Made by hand in New Mexico.
This section is waiting on Joe’s own words. It will cover:
- Who Joe is and where he’s from
- The moment the idea for Tally showed up
- Why he’s building it by hand, one fob at a time
- What he wants it to be for the people who carry it
Ask for the deck.
Happy to walk through the build, the numbers and what a raise would actually buy. Direct line, no gatekeeper.
- Send an email to the address below.
- Put “Tally investor” in the subject.
- Say who you are and what you would want to see.
joerudys@ymail.com
Concept page. Nothing here is an offer to sell securities or a solicitation of investment. Sizes, battery life, costs and prices are working targets while prototypes are being tested.
Get on the list.
Tally isn’t for sale yet. The list gets first word on tester spots and the founder run. No spam.
Leave your email and we’ll follow up with a couple quick questions.
A small numbered batch, hand-built, offered first to the list.
Production fobs, once the custom board brings it down to size.
Transcription, filing and storage. Crew seats planned at $9–15 each.
Concept page. “Tally” is a working name; the trademark search is pending. Sizes, battery life and prices are targets while prototypes are tested. Nothing on this page is an offer to sell.
FILE CLERK
The notes are coming in faster than you can type. Each note falls toward its bin. Slide the fob under it and shoot it in before it hits the floor. Miss three and the shift is over.
That’s the whole job, more or less. The real fob does the aiming for you. Get on the list →