Akshita Iyer, Founder and CEO of Ome, is a neuroscience graduate from Duke University whose entrepreneurial path was sparked by a personal experience with a kitchen fire. This pivotal moment led to the creation of Ome, a company focused on reimagining the cooking experience through smart home innovation. Under her leadership, Ome introduced the patented Smart Knob, a solution designed to make kitchens safer and more automated. Iyer also serves on the UL 858 Technical Committee, where she works alongside industry experts to uphold safety standards for household appliances.
Ome is the world’s first Smart Knob that replaces your stove knobs to add real-time remote control, automatic shut-off, and voice integration—making cooking safer and stress-free. Compatible with most gas and electric stoves, Ome helps prevent kitchen fires and offers hands-free control without requiring a subscription.
Can you tell us a bit about your personal journey from neuroscience at Duke to becoming the founder of a smart home tech company?
Honestly, I never expected to end up in the kitchen appliance space. I studied neuroscience at Duke with plans to go to med school. After graduation, I worked at a hospital to gain experience, but during that time, I got hooked on Shark Tank. I was fascinated — not just by the products, but by the people. So many of them weren’t traditional entrepreneurs. They were just regular people solving personal problems. That really stuck with me.
Then something happened in my own home: my mom, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, accidentally left the stove on and started a kitchen fire. Thankfully no one was hurt, but it was a wake-up call. I started searching for a solution and assumed something simple already existed to solve this — but I quickly realized how antiquated and underserved the kitchen space is.
Every other part of the home had gotten smarter — smart thermostats, locks, lights — but the stove, arguably the most dangerous appliance in the house, had been left behind.
That’s when everything clicked. If there were retrofit solutions for doorbells and thermostats, why not the stove? I didn’t have a tech background, but I couldn’t shake the idea and thought, “how hard could it be?” (Spoiler: pretty hard.) But I dove in anyway — and that’s how Ome was born.
What were the biggest challenges you faced in the early days of building Ome, and how did you overcome them?
Switching from neuroscience and a med school track to founding a tech company was a huge leap. I was a first-time entrepreneur, figuring everything out as I went. One of the biggest early hurdles was learning how to raise capital. I had no experience in the startup world, and initially I thought having a strong idea and a compelling product would be enough. I quickly learned that wasn’t the case. I had to learn how to pitch, who to pitch to, and how to tailor the message.
For example, I remember pitching to an investor whose thesis was to invest in B2B SaaS startups — retrospectively, completely the wrong fit — and his confusion was palpable. That taught me early on that I needed to do my homework and understand not just how to tell our story, but who I was telling it to. Fundraising became as much about psychology and strategy as it was about the product.
And then the pandemic hit. Our supply chain came to a standstill. We couldn’t get components, production slowed, and we had early supporters waiting for a product we couldn’t deliver on time. That was a defining moment for us. We got really honest with our customers — transparency became our north star. Internally, we set up a war room, re-evaluated suppliers, and found alternative solutions to get production back on track, even at limited capacity.
Looking back, those challenges shaped the resilience of our company. We learned to adapt fast, communicate clearly, and solve one problem at a time. And that mindset still drives how we operate today.
Can you give us a quick breakdown of how the Ome Smart Knob works and what makes it unique in the smart kitchen space?
Ome is the world’s first Smart Stove Knob designed to make cooking safer, easier, and more intuitive. It’s the only retrofit device that replaces your existing stove knobs and can be installed in just minutes on almost all gas or electric stovetops and ranges. Once installed, it turns your stove into a smart appliance that you can monitor and control in real-time, from anywhere.
What sets Ome apart is that it tackles one of the most overlooked problems in the smart home: unattended, distracted cooking, which is the leading cause of house fires. Our technology offers features like automatic shut-off in case of absence, safety locks, built-in timers, and hands-free voice control via Amazon Alexa — giving users peace of mind every time they cook.
But we’re not just building a safer stove. Our vision is to create a fully connected kitchen — integrating auxiliary sensors, smart recipe content, and even grocery delivery to streamline and simplify the entire cooking experience.
What also makes Ome unique is our impact beyond individual households. Our platform includes a centralized dashboard that allows property managers in multi-unit buildings — like dorms, condos, and senior living communities — to monitor stove activity remotely and proactively prevent hazards. It’s not just about consumer convenience; it’s about public safety, especially in environments where a single incident can affect many lives.
While a lot of smart kitchen gadgets add to counter clutter or only offer niche features, Ome delivers something that’s both essential and seamless — a smarter, safer, and more intuitive kitchen, starting with the most used cooking appliance.
You’ve described your view of AI in the home as “ambient intelligence” rather than app-centric. What does that mean in practice, and why is it important?
To me, ambient intelligence means tech that blends into your life — quietly working in the background, learning from your behavior, and stepping in only when needed. Most smart home products today are very app-driven. You have to open an app, press a button, adjust settings. That’s not really smart — it’s just remote control with extra steps.
With Ome, we want to flip that script and pave the path toward a future where your home anticipates risks and takes action before you even notice a problem. Imagine a stove that shuts off if left on too long, or detects patterns that might indicate a problem, without you lifting a finger. The best technology doesn’t interrupt your life. It enhances it quietly, and keeps you safe without being intrusive.
The smart home market is filled with flashy gadgets — how does Ome push back against that novelty bias in favor of simplicity and trust?
We intentionally built something simple. The Ome Smart Knob doesn’t try to be flashy. It looks and feels like the thing it replaces and that’s the point. It installs easily, works quietly, and adds real value.
In safety, less is more. People don’t want another app to manage or a complicated interface. They want solutions that feel natural, that just work. They want peace of mind. We’ve heard so many users say, “This just makes sense.” That’s the kind of feedback we strive for.
In your view, what does the industry get wrong about what people actually want or need from smart home technology?
I think there’s a tendency to over-engineer — more features, more control, more complexity. But most people just want less: less friction, less risk, less stuff to manage.
Smart homes should enable independence, not require constant attention. Especially for older adults or busy families, technology needs to be supportive, not stressful. That’s what we focus on: building tech that serves real needs in intuitive ways.
You're part of the UL 858 Technical Committee, helping define safety standards. How does that work influence your decisions at Ome?
Being on the UL 858 Technical Committee has been incredibly eye-opening. It’s one thing to develop new technology. It’s another to sit at the table where safety standards are actually being written. UL 858 focuses on preventing hazards like accidental activation and overheating in electric ranges, and a big part of that work is figuring out how safety evolves as appliances get smarter.
That perspective directly shapes our approach at Ome. We made a very deliberate decision that our Smart Knob requires a manual push-and-turn to activate — not because it’s trendy, but because it aligns with a core safety principle: intentional use. We don’t allow remote start, because when you're dealing with fire and gas, there’s no room for ambiguity about user intent.
Being in those discussions — where the consequences of a design decision are measured in lives and property — reinforces our commitment to real-world safety over flashy features. It’s helped us stay clear on our priorities: building tech that’s not just smart, but safe by design, trustworthy by default, and always grounded in the realities of the home.
Why was it important for you to create a retrofit solution instead of building a new smart appliance from scratch?
From day one, accessibility and sustainability have been core to our mission and that’s exactly why we chose to build a retrofit product.
Replacing an entire stove just to make it smart isn’t realistic for most people. It’s expensive, a major purchasing decision, and typically isn’t necessary unless your appliance breaks or you’re building a new house. We saw an opportunity to do something more thoughtful: create a solution that works with what people already have. With Ome, upgrading your stove takes minutes — no remodeling, no steep learning curve, and no need to replace something that still works.
There’s also a deeper sustainability angle here that’s often overlooked. So many modern appliances are designed to be replaced — short product cycles, software that ages out quickly, components that fail early. We’re pushing against that trend. By extending the life of existing appliances, we’re reducing waste and offering a smarter alternative.
To us, innovation isn’t about starting from scratch. It’s about rethinking what’s possible with what’s already in place to make homes safer, smarter, and more sustainable in the process.
How do you think the broader smart home landscape will evolve in the next five years, especially in terms of AI integration?
Over the next five years, I think we’ll see a fundamental shift from “smart” homes to truly intelligent homes, and AI will be the driver of that change. But it won’t look like what we see today. It won’t be about more screens or more control panels. The future is ambient — quiet, contextual, and deeply intuitive.
AI will become better at learning how we live from our routines, preferences, and patterns of behavior. Instead of constant notifications and manual inputs, we’ll see systems that step in automatically — adjusting, assisting, and protecting us in ways that feel invisible but meaningful. Think of a home that senses risk and responds instantly, without waiting for a command.
This shift will also redefine what “smart” actually means. Right now, there’s a flood of connected devices that don’t add real value. Over time, I believe we’ll see the market correct itself, moving from gimmicks to purpose-driven innovation. Safety, aging in place, accessibility, and sustainability will become the benchmarks that matter.
The companies that thrive in this next phase won’t be the ones chasing trends. They’ll be the ones quietly building trust, solving real pain points, and creating tech that blends into the background but makes a real difference in everyday life.
Thank you for the great interview, readers who wish to learn more should visit Ome.
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