Akshita Iyer, Founder and CEO of Ome, is a neuroscience graduate from Duke University whose entrepreneurial path was sparked by a private experience with a kitchen fire. This pivotal moment led to the creation of Ome, an organization focused on reimagining the cooking experience through smart home innovation. Under her leadership, Ome introduced the patented Smart Knob, an answer 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 so as to add real-time handheld 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.
Are you able to tell us a bit about your personal journey from neuroscience at Duke to becoming the founding father of a sensible home tech company?
Truthfully, I never expected to find yourself within the kitchen appliance space. I studied neuroscience at Duke with plans to go to med school. After graduation, I worked at a hospital to achieve experience, but during that point, I got hooked on Shark Tank. I used to be fascinated — not only by the products, but by the people. So a lot of them weren’t traditional entrepreneurs. They were just regular people solving personal problems. That actually stuck with me.
Then something happened in my own residence: my mom, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, unintentionally left the stove on and commenced a kitchen fire. Thankfully nobody was hurt, however it was a wake-up call. I began trying to find an answer and assumed something easy already existed to resolve this — but I quickly realized how antiquated and underserved the kitchen space is.
Every other a part of the house had gotten smarter — smart thermostats, locks, lights — however the stove, arguably essentially the most dangerous appliance in the home, had been left behind.
That’s when every little thing clicked. If there have been retrofit solutions for doorbells and thermostats, why not the stove? I didn’t have a tech background, but I couldn’t shake the thought and thought, “how hard could or not it’s?” (Spoiler: pretty hard.) But I dove in anyway — and that’s how Ome was born.
What were the largest challenges you faced within the early days of constructing Ome, and the way did you overcome them?
Switching from neuroscience and a med school track to founding a tech company was an enormous leap. I used to be a first-time entrepreneur, figuring every little thing out as I went. One among the largest early hurdles was learning learn how to raise capital. I had no experience within the startup world, and initially I believed having a robust idea and a compelling product could be enough. I quickly learned that wasn’t the case. I needed to learn learn how to pitch, who to pitch to, and learn how to tailor the message.
For instance, I remember pitching to an investor whose thesis was to speculate in B2B SaaS startups — retrospectively, completely the incorrect fit — and his confusion was palpable. That taught me early on that I needed to do my homework and understand not only learn how to tell our story, but who I used to be telling it to. Fundraising became as much about psychology and strategy because it was concerning the product.
After which the pandemic hit. Our supply chain got here 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 arrange a war room, re-evaluated suppliers, and located alternative solutions to get production back heading in the right direction, even at limited capability.
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.
Are you able to give us a fast breakdown of how the Ome Smart Knob works and what makes it unique within 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 one retrofit device that replaces your existing stove knobs and might be installed in only minutes on just about all gas or electric stovetops and ranges. Once installed, it turns your stove into a sensible appliance that you could monitor and control in real-time, from anywhere.
What sets Ome apart is that it tackles probably the most neglected problems within the smart home: unattended, distracted cooking, which is the leading explanation for 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 each time they cook.
But we’re not only constructing a safer stove. Our vision is to create a completely connected kitchen — integrating auxiliary sensors, smart recipe content, and even grocery delivery to streamline and simplify the complete cooking experience.
What also makes Ome unique is our impact beyond individual households. Our platform features a centralized dashboard that permits property managers in multi-unit buildings — like dorms, condos, and senior living communities — to observe stove activity remotely and proactively prevent hazards. It’s not nearly consumer convenience; it’s about public safety, especially in environments where a single incident can affect many lives.
While lots of smart kitchen gadgets add to counter clutter or only offer area of interest features, Ome delivers something that’s each essential and seamless — a better, safer, and more intuitive kitchen, starting with essentially the most used cooking appliance.
You’ve described your view of AI in the house as “ambient intelligence” relatively than app-centric. What does that mean in practice, and why is it vital?
To me, ambient intelligence means tech that blends into your life — quietly working within the background, learning out of your behavior, and stepping in just when needed. Most smart home products today are very app-driven. You may have to open an app, press a button, adjust settings. That’s not likely smart — it’s just handheld remote control with extra steps.
With Ome, we would like to flip that script and pave the trail toward a future where your property anticipates risks and takes motion before you even notice an issue. Imagine a stove that shuts off if left on too long, or detects patterns which may indicate an issue, without you lifting a finger. The most effective technology doesn’t interrupt your life. It enhances it quietly, and keeps you protected without being intrusive.
The smart home market is crammed with flashy gadgets — how does Ome beat back against that novelty bias in favor of simplicity and trust?
We intentionally built something easy. The Ome Smart Knob doesn’t attempt to be flashy. It looks and appears like the thing it replaces and that’s the purpose. It installs easily, works quietly, and adds real value.
In safety, less is more. People don’t want one other app to administer or a sophisticated interface. They need solutions that feel natural, that just work. They need peace of mind. We’ve heard so many users say, “This just is sensible.” That’s the sort of feedback we attempt for.
In your view, what does the industry get incorrect about what people actually want or need from smart home technology?
I feel there’s an inclination to over-engineer — more features, more control, more complexity. But most individuals just want less: less friction, less risk, less stuff to administer.
Smart homes should enable independence, not require constant attention. Especially for older adults or busy families, technology must be supportive, not stressful. That’s what we deal with: constructing tech that serves real needs in intuitive ways.
You are a 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 latest technology. It’s one other to take a seat on the table where safety standards are literally being written. UL 858 focuses on stopping hazards like accidental activation and overheating in electric ranges, and a giant a part of that work is determining how safety evolves as appliances get smarter.
That perspective directly shapes our approach at Ome. We made a really deliberate decision that our Smart Knob requires a manual push-and-turn to activate — not since it’s trendy, but since it aligns with a core safety principle: intentional use. We don’t allow distant start, because while you’re coping with fire and gas, there’s no room for ambiguity about user intent.
Being in those discussions — where the results 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: constructing tech that’s not only smart, but protected by design, trustworthy by default, and all the time grounded within the realities of the house.
Why was it vital so that you can create a retrofit solution as a substitute of constructing a brand new smart appliance from scratch?
From day one, accessibility and sustainability have been core to our mission and that’s exactly why we selected to construct a retrofit product.
Replacing a whole stove simply to make it smart isn’t realistic for most individuals. It’s expensive, a serious purchasing decision, and typically isn’t crucial unless your appliance breaks otherwise you’re constructing a brand new house. We saw a possibility to do something more thoughtful: create an answer that works with what people have already got. With Ome, upgrading your stove takes minutes — no remodeling, no steep learning curve, and no need to switch something that also works.
There’s also a deeper sustainability angle here that’s often neglected. So many modern appliances are designed to get replaced — short product cycles, software that ages out quickly, components that fail early. We’re pushing against that trend. By extending the lifetime of existing appliances, we’re reducing waste and offering a better alternative.
To us, innovation isn’t about ranging 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 method.
How do you’re thinking that the broader smart home landscape will evolve in the following five years, especially when it comes to AI integration?
Over the following five years, I feel we’ll see a fundamental shift from “smart” homes to actually intelligent homes, and AI will probably be the motive force of that change. Nevertheless it won’t appear like what we see today. It won’t be about more screens or more control panels. The longer term is ambient — quiet, contextual, and deeply intuitive.
AI will turn into higher at learning how we live from our routines, preferences, and patterns of behavior. As a substitute of constant notifications and manual inputs, we’ll see systems that step in mechanically — adjusting, assisting, and protecting us in ways in which feel invisible but meaningful. Consider a house that senses risk and responds immediately, without waiting for a command.
This shift will even redefine what “smart” actually means. Immediately, there’s a flood of connected devices that don’t add real value. Over time, I imagine we’ll see the market correct itself, moving from gimmicks to purpose-driven innovation. Safety, aging in place, accessibility, and sustainability will turn into the benchmarks that matter.
The businesses that thrive on this next phase won’t be those chasing trends. They’ll be those quietly constructing trust, solving real pain points, and creating tech that blends into the background but makes an actual difference in on a regular basis life.
