Company profile · 3 min read
Hey Telo: AI phone and email operations for trades
Hey Telo answers calls, schedules work, qualifies quote requests and writes service activity into German trades businesses’ software.
Cofounder of Lazyweb (a16z Speedrun). Previously grew subscriptions and built native ads at Duolingo. Writes First1000 (90,000+ subscribers).
Published · Updated
What it does
Hey Telo is a voice and email AI assistant for German home-service and trades businesses. It answers customer calls, schedules appointments, routes special cases, qualifies quote requests, handles email and writes the result into trade software such as pds, KWP and mfr. The YC profile describes voice-first AI for Germany’s crafts businesses; the current homepage shows the German workflow and integrations.
The fit is an HVAC, plumbing, electrical or similar service business losing time and revenue to phone interruptions, missed calls and manual scheduling. Hey Telo is strongest when the work is repetitive and the business wants the AI to create a service order or appointment inside the system it already uses.
Why I’d look closer
The site lists six concrete workflows: customer service calls, a central call intake, route planning, quote qualification, field-service knowledge and email AI. It says 300+ businesses trust Hey Telo and shows integration with pds, KWP, mfr, Outlook, Google Calendar, SMS and WhatsApp. Customer testimonials report fewer hours of office work and better Friday/weekend coverage; these are company-selected claims.
The founder context is unusually practical. The YC profile describes brothers Daniel and Christopher Grittner with home-service context, Amazon/computer-vision research, Celonis, Tacto and Finantier experience. The current German site is also clear about the product boundary: special requests route to the team rather than being forced through automation.
What I’d ask
Which trade-software fields are written automatically, how are quotes and appointment changes confirmed, and what happens when a caller describes an emergency? I’d test German accents, noisy calls, rescheduling, price questions and a real pds/KWP handoff with a human escalation path.
My editorial take
Hey Telo is a strong fit for trades businesses where the phone is the hidden operations queue. The integrations and local founder context make it more credible than a generic voice agent. The first proof is fewer missed calls and correctly created service work, not call volume.
Quick facts
| Field | Sourced detail |
|---|---|
| Buyer fit | German HVAC, plumbing and other home-service businesses |
| Workflow | Phone, email, scheduling, dispatch, quote qualification and field knowledge |
| Integrations | pds, KWP, mfr, Outlook, calendars, SMS and WhatsApp; company-stated |
| Usage signal | Homepage says 300+ businesses; company-reported |
Sources checked
Checked 2026-09-20.
| Source | Used for |
|---|---|
| YC company profile | Product, founders and launch context |
| Hey Telo homepage | Current German workflows, integrations and business claim |
| Hey Telo blog | Public trade-operator content surface |
Cohort context
Hey Telo is listed in Winter 2025. In our 2026-09-18 directory snapshot, 104 of 165 listed companies in that cohort have YC’s primary industry label B2B (63.0%). This is a current-directory comparison, not an original intake count or a performance ranking. Nine-cohort dataset.
Public website snapshot
Observed 2026-09-19T16:19:36.538Z in raw homepage HTML. This records visible metadata and advertised links, not agent execution or product quality.
| Signal | Homepage observation |
|---|---|
| Product description metadata | Observed |
| Canonical link | Observed |
| H1 or H2 heading | Observed |
| Typed structured data | Not observed in this response |
| Docs/developer link | Not observed in this response |
| Pricing link | Observed |
| llms.txt link | Not observed in this response |
| Markdown alternate | Not observed in this response |
Public observations · Collection method. Missing links here do not establish that a capability or file is absent elsewhere.
About the author
Cofounder of Lazyweb (a16z Speedrun). Previously grew subscriptions and built native ads at Duolingo. Writes First1000 (90,000+ subscribers).
I cofound Lazyweb and publish Mudpie. This is an owner-written publication, not an independent testing organization. Research notes distinguish observations, sourced reporting and editorial judgment.
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