The archive · Hardware & Devices · Strategic decision · 2024–2026
Omi bets open-source AI wearable is the 'second brain': $89 pendant, 13.4k GitHub stars
Based Hardware's Omi bets an open-source, user-owned AI pendant that complements the phone can outlast AI-gadget hype; 13.4k GitHub stars, 300k users claimed.
Based Hardware (Omi)
What the business is
Based Hardware sells Omi, an $89 AI pendant plus app that records conversations, transcribes them, summarizes action items, and remembers context across desktop, phone and wearables.
Starting capital：~$700,000 raised, of which founder Nik Shevchenko spent $150,000 on promotional videos shot in Los Angeles (TechCrunch, January 2025)
How it started
Nik Shevchenko, a Thiel Fellow with a history of eye-grabbing stunts, first marketed the device on Kickstarter under the name Friend, then renamed it Omi after Avi Schiffmann's rival Friend launched and bought the Friend domain for $1.8 million. At CES 2025 in Las Vegas, Based Hardware announced Omi as a small round orb worn as a necklace — or taped to the temple using what the company called a 'brain interface' to tell when the user is talking to it, a capability TechCrunch noted it could not verify.
What happened
The consumer version cost $89 and started shipping in Q2 2025; a developer version sold for about $70. Omi listens continuously, runs conversations through GPT-4o, and remembers context for personalized advice. Shevchenko said he had raised roughly $700,000 and spent $150,000 of it on promotional videos, betting that attention itself improved an open-source product. GitHub growth followed the launch: the repo trended 9 days since March 2024 with a best all-languages rank of #2 on 2026-04-19, and held 13.4k stars by 2026-09-01. An April 2026 week-long field test by agency Imagination described the app as the real brain, praised its action-item extraction and plugin ecosystem, and noted Omi states it does not train models on conversations without consent.
How it ended up
Omi is still shipping and expanding: the fully open-source, MIT-licensed repo now spans a mobile app, macOS and Windows apps, firmware, and Omi Glass on ESP32-S3, and the README claims 300,000+ professionals as users as of 2026-09-02.
Background
Based Hardware's Omi launched at CES 2025 as an $89 AI pendant worn as a necklace or taped to the temple, with founder Nik Shevchenko betting the winning AI wearable complements the phone instead of replacing it. The device listens continuously, runs conversations through GPT-4o, summarizes them, extracts action items, and remembers context. Shevchenko, a Thiel Fellow, had originally sold the same idea on Kickstarter as Friend, then renamed it after rival Avi Schiffmann's Friend bought the Friend domain for $1.8 million.
The company made open source its core differentiator: users can see where their data goes or store it locally, and developers can build their own apps or plug in their own models — 250+ apps existed on the store by launch. Shevchenko told TechCrunch he had raised about $700,000 and spent $150,000 of it on promotional videos, arguing that the more people knew about Omi, the better the open-source platform became. TechCrunch was candid that it could not verify the claimed 'brain interface'; the always-listening design also drew privacy questions from reviewers.
Traction compounded from there. The GitHub repo trended on multiple occasions since March 2024 — best all-languages rank of #2 on 2026-04-19 — and reached 13.4k stars with global rank #3820 by 2026-09-01. The README claims 300,000+ professionals, and the codebase has grown into a full stack: Flutter mobile app, macOS and Windows desktop apps, Python backend, firmware, and Omi Glass on ESP32-S3. An April 2026 field test by agency Imagination called the app the real brain of the system and highlighted the plugin ecosystem, while noting accuracy limits on transcripts.
Omi has not become a smartphone killer — that was never the bet. Instead it became one of the most-starred open-source AI wearable projects, showing that an unglamorous, complementary device with user-controlled data can outlast the wave of gadgets that promised to replace the phone and then fizzled.
What has to be true
- Framing Omi as a complement to the phone, not a replacement, sidesteps the expectation that sank Rabbit, Humane and Friend — users keep their phone and get a helper.
- Open source converts the biggest objection to an always-listening device — privacy — into a distribution asset: code is inspectable and data can stay local.
- A $89 price and a $70 developer kit lowered the entry barrier for both consumers and app developers, seeding a 250+-app store before mainstream shipping.
- GitHub's repeated trending runs — best rank #2 on 2026-04-19, 13.4k stars by September 2026 — show developer pull compounding without paid marketing.
What can be applied
Open source is a credibility weapon for always-listening hardware: showing the code and letting users keep data local turns the privacy objection into a distribution advantage.
Aftermath
As of 2026-09-02 Omi is live and expanding: the MIT-licensed, fully open-source project covers mobile, desktop, firmware and Omi Glass, the README claims 300,000+ professionals, and the plugin ecosystem continues to grow through community-built apps. No revenue or valuation has been disclosed; the company remains small and venture-light, having launched on roughly $700K. Its open-source governance and device sales both depend on the always-listening pitch holding up as privacy scrutiny of AI wearables intensifies.
Sources
- Omi, a competitor to Friend, wants to boost your productivity using AI and a 'brain interface'
- Working with an AI assistant: What my week with OMI taught me
- BasedHardware/omi — repository
- BasedHardware/omi — star history and trending
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