Can AI Finally Fix the Broken Customer Service Industry? This Ex-Meta Engineer Thinks So

💥 The $300 Million Missed Opportunity in Your Phone Calls

Imagine calling a plumbing company during a pipe emergency, only to get a rushed agent who forgets to schedule your appointment. For home service businesses, these missed calls aren’t just frustrating—they’re multi-million-dollar leaks. Now, a former Meta engineer who helped build PyTorch (the AI backbone for ChatGPT) is tackling this problem with a startup that just raised $14 million. Let’s dive in.

🌡️ The Home Service Industry’s Silent Revenue Killer

• 📞 80% of sales start with phone calls for HVAC, roofing, and plumbing companies—but many calls never convert to booked jobs.
• 💸 A 1% improvement in call conversions = $3M extra revenue for a $300M company (that’s like finding money in your tool belt).
• 🤖 Existing solutions analyze some calls—Lace AI monitors 100% of interactions using proprietary AI models.
• 🚨 Home services are a $600B+ industry in the U.S.—yet many still use pen-and-paper scheduling.

✅ Lace AI: The “Black Box” Turning Calls Into Cash

Boris Valkov (ex-Meta/VMware) and Stan Stoyanov built Lace to be the Shopify for phone-based sales. Here’s how it works:

• 🎯 Real-time call analysis: Their AI listens to tone, keywords, and conversation flow to flag missed upsells (e.g., “I’ll just patch the roof” → “Did you discuss full replacement?”).
• 📊 Revenue intelligence dashboards: Managers see which agents lose the most leads and why.
• 🚀 1,000% ARR growth in 2024 (though launched late 2023) with clients like A1 Garage Door and Eco Plumbers.
• 💰 $19M total funding ($5M pre-seed + $14M seed) from Bek Ventures, Canvas Ventures, and Snowflake’s co-founder.

🚧 The Obstacles: Can AI Outsmart Skeptical Plumbers?

• ⚠️ Tech adoption lag: 43% of contractors still use paper invoices (IBISWorld). Will they trust an AI “coach”?
• 🔊 Privacy concerns: Recording 100% of calls requires airtight data handling—a must for regulated industries.
• 📈 Scaling pains: Lace plans to triple its team to 60 employees—can culture survive hypergrowth?
• 🤼 Competition: Startups like Dixa and Replicant also target call centers with AI—but focus less on home services.

🚀 Final Verdict: A $19M Bet on the “Unsexy” Backbone of America

Lace’s success hinges on three factors:

• ✅ Vertical focus: Home services are fragmented but hungry for tech that directly boosts revenue.
• 🤖 AI accuracy: False positives (“You missed a sale!” alerts on routine calls) could erode trust.
• 📞 Phone vs. digital shift: As Gen Z homeowners prefer texting, will calls remain king?

Bek Ventures’ Mehmet Atici nails it: “This team knows how to apply AI where tech hasn’t dared to go—like your local HVAC company.” If Lace can turn every call center into a profit center, they might just reinvent customer service for Main Street America. But would YOU trust an AI to coach your plumber?

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Sources: Mary Ann Azevedo. Ex-Meta engineer raises $14M for AI-powered customer service software for home services, 2025-04-23. https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/22/ex-meta-engineer-raises-14m-for-lace-an-ai-powered-revenue-generation-software-startup/