Oli Jay
CEO · Software + commercial
Software engineer / IoT. Built and launched software products. Techstars and commercial-founder experience.
Bronze AgePre-seed investor deck · 2026
Personal technology should belong to you.
Bronze Age is building a new kind of consumer electronics company for the AI era. Beautiful, intelligent products that work together, adapt to your life and put you in control. Powered by local-first AI, private by design, open by principle and built to last.
Bronze Age
04Our first product
The Radio*
Sound
- Premium spatial audio
- Personalised radio
Intelligence
- Natural conversations
- Your choice of AI and voice
Ownership
- Local-first AI and private storage
- Physical privacy controls
Longevity
- Designed for repair and upgrades
- No mandatory AI subscription
Bronze Age05The experience
A familiar habit. A new interface for personal AI.
The Radio* starts with something people already do every day: listen. Music makes it immediately useful. Personalised programming and intelligent assistance make it more valuable over time.
Easy to adopt
A premium radio with immediate value, without needing to learn a new technology.
Built for daily use
Music, personalised content and useful everyday assistance create reasons to return.
A platform for more
Private memory, local AI and connected services lay the foundation for a wider family of products.
Bronze Age06Why now
Personal intelligence is becoming practical at home.
Smaller, more capable AI models are making it possible to build products that understand and respond to their owners without relying on the cloud for every interaction.
5.3×
improvement in intelligence per watt for local AI, 2023–2025
Stanford University + Together AI
More capable
Useful AI workloads can increasingly run on consumer hardware.
More personal
Preferences and context can remain with the owner, allowing a product to become more useful over time.
More independent
Local intelligence can reduce cloud costs, improve responsiveness and keep essential features working without a subscription.
Detail and sources in A4.
Local for everyday intelligence. Cloud when it’s useful. The choice stays with the owner.
Bronze Age07Business model
Revenue starts with a product worth owning.
Bronze Age starts with premium hardware customers own outright. Essential features are included, with no mandatory AI subscription. Future upgrades, optional services and new products create opportunities to grow.
The Radio*
~US$2,100
Unvalidated pricing hypothesis · USD, before tax
One premium, local-first product with core intelligence and features included.
-
Hardware upgrades
Replaceable computing hardware can extend product life and create opportunities for future upgrade sales.
-
Optional services
Pay-as-you-go cloud intelligence for additional capabilities. No subscription required for essential features.
-
Future products
A growing family of premium consumer electronics built around the same private, personal ecosystem.
Bronze Age08Unit economics
A premium product with improving economics at scale.
Our target launch price is ~US$2,100. Initial production costs are provisional, with lower unit costs modelled at higher manufacturing volumes.
| First 100 | 1,000 units | 10,000 units | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Target selling price | US$2,100 | US$2,100 | US$2,100 |
| Estimated landed cost | US$1,696 | US$1,467 | US$1,162 |
| Indicative gross margin | 19% | 30% | 45% |
Draft estimates from A2. Volume columns are sensitivity scenarios, not forecasts. Gross margins exclude acquisition, warranty, returns, support and software costs; compute and Airsound terms remain under review.
Bronze Age
09First customers
People who want a better experience, not more technology to manage.
The first customers are design-conscious buyers who value sound, materials, simplicity and products made to last. Some will be technically curious. Others will simply want an exceptional object that improves everyday life.
- They care about designMaterials, sound and appearance matter as much as specifications.
- They value simplicityThe best technology works without constant attention or configuration.
- They buy things to keepQuality, longevity and ownership matter more than an endless cycle of upgrades and subscriptions.
- They want something differentA personal listening experience offers more than another speaker or voice assistant.
Bronze Age10Market
Starting with premium audio. Building for a much bigger market.
Bronze Age enters through premium home audio, then expands into the wider market for personal consumer electronics.
Bronze Age
11Progress
Real hardware. Working software. The next step is customers.
- Working physical prototype and custom PCB V1
- Industrial design developed; supplier quotations received
- Personalised radio and voice interaction working end to end
- Local server and storage architecture working
- Airsound spatial audio integration agreed in principle; commercial terms under discussion
The hardware and core software have been demonstrated. The next challenges are a refined daily experience, production engineering and evidence of customer demand.
Bronze Age12Team
Software, electronics and design—with experienced consumer-audio production alongside us.
The founders have spent 5+ years building products together.
Neal Menhinick
Industrial design + brand
Industrial design, CAD, materials and premium product presentation.
Luke Bonnici
Electronics + systems
Electrical + software engineer. Smart-home experience. Designed Bronze Age’s electronics and PCB architecture.
Daniel Fletcher
Audio & manufacturing adviser
Founder/CEO of Airsound; ~30 years in consumer audio. Advising on acoustics, DFM, suppliers and production ramp.
Bronze Age13The plan
US$1M. Four steps. 100 paying homes by Christmas 2027.
-
Q4 2026 – Q1 2027
Prove demand
20 paid orders
- Founder-led demonstrations to design, audio and technical early adopters
- Willingness to pay at ~US$2,100 and the first acquisition costs
- Finalise the first-release experience
ProvesPeople will pay
-
Q1 – Q2 2027
Production intent
Ready to build
- Hardware and software integrated; local-first with optional cloud intelligence
- V2 electronics, acoustics, thermals and DFM with Airsound
- Supplier selection, compliance and certification under way
ProvesIt can be made
-
Q2 – Q3 2027
Pilot homes
10–20 homes
- Days used each week, repeat listening and session length
- The value of personalisation and conversation
- Reliability and the support each home needs
ProvesA daily habit
-
Q4 2027
First 100 customers
100 by Christmas
- The founding production run, delivered to paying UK customers
- Actual production and support costs
- Satisfaction, retention and referrals
ProvesThe economics
-
Q1 2028
Evaluate
Runway continues past delivery: measure the cohort, refine the product and prepare the case for further production.
Christmas 2027 is a target, subject to financing, certification and manufacturing readiness; steps overlap. Daniel Fletcher supports acoustics, DFM, suppliers and production ramp throughout. Detail in A3.
From a working prototype to 100 paying UK homes: the first evidence of a repeatable premium hardware business.
Bronze Age14The ask
Raising US$1M to bring The Radio* into 100 homes by Christmas 2027.
The funding will support production engineering, manufacturing readiness and the first 100 customer deliveries, followed by the evaluation of customer retention and the economics of further production.
US$1M
Pre-seed
US$5M
Post-money
18
Months
US$25K committed · seeking a lead.
Round goals
- 100 paying homes
- Measured COGS
- Initial CAC
- Repeat use
Indicative allocation
- 35%
Product + engineering
Electronics, software, AI, acoustics, thermals, production engineering
- 25%
Production + first units
Prototypes, suppliers, manufacturing, QC and inventory
- 20%
Demand + customer acquisition
Reservations, paid orders, demonstrations, launch, reviewers and CAC experiments
- 20%
Compliance + operations
Certification, security, privacy, legal, insurance, overhead and contingency
Bronze Age · Manchester · hello@the-bronze-age.com
Bronze AgePages A1 to A4
Appendix
Detail and sources behind the deck.
Bronze AgeA1Competitive landscape + market
Where Bronze Age sits against existing alternatives.
Competitive comparison
- Vendor assistantsConvenient voice interaction, usually tied to a platform, subscription model and cloud dependency.
- Premium audio brandsStrong sound and desirable hardware, but limited personal intelligence and little meaningful ownership of data or upgrade path.
- DIY home servers and local AIGreater control and flexibility for technical owners, but significant setup, maintenance and integration burden.
The gap Bronze Age addresses
Premium audio, personal intelligence, everyday ease of use and meaningful ownership in one product. The Radio* is designed to be immediately useful as a radio, then more valuable as personal context builds, without requiring customers to manage infrastructure or accept a mandatory AI subscription.
Launch market context (not TAM)
The UK has 28.6 million households. That figure is launch geography only, not an addressable market. The near-term focus is a smaller, premium UK audience that values design, sound, simplicity and products built to last.
Expansion (future opportunity)
Additional customer groups, international markets and product categories depend on proving demand, retention and production economics with the first cohort. We are not presenting penetration rates, market sizes or revenue forecasts for those expansions.
UK households: ONS, 2024. Launch context only (A4).
Bronze AgeA2Detailed unit economics
Provisional BOM and landed cost by volume.
| Bill of materials, per unit (USD) | 100 | 1,000 | 10,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Custom PCB (DSP, mics, amplifier) | 92 | 88 | 85 |
| Power supply | 50 | 40 | 30 |
| Acoustics (drivers, enclosure, fabric) | 180 | 130 | 95 |
| Body (3D print to 1k; moulding at 10k) | 150 | 150 | 20 |
| Aluminium panel, knob and buttons | 57 | 43 | 39 |
| Boot storage (256 GB NVMe) | 30 | 25 | 20 |
| Airsound licence (provisional) | 67 | 56 | 48 |
| Assembly and test (England) | 120 | 80 | 60 |
| Packaging and logistics | 70 | 55 | 45 |
| Compute (Jetson Orin NX 16GB, provisional) | 880 | 800 | 720 |
| Estimated landed cost | 1,696 | 1,467 | 1,162 |
| Indicative hardware gross margin | 19% | 30% | 45% |
Draft estimates only; dashed figures are provisional. Target retail US$2,100. Margins exclude acquisition, warranty, returns, support and software. Jetson and Airsound terms under review. Storage is for OS, product and personal memory, not NAS.
Bronze AgeA3Detailed roadmap
Engineering, certification and manufacturing dependencies through the first 100 paying UK deliveries.
-
Q4 2026 to Q1 2027
Validate
- Finalise the first-release experience and upgrade architecture
- Customer interviews; reservations and paid-order campaign (orders, not deliveries)
- Evaluate economical local AI compute options against product workloads
- Production-intent electronics, acoustics and thermal design
- Finalise legal, privacy and insurance foundations
-
Q1 to Q2 2027
Production intent
- Integrated hardware and software; core personalised-radio experience complete
- Local-first operation; optional cloud intelligence without customer API keys
- Airsound integration; DFM, supplier selection and manufacturing design
- Daniel supports acoustics, DFM, suppliers and production planning
- Compliance, privacy and security testing begins
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Q2 to Q3 2027
Pilot homes
- Place 10 to 20 pilot Radios in real homes, separate from the founding production run
- Measure repeat use and listening behaviour, not just features
- Refine personalisation, reliability and support burden
- Validate production processes and costs
- Complete CE conformity assessment, Great Britain gap review and production-readiness work
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Q4 2027
First 100 customers
- Certification complete; declarations and labelling
- Manufacture the founding production run
- Deliver 100 Radios to paying UK customers by Christmas 2027
- Establish customer support processes
- Measure satisfaction, retention and referrals
-
Q1 2028
Evaluate and prepare
- Analyse customer usage and retention
- Establish actual hardware and support economics
- Refine the product from the first cohort’s feedback
- Prepare the plan for further production
Every phase retires a specific risk. Daniel’s experience informs DFM, supplier selection, sourcing, QA and production ramp; it does not imply that manufacturing is solved or that final assembly moves from England.
Bronze AgeA4Sources + assumptions
Independent sources and company-supplied figures.
- Slide 06 · Intelligence per wattSaad-Falcon et al., “Intelligence per Watt: Measuring Intelligence Efficiency of Local AI”, Stanford University and Together AI, arXiv:2511.07885, November 2025. The cited 5.3× compares the best local model and accelerator of 2023 with 2025.
- Appendix benchmark detailModel evidence reviewed includes Hugging Face Open LLM Leaderboard v2; Qwen3 Technical Report, arXiv:2505.09388; OpenAI gpt-oss model card, arXiv:2508.10925; Google Gemma and Gemini model cards; and OpenAI simple-evals. Benchmark methods differ, so these support direction rather than a like-for-like product forecast.
- A1 · Launch geographyOffice for National Statistics, Families and households in the UK: 2024: 28.6 million households. Used as launch-geography context only, not TAM.
- A2 · Unit economicsDraft bill of materials, supplier quotations and volume assumptions are provided by Bronze Age. Figures are provisional and exclude customer acquisition, warranty, returns, support and software maintenance unless stated.
- Slide 12 · Airsound roleAirsound, “Our Story” / company site: Daniel Fletcher is Founder/CEO, founder and inventor of Airsound Spatial, specialising in audio product development, DSP and loudspeaker design.
- Slide 12 · Product leadershipDaniel Fletcher’s product-development portfolio and Glen Dimplex role note: Head of Innovation & Development across Roberts Radio and Morphy Richards; concept-to-production and international manufacturing-partner experience.
- Slide 12 · Manufacturing experienceDaniel Fletcher, “Top 5 tips for developing and manufacturing electronics in China”, 2019: ten years’ direct electronics/audio manufacturing experience, including DFM and supplier engagement.
- Slides 11–12 · Production + installed baseDaniel Fletcher, “Making the UK’s #1 soundbar: The Orbitsound T12v3”, 2019: manufacturing-partner replacement, design resilience, production QC and 150,000+ products using Airsound technology in homes.
- Company figuresProduct status, functionality, pricing hypotheses, targets, unit economics, draft BOM, use of funds, valuation and team involvement are provided by Bronze Age. Customer demand, CAC and mature production economics remain unvalidated.
- Slide 10 · Market sizingSonos household estimate, global audio and consumer electronics figures are company-supplied proxies and industry estimates for context, not validated TAM or forecasts.
- ImagesLifestyle and product images are design renders. Slide 11 uses photographs of the working prototype, PCB and workshop.