How We Got Here: The InnoCaption Story

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On July 7, 2016, the InnoCaption mobile app launched to the public. It was a watershed moment for accessibility. Smartphones had already taken over the world, but other captioning companies were still focused on landline phones. The rest is history: over 30 million captioned calls, hundreds of thousands of lives touched, countless advancements in technology.

But the InnoCaption story started long before that day 10 years ago. As we celebrate our anniversary, four of our leaders sat down to reflect on the path that brought them here.

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Joseph Lee, founder & former co-CEO

Joseph founded InnoCaption in 2007. He now serves as Chairman of the Board.

I was born in South Korea soon after the Korean War. After college, I served in the Korean military, and then I joined Samsung. In 1989, the company sent me to America as part of its early expansion abroad.

When I moved to this country, I noticed something. As a kid in Korea, I had watched American shows that were always poorly dubbed. But in the US, I could turn on closed captions and follow the original audio. This helped me so much as I was learning English.

Years later, working in the telecom industry, I read that nearly 10% of Americans had some form of hearing loss and many struggled with phone calls. Mobile phones were changing the world, but no one was building captioning solutions for them. I knew we could. And that the captions that had once helped me navigate a new language could help millions of people communicate.

So I invested my own retirement savings and started InnoCaption.

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Joe Duarte, former co-CEO

Joe joined Joseph soon after discovering InnoCaption at a conference in 2012. He now serves as Vice Chairman of the Board.

I was born in Portugal with a profound hearing loss. When I was four years old, I got my first hearing aid. That opened part of the world for me, but communication was still never easy. The phone was my #1 challenge in trying to get to an equal playing field with my hearing peers.

I became a systems engineer at IBM, and management encouraged me to become a lead engineer. That gave me confidence. But missing so much in meetings led me to explore accessibility solutions for people with hearing loss. Eventually, I left IBM and started my own business focused on providing accessible communication technologies. 

Years later, I saw InnoCaption demonstrated at the HLAA convention. I made a test call to my daughter Cristina, and for the first time in my life, I was able to have a normal, enjoyable, effortless phone conversation. The usual barriers disappeared.

I knew right away this was powerful. It was the best phone captioning technology I had ever seen. I knew I had to get involved.

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Paul Lee, CEO

Paul is Joseph Lee’s son. He joined InnoCaption in 2020, serving as CFO and COO before his recent appointment to CEO, and he serves on the Board of Directors as well.

I was four years old when we moved to the US. We landed in Kentucky and my mother didn't speak much English yet, and frankly, I had to learn too.

Over time, I became the family translator. My mother would look to me and ask, "What did they say?" — at the grocery store, at school, at restaurants. Before I knew what it really meant, I learned how challenging it can be when you can't understand the world around you.

I spent more than a decade in finance, investing in other people's companies. But the company my father had been quietly building back home meant more to me than any of it, because of the impact I knew it could make. So I took a big chance and decided to invest in our family instead.

In 2020, I left the finance industry and came home. I wanted to help bring the technology my father had built to as many people as it could reach. The early years as a bootstrap startup were hard. But what kept me going were the real-life InnoCaption users I met along the way and each time they told me just how much our service meant to them.

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Cristina Duarte, VP of Regulatory Affairs

Cristina is Joe Duarte’s daughter. She joined InnoCaption in 2015 and now serves as a Board Observer in addition to her primary role.

Growing up, the phone was always my responsibility. Since I was 4 years old, I had my script ready: “Duarte residence, Cristina speaking, how can I help you?” 

My dad was always searching for better accessible technology, and I was often his guinea pig. He would call me, we would talk for a little while, and he would say, “Eh, it’s not quite there yet,” and just hang up. Then one day, he called me using InnoCaption. This time, it didn’t end with disappointment. It was a special moment, talking and laughing with my dad like he was hearing.

A few years later, during my last year of law school, the InnoCaption team needed help navigating the regulations that came with FCC certification and funding. As we joke in my family, only family will work for free. So I started helping.

At the time, I don’t think any of us fully knew what we were getting ourselves into, especially 25-year-old me. But I knew what InnoCaption would have meant for my parents when I was growing up, and what it could mean for other families who had been working around inaccessible phone systems for years. So I went all in.

To the community

This story is yours too — because we wouldn’t be here without you.

Every user who has trusted us with their calls and given us feedback on our products. Every organization that has heard what we had to say and told their members about us. Every hearing health professional who has recommended InnoCaption to their patients. And every advocate who has fought for equal access, making the world more inclusive every day.

Thank you for being part of this journey. Here’s to another decade of connection.