Reporting · Annals of Technology
The Orlando Startup That Sold Silence
Inside a company that convinced strip-mall offices to pay for what the library on Colonial has always given away.
The company is called Hush, and it occupies the second floor of a building on Colonial Drive that also houses a dentist, a tax preparer, and a store that sells, exclusively, ceiling fans. Hush's product is a subscription: for a monthly fee, small offices in strip malls across Central Florida receive a package containing acoustic panels, a small white-noise machine, and a printed booklet with the title Instructions for Being Quiet.
The founder, a former sound engineer named Aisha Vanek, told me that the idea came to her in a dermatologist's waiting room. 'It was the noise of the receptionist's keyboard,' she said. 'It was the noise of the espresso machine. It was the noise of a television that no one was watching. I thought: someone would pay to make this stop.'
Someone, it turns out, will. Hush has, at last count, four hundred and twelve subscribers. Most of them are dentists. A few are lawyers. One is a taxidermist in Kissimmee. The public library on Colonial Drive, which sits about a mile from Hush's headquarters and offers silence for free, has, so far, declined to comment.