Martha Stewart co-founded an AI app that manages your home for you
Hint launches today as a free iPhone app that builds a profile of your house from public records, tracks maintenance tasks, and answers questions about your insurance and energy bills.
Key points
- Hint, a home-management AI app, launched on iOS on 17 June 2025 with Martha Stewart as a genuine equity co-founder, not a spokesperson.
- The app is free with no ads; the startup has raised $10 million from investors including Slow Ventures and Tusk Venture Partners.
- Hint uses AI technology from OpenAI and Google Gemini (Google's image-recognition AI) under the hood.
- Users type in their home address and the app automatically pulls property records, soil data, weather history and utility information to build a home profile.
- A premium subscription tier is planned for the future, covering features like managing more than one property.
Martha Stewart has spent decades telling Americans how to fold napkins, grow herbs and keep a spotless kitchen. Now she is co-founding an AI startup aimed at the parts of homeownership that nobody enjoys: the leaky water heater, the forgotten air filter, the insurance claim you are not sure is worth filing.
The app is called Hint, a name that blends "H" for home with "intelligence." It launched today on Apple's iOS platform, reported first by TechCrunch, and it is free to download with no ads.
What does Hint actually do?
Type in your home address and Hint gets to work immediately, pulling publicly available data including property records, local weather patterns, soil composition and utility rates to build a digital profile of your house. You then upload documents you already have: inspection reports, mortgage papers, warranty cards, insurance policies.
Once the profile is set up, an AI assistant, software that can hold a conversation and answer questions about the documents you have stored, becomes your on-call home expert. You could ask it when you last had the air conditioning serviced, what you are paying per unit of electricity, or whether you have enough coverage on your homeowner's insurance.
The app also tracks appliance photos. Snap a picture of your refrigerator and Hint will remind you to vacuum the coils behind it, a fire-risk task most people never know exists. It knows when to flush a water heater. It will remind you to check salt levels if your home has a well.
All of this feeds into a personalised maintenance calendar and a single "home score," a number that tells you at a glance how well you are keeping up.
Is Martha Stewart really running this company?
Yes, in a hands-on way. Kyle Rush, the co-founder and CTO (the person in charge of the technology), is based near Stewart and says he visits her roughly twice a week to review the app together. She is not a financial investor; her stake comes in the form of equity, a share of ownership in the company.
"When it's wrong about soil, she'll say it," Rush told TechCrunch. She also weighs in on branding and language.
The startup launched in 2024 as a narrower tool to help homeowners find government energy-saving incentives, then broadened its scope when the team concluded that no good all-in-one home management app existed.
Rush previously led engineering at mattress brand Casper and built technology for the Obama and Clinton presidential campaigns. CEO Yih-Han Ma comes from Red Ventures, a digital media and technology company.
What does this cost, and what comes next?
Right now, nothing. The app is free, with no subscription and no ads.
Hint makes money today through referral fees from its network of home-service providers. Rush says that commercial relationship is deliberately kept separate from the AI so it cannot skew recommendations toward paid partners.
A paid premium tier is planned later, likely adding support for multiple properties.
| Detail | Facts |
|---|---|
| Launch date | 17 June 2025 |
| Platform | iOS (free) |
| Funding raised | $10 million |
| AI engines used | OpenAI, Google Gemini |
| Co-founders | Kyle Rush (CTO), Yih-Han Ma (CEO), Martha Stewart |
| Business model now | Affiliate referral fees |
Common questions
Does Hint sell my home data?
Rush says affiliate revenue is firewalled from the AI recommendations, meaning the app cannot be paid to steer you toward a specific contractor. The startup has not published a detailed data policy yet, so it is worth checking the app's privacy terms before uploading sensitive documents like mortgage papers.
Do I need to be tech-savvy to use this?
The app is designed for ordinary homeowners, not professionals. You enter your address, photograph your appliances, and upload any documents you have. The AI does the organising and sends you reminders, so you do not need to know anything about software to benefit.
