Martha Stewart co-founded an AI app that manages your home for you
Hint launches 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 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 for image recognition 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 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 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 and soil composition 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 becomes your on-call home expert. You could ask it when you last had the air conditioning serviced, what you are paying per kilowatt hour for 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. Flushing a water heater and checking the salt level for a home well are also on the calendar. All of this feeds into a personalised maintenance schedule 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, co-founder and the person in charge of the technology as CTO, 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 as 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 Casper and built technology for the Obama and Hillary presidential campaigns. CEO Yih-Han Ma comes from Red Ventures, a digital media company.
What does this cost, and what comes next?
Right now, nothing. Hint is free with no subscription and no ads.
Hint generates revenue through referral fees from its network of home-service providers. Rush says that commercial relationship is deliberately firewalled from the AI so it cannot skew recommendations toward paid partners.
A paid premium tier is planned later, likely adding support for multiple properties. For ordinary homeowners, that's the number to watch: whether the free tier stays genuinely useful once the business needs paying customers.
| Detail | Facts |
|---|---|
| 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. No detailed data policy has been published yet, so check 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. Enter your address, photograph your appliances, upload any documents you have, and the AI does the organising and sends you reminders.
