Betaworks recently introduced the latest group of founders to graduate from its biannual Camp program, a 13-week residency known for backing early concepts that later turn into influential products. The program produced names like Hugging Face and Graze Social, and this year’s focus on “Interfaces” asks founders to rethink how people interact with AI across sensory, behavioral, and creative contexts. Applications opened in June, the program kicked off in August, and DemoDay took place on November 4.
The new cohort gathers ten projects that explore interaction from very different angles. Nora is a browser extension that follows a shopper’s browsing and buying activity, which was developed by Sid Banothu. Kasey Klimes’ Primitive turns spoken ideas into organized tasks and links them with digital calendars and productivity tools. Sean Raspet and Laura Sisson’s Patina is an olfactory system capable of producing “scent photographs” using protein folding, scent receptors, and graph neural networks. My Place, by Orange, builds games that reflect the routines of everyday life through highly grounded simulations and was created by Helen Huang.
This renewed activity in early-stage development mirrors behavior in entertainment and gaming, where people look for services that react smoothly, work on any device, and offer immediate feedback. The same preferences help explain why offshore betting platforms that accept players from Arizona attract steady use. These sites appeal to players who gravitate toward platforms with quick access, wide game choice, and steady performance, similar to what draws audiences to modern gaming and interactive apps.
The interest in offshore platforms among Arizona users also fits the same behavior pattern. These platforms function more like modern entertainment services than traditional betting portals. They run smoothly on phones, tablets, and desktops, and they offer layouts that minimize friction. People stay with them because the experience mirrors the digital spaces they already use for gaming, social activity, and interactive play. Regulators continue to warn residents about the risks tied to offshore operators, but their use remains strong because the experience feels familiar and responsive.
Similarly, as Betaworks highlighted in the cohort, it pointed to a stealth-stage project from Kevin Chang. Chang has been exploring ideas related to memory systems and interface models that follow the irregular pace of daily life. Another project, Telepath, created by Stephen Hood, Josh Whiting, and Rupert Manfredi, takes a radical approach by removing apps completely and leaning on AI to run the computer. Feather, founded by ShaoBo Zhang and Marco Yu, streamlines tedious tasks such as apartment hunting by building automated workflows tailored to user needs.
Nubrain, from founders Priyanka Jain and Ingo Marquardt, uses EEG readings to turn thoughts into speech, text, and images. Presq, created by Adam Saleh, Steve Burstyn, and Mikey Robins, allows creators to upload data that becomes manufacturable footwear designs, with plans to expand into eyewear and home goods. Intension, led by Conor Sanchez O’Shea and Gabriel Duemichen, helps people stay focused on desktop tasks by hiding distracting elements and mapping out a user’s workflow patterns.
What This Cohort Says About Consumer Behavior in Entertainment and Gaming
The companies in this Camp fit into a larger pattern: people are asking more from the digital environments where they spend their time. They look for interactions that feel immediate and adaptable, and those expectations now shape everything from gaming to productivity tools.
Nora’s tracking of shopping habits creates room for personalized recommendations. Primitive shows how speech input can replace manual effort. Patina adds scent as part of digital memory, something rarely explored in consumer products. My Place turns ordinary daily life into a playable world, while Telepath removes the structure of traditional apps altogether. Nubrain shortens the time between a thought and its output, reflecting the desire for tools that respond without delay.
This momentum lines up with how audiences treat entertainment today. Many players move between gaming, social platforms, creative tools, and streaming without feeling like they’ve changed environments. Creators also expect tools that let them shape their output more closely, which makes projects like Presq increasingly relevant. Intension’s focus on removing distractions shows how digital work and entertainment often share the same screen, with users switching between the two throughout the day.
The Camp’s emphasis on Interfaces suits this moment. Today’s entertainment and gaming audiences value tools that respond to instinctive behavior, not just input commands. Whether someone is navigating a simulated life in My Place, generating a scent-based memory in Patina, producing custom footwear in Presq, or spending time on entertainment platforms, the expectation is the same. With AI increasing the speed of the digital world, people increasingly expect technology that reacts quickly, adapts easily, and easily matches their preferences. The companies in Betaworks’ 13th Camp were built with those expectations in mind, offering a window into how the next phase of interactive entertainment may unfold.
