Hovik Melikyan
Physicist turned software engineer. Thirty-five years of consumer apps, audio software and devices, and the backends behind them, as a technical co-founder and early engineer at startups in London, Paris, Dublin and the US.
Now: Polyphone, live voice conversation with several AI agents. Working prototype on macOS.
Work
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Talk Machine · Lead iOS engineer · 2025–
Voice-first messaging from Citymapper's founder: voice notes you can read, live translation, voice agents for your email and calendar. The native iOS app.
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Peptalk · Co-founder & CTO · 2018–2025
Motivational audio, subscription business, team of three. Over a million downloads, 4.9★ from 40,000+ ratings. I built the iOS app and the backend.
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all.health · Lead mobile · 2022–2023
Continuous health monitoring from Jawbone founder Hosain Rahman. Led a mobile team of twelve and rewrote the iOS app.
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Cuvva · Lead mobile · 2016–2018
Hourly car insurance, through Techstars London. Built the original iOS and Android versions of the app. Cuvva became the UK's most downloaded insurance app, with 250,000 customers by 2019.
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AllDSP · iOS and embedded, contract · 2013–2016
The iPad app sound engineers use to tune AllDSP's amplifiers live (EQ, crossovers, routing, delays), white-labelled for other amplifier brands. And the embedded C running Bluetooth and audio routing inside Jean-Michel Jarre's AeroSkull speakers.
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Sensogram · Director of product engineering · 2011–2014
A wearable that measures blood pressure and other vitals continuously. Ran the build end to end: industrial design, electronics, firmware, app, cloud.
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VXSoft · Co-founder & chief software architect · 2009–2013
Systems for the Government of Armenia, including the national company register, e-register.am.
Also
Shannon, a programming language of my own design, 2009–2012.
Open source: AudioNodes, AsyncMux, NIOJet.
MS in Physics, 1992, Yerevan State University.