StrictlyVC Download · Connie Loizos & Alex Gove

Competing in the post-Humane AI wearables era with Sandbar CEO Mina Fahmi

December 31, 2025·25 min·2 clips

Mina Fahmy found himself venting about his childhood to an AI ring prototype on the West Side Highway, sparking a new conversational dynamic.

The setup stays concrete. Stream is a ring you talk to, not another pitch about AI wearables becoming inevitable. In the live Palo Alto conversation, that simple idea opens the harder questions: what would make an AI device useful, wearable, and realistic to build? Meena lays out the self-extension concept. Stream is a personal assistant reached through normal conversation, with the user still in charge of conversations with AI. Tony brings the investor lens. True Ventures backed Fitbit, Peloton, Ring, and Hatch, so his hardware case comes from consumer-device scars and wins, not hand-wavy optimism. He starts out skeptical anyway. What changes his mind is a prototype that made many people at True say they would actually wear it. Hardware gets a higher bar. Tony says a first device has to work right away because hardware companies do not get the same easy iteration runway software startups often have. That point keeps coming back. The conversation turns to launch timing, and why Sandbar showed Stream months before shipping in summer 2026. Pre-orders are not treated as hype alone. Meena ties them to manufacturing discipline: early demand helps a first-time company avoid guessing on production runs. The competitive backdrop is there too. OpenAI's reported work with Johnny Ive raises the obvious question of where Sandbar fits as bigger AI-device projects gather force. The tone stays practical. This is less gadget reveal than gut check: what would people use, and what has to happen before Stream earns a daily habit?

As heard by us

A sharp look at why the next AI device has to feel obvious, not just new.

Strictly VC Download follows a live recording from a Strictly VC event in Palo Alto and keeps its attention on the future of AI wearables through Sandbar's Stream ring.

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Why you'd press play

If you want the case for wearing AI instead of carrying it, start here.

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