Martha Stewart, the lifestyle mogul known for building a home and hospitality empire, has taken a hands-on role as a co-founder of Hint, a new AI-powered app launching today that aims to become the central command center for home management. The app, which is available for free on iOS, uses artificial intelligence to help homeowners track maintenance schedules, manage energy consumption, handle insurance claims, and store important documents.
From decarbonization tool to all-in-one home assistant
Hint originally started in 2024 as a tool to help homeowners handle government incentives for decarbonization. But the founding team, led by CEO Yih-Han Ma and CTO Kyle Rush, quickly recognized a broader opportunity. “We really quickly realized, why can’t this be the AI for your home? People don’t really have an app to manage their homes,” Rush told TechCrunch. The startup raised $10 million from investors including Brian Kelly (The Points Guy), Slow Ventures, Tusk Venture Partners, and Energy Impact Partners.
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Rush previously led engineering at mattress startup Casper during its growth phase and was CTO at online retailer Maisonette. He also built technology for the Obama and Hillary presidential campaigns. Ma was formerly SVP and GM at Red Ventures.
How Hint works: personalized home intelligence
To get started, users enter their home address, and Hint builds a profile using public data such as property records, weather patterns, soil information, and utility details. Homeowners can then upload documents like inspection reports, home warranties, mortgage papers, insurance policies, and invoices. The app also accepts photos of major appliances, which allows the AI to guide users through maintenance tasks.
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The system can reveal information many homeowners overlook. For example, it can analyze soil data to assess drainage issues or foundation risk, track air quality around the home, and factor in climate and drought information to evaluate flood risk or insurance rates. Hint generates a personalized maintenance schedule with proactive push notifications for tasks like flushing a water heater, checking well salt levels, or vacuuming refrigerator coils to prevent fire hazards.
A “home score” provides an at-a-glance rating of how well the homeowner is managing their property. The built-in AI chatbot can answer questions ranging from simple queries about when the AC was last serviced to more complex financial considerations, such as whether a HELOC makes sense or whether home insurance deductibles are too high.
Martha Stewart’s hands-on involvement
Rush emphasized that Stewart is not a figurehead. “She’s a real co-founder with a serious stake in equity, and she does work for the company and the app,” he said. “I go over about twice a week. We sit down and look at the app, and she looks at what it’s saying — when it’s wrong about soil, she’ll say it, and when it’s not right about something about the home… she’ll mention it, and she’ll comment on what I design and the branding and the language.” Stewart’s decades of experience managing homes have guided the app’s development in key areas, from soil quality assessments to maintenance task prioritization.
Business model and future plans
Hint currently generates revenue through affiliate partnerships with service providers, which Rush says are firewalled from the AI to avoid biased recommendations. The core AI features remain free, with a potential premium subscription planned for power users who need to manage multiple properties. “We want it to be in the hands of every homeowner in the country,” Rush said. The app uses commercial AI libraries from OpenAI and Google’s Gemini for image processing.
Hint joins a growing field of AI applications designed to move beyond chatbots and solve practical, real-world problems. By combining Martha Stewart’s hands-on expertise with applied AI, the startup is betting that homeowners will welcome a digital assistant that understands the unique complexities of their property.
