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Meadow lets you leave your smartphone at home without sacrificing the essentials

19 h ago

Meadow, a startup offering a minimalist smartphone designed for digital detox, aims to supplement rather than replace your primary device, as demonstrated by a successful test using its bare-bones phone to call an Uber, stream Apple Music, and scan a concert ticket without touching an iPhone. Founded by 25-year-old Shreyas Narlanka, who previously sold inventory management platform Scoutapp AI to StockX, Meadow runs Android and supports essential apps like Maps, Strava, Uber, Apple Music, and Spotify, along with native utilities for camera, voice memos, notes, text, calling, location sharing, and ticket scanning. Unlike full replacements such as the Light Phone or Wisephone, Meadow targets users seeking to unplug from social media and browsing while staying reachable via a separate phone number through a subscription plan. The device lacks a front-facing camera, using a mirror beside the lens for selfies, and photos are only viewable on the user's main smartphone later. During testing, the small square screen worked well outdoors, though the camera struggled in low light at a concert, and an initial Uber glitch has since been fixed. Meadow shipped its first bulk batch to preorder customers and raised funding in December 2024, led by Alana Goyal of basecase capital, with angel investors including Terrence Rohan, Discord's founding CMO Eros Resmini, Vercel founder Guillermo Rauch, and Diagram founder Jordan Singer. The startup addresses growing demand for screen time reduction tools, offering a middle road for those who want to disconnect without going fully off-grid.