The Vergecast · Tuesday, July 28, 2026
Kai Tang, CEO and co-founder of Light, discussed the company's mission to offer an alternative to smartphones. He explained that the initial motivation stemmed from observing people engrossed in their phones and wanting a device for essential tasks without distractions.
“So you and I have talked intermittently over the last, I would say decade about what are we going to do about all of these smartphones?”
“Almost like a reaction, I remember, um, um, reaction to the observation or just the awareness I felt when I was in public, right? Watching people, um, sitting in a park with their phone, in a restaurant, everyone swiping and, and transaction, airport.”
“All I wanted to do is just use this specific tool like getting a direction home or getting an Uber home. Why do I have to suffer through advertisements?”
“So I want to build a phone for myself that just have the right, just have the thing I wanted to do and move on.”