Our Story
Built so you can live your way.
Optiphone wasn't built to sell you AI. It was built so the phone stops running your evenings, your weekends, and the dinner table. Here's why — and who we built it for.
Founder
Dylan Amey
Tradie's kid. Accountant. Founder of Optiphone.
Our Mission
Every caller deserves to be heard. Every owner deserves their life back.
Freedom, the way we mean it, isn't a beach in Thailand. It's a normal Wednesday where you're great at your trade, present at home, and the phone isn't the loudest thing in your life. School pickup. Dinner uninterrupted. A Sunday that actually feels like a Sunday. That's the version of freedom your business was supposed to give you — and the phone has been quietly stealing it back.
Here's what the missed-call data doesn't show: there's a customer on the other end of every one of those calls. Someone with a burst pipe. A pool that needs to be ready before a party. An electrical fault that's been worrying them for weeks. They called because they needed help. They got voicemail. And then they called someone else. The owner loses the job. The customer loses the help. Both walk away feeling like the phone shouldn't be allowed to do that.
So we built one thing, properly: an AI receptionist that picks up every call, sounds like someone you'd actually hire, and books the job into your system — so you can put the phone down and get back to your day.
Optiphone exists because the founder lived this problem first as a kid, then watched it repeat across dozens of trade businesses as an accountant. This isn't a tech company that picked an industry. It's a trades-and-services company that happens to use AI.
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KPMG has no involvement in Optiphone Innovations. Dylan's role with KPMG is separate from his work with Optiphone Innovations.
The Founder
Why Dylan Built This
I didn't come to this problem through a pitch deck. I came to it through my parents.
My dad built a pool maintenance business on the Gold Coast over 20 years. My mum ran the phone for it while raising us — fielding calls during the day, taking messages between school runs, then doing the books at night. She later started her own accounting practice. Both of them are exceptional at what they do. Both of them spent years losing jobs to missed calls, drowning in admin, and working evenings they should have had off.
As a kid I didn't have language for it. I just knew the phone always won.
Conversations got cut short. Dinners got interrupted. My parents' attention belonged to whoever was calling — and when they couldn't pick up, the guilt of the missed job carried into the rest of the day.
That picture never left me.
For a long time I assumed it was just a dad problem. A mum problem. A "my family" problem.
Then I became an accountant. At MQ Accountants I worked hands-on with more than 30 solo operators and small trade businesses — plumbers, sparkies, pool techs, landscapers, cleaners. Later at KPMG I saw the other end of the spectrum, advising businesses turning over $100M+. And the pattern made me feel sick, because it wasn't unique to my family at all. The bigger the operation, the more systems protected the owner's time. The smaller the business, the more the owner became the system. Every single tradie I worked with was losing jobs to a ringing phone they couldn't answer, and beating themselves up for it after hours.
That's when I knew: this wasn't a dad problem. It was a structural problem hitting every owner-operator in the country. And the existing answers — voicemail, a part-time receptionist they couldn't really afford, an overseas call centre that didn't know a pool from a pump — weren't actually fixing it.
The data makes it visceral. 80% of callers sent to voicemail hang up without leaving a message. 85% never call back. 62% have already called a competitor. Every one of those was a customer who needed someone to take their details and tell them help was on the way — and got nothing instead.
You didn't lose that job because you were bad at your trade. You lost it because you were busy being great at it.
I started building Optiphone in early 2024, using my dad's pool business as the very first test customer — because if it couldn't survive his calls, it couldn't survive yours. In December 2025, I left KPMG to go all in.
Optiphone is my answer to a problem I felt before I understood it, and confirmed with my own eyes across dozens of businesses before I built a single line of it.
I'm not a tech founder who spotted an industry to disrupt. I'm a tradie's kid who became an accountant who got tired of watching good operators lose to a phone.
— Dylan Amey, Founder, Optiphone
Why Tradies Choose Us
What makes Optiphone different.
Founder lens, trade-specific build, owner-controlled bookings. The three things every alternative gets wrong.
Founder-lived problem
Not a tech opportunity. A family one.
Built by a tradie's kid turned accountant who lived the missed-call problem at home before he saw it everywhere else. That's why our AI sounds like it understands your customer — because it was trained against the calls we grew up with.
Built only for trades
No restaurants. No clinics. No retail.
Generic AI receptionists try to serve every industry and end up serving none well. We've deliberately niched on Aussie home services — pool, plumbing, electrical, HVAC, landscaping, cleaning. Every word our agents say has been shaped by real trade calls.
Owner-controlled
You approve every booking.
We don't quote, commit, or block out your calendar without your say-so. The agent answers, qualifies, and gets the job into ServiceM8 — you stay the boss. No surprises, no overbooked Saturdays.
Where the alternatives fall short
- Voicemail: 80% hang up, 85% never call back. It's a leak, not a system.
- Part-time receptionist: $25k–$35k/year, sick days, training, still no after-hours cover.
- Overseas call centres: Generic scripts, accent friction, no trade context, customers can tell.
- Generic AI receptionists: Built for everyone, optimised for no one. They don't know what a pool pump is.
Referrer & sales ammo
The one-liner that lands hardest
"It was built by an accountant who grew up in a trade family, specifically for Australian tradies. He's lived the missed-call problem from both sides — that's why it actually fits."
It signals two things at once: lived empathy and professional rigour. That combination is the wedge nobody else in this category has.
About the Founder
What People Say About Dylan
The people behind a product matter. Here's what colleagues and collaborators have to say.
“I had Dylan support me recently to run the biggest event I have ever hosted on the Gold Coast. I am so grateful for his help, he was incredibly switched on and very proactive when I was experiencing some challenges with the venue while trying to present to the audience. Apart from his incredible people skills and being a reliable person you can count on. He is overall a really great human and someone you want to have in your corner.”
Kateesha Hembrow
“I've had the pleasure of knowing Dylan through Fxrge over the past two years, and he's been one of those rare people who shows up not just as an attendee, but as someone who genuinely wants to help... His reliability, positive attitude, and willingness to pitch in without being asked is something you truly don't take for granted...”
Isaac Wright
The Fxrge
“One of the best people I know to bounce ideas off. Sharp thinker, genuinely insightful, and always brings a grounded practical perspective. The kind of person who actually wants to see you win and shows up like it too. Great guy, highly recommend without hesitation!”
Jaxon Broderick
Digital Consultant and CRO
Our Principles
What we stand for.
Owner Control
You approve every booking. We just stop the chaos.
Home-Services Focus
Built on real calls from Aussie home-services businesses. Designed exclusively for home-services businesses.
Transparent ROI
Every scorecard result shows the exact revenue and time we protect.
Human Support
Real humans on hand to tweak scripts, promos, and processes.
Proof of Freedom
Optiphone Was Working While These Were Taken
Real photos. Real locations. The business never stopped.
Beijing, China
"2,000 kilometres from the office. Zero missed calls."
Optiphone handled every enquiry while I was here.
For You
Freedom isn't somewhere else.
You just need to make it to the school pickup. To have a Sunday that actually feels like a Sunday. To take a week off and come back to a full calendar instead of a stack of missed calls.
That's what Optiphone is for. And it's why we built it the way we did — specifically for home service and trade businesses, by someone who understands what your days actually look like.