🤖 Two Founders Pretended To Be AI And Built A $1B Company

Sam Udotong, co-founder of the call-transcription startup Fireflies AI, admitted that at the start, he and his partner, Krish Ramineni, pretended to be AI. They joined meetings as a "bot," took notes by hand, and sent summaries 10 minutes after the call.

This went on for almost a year. By 2017, they had earned enough to rent an apartment, realized the idea worked, and decided actually to automate everything.

Still, many in the comments insist that Fireflies effectively misled clients and violated their privacy.

Later, Ramineni clarified that their earliest users were friends and acquaintances who knew about it. Today, he says, calls are genuinely processed by AI—and handled confidentially.

"Wanted to clear up the confusion for everyone asking. No human can take notes for millions of people every day, 24/7," he jokes.

💰 Today, the startup is valued at $1B and claims 20M users.

@hiaimedien