2 men listening in to work meetings fool their customers into paying $100 per month for "AI note-taking startup": 'The first version... doesn't even have AI'

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    6 business people sitting around meeting table, two shaking hands, with coffees and notebooks in front of them
  • 02
    Came across this post on LinkedIn... Turns out the first version of @firefliesai - Al meeting assistant - doesn't even have Al.
  • 03
    It's just founder joining the calls, taking notes manually, and sending the summary back.
  • 04
    Sam Udotong in - 1st Co-founder & CTO at Fireflies.ai 10h We charged $100/month for an Al that was really just two guys surviving on pizza. We scaled Fireflies to a $1B valuation after 6 failures from our original crypto food delivery idea. : Nothing motivates you more than the pressure of living month to month with no safety net.
  • 05
    Before I explain how 2 broke guys validated a $1B idea, you need to understand we were couch surfing while desperately chasing our entrepreneurial dreams. An Al notetaker was our last hope after 6 ideas our friends claimed were "genius". The best way to validate your business idea is by becoming the product yourself. We told our customers there's an "Al that'll join a meeting." In reality it was just me and my co-founder calling in to the meeting sitting there silently and taking notes by hand.
  • 06
    When customers scheduled a meeting, we'd manually dial in as "Fred from Fireflies.ai" We'd sit there silently, take detailed notes, and send them 10 minutes later. After taking notes for 100+ meetings (and falling asleep in many), we were finally able to make enough money to pay the $750/month rent for a tiny SF living room. That was the point when we said let's stop and automate everything.
  • 07
    The best prototype was 2 guys surviving on pizza. Validation before automation saved us from our 7th failure. Follow for more unconventional stories about how we built Fireflies to what it is today.
  • 08
    This story is insane. The founders of Fireflies Al (now worth $1B+) pretended to be an Al notetaker before the tech existed.
  • 09
    The founders would: > Join meetings on mute as "Fred from Fireflies" > Take notes by hand while sitting silently > Send the "Al-generated" notes 10 minutes later They did this for 100+ meetings to pay rent, before actually building the product that went on to become a unicorn.
  • 10
    Stefan-Iulian Tesoi @stefantul "The best way to validate your business idea is by becoming the product yourself" I AM THE PRODUCT
  • 11
    Siddharth Shah @siddharthshahx Yeah this was misrepresentation, fraud, and violating a shit ton of GDPR (which requires lawful, transparent processing), cross border data transfer laws, and confidentiality, if not disclosed to those customers upfront. This is not the flex you think it is
  • 12
    Kole Sam @Kole_Sam This is a concierge MVP. Was it ethical and lacking in transparency? That's another question
  • 13
    Pratham @Prathkum I love the growth mindset, but shouldn't this be legally wrong!?
  • 14
    Kazi Hasan Ali @iamkazihasanali Honestly, not sure this should be glorified. Selling "AI" while manually faking it crosses into trust-risk territory for early customers.
  • 15
    Amir Zeinali @amir_zeinali can't think of a better definition of startup grit

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