AI note-taking startup Fireflies received a $1 billion valuation earlier this year, after the launch of its "Talk to Fireflies" AI meeting companion app. It's an impressive feat for a company started by "two broke guys"—especially as one of its co-founders recently revealed that its AI transcription service was originally powered by both founders typing the notes out by hand.
"We charged $100 a month for an AI that was really just two guys surviving on pizza," Firefly co-founder Sam Udotong proudly declared in a LinkedIn post earlier this week (via Futurism).
"We told our customers there's an 'AI that'll join a meeting'," said Udotong. "In reality it was just me and my co-founder calling in to the meeting sitting there silently and taking notes by hand."
"We'd manually dial in as 'Fred from Fireflies.ai'", Udotong continues. "We'd sit there silently, take detailed notes, and send them 10 minutes later."
By using this method, Udotong says that they were able to make enough money to pay for their $750 rent in "a tiny SF living room", which was the point where they decided to "stop and automate everything."
(Image credit: Malte Mueller via Getty Images)
Or, y'know, provide the AI service they promised their clients they would receive. And while it's tempting to cheer on the success of two young hopefuls doing their darndest to take the principle of "fake it 'til you make it" to the extreme, a scroll through the comments reveals the potential pitfalls of declaring such a scheme.
"Sitting in someone's meeting uninvited is violation of privacy. They wanted a bot in the meeting, not an uninvited person," said automation expert Umar Aftab. "This way you sabotage trust and could incur legal implications."
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"Good luck with all the lawsuits," added another. "This might read like a gritty founder hustle story," said software engineer Mauricio Idarraga. "But it's actually one of the most reckless and tone-deaf posts I've seen in a while."
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