Fireflies’ founder Sam Udotong admits early ‘AI’ transcription was done manually by humans

In a recent LinkedIn post, Udotong admitted that Fireflies charged customers $100 a month for what was marketed as an AI transcription service, but in reality, it was just him and co-founder Krish Ramineni manually taking notes during meetings, Futurism reported.

"We told our customers there’s an ‘AI that’ll join a meeting’," Udotong wrote. "In reality it was just me and my co-founder calling in to the meeting sitting there silently and taking notes by hand."

Whenever a customer requested notes, Udotong or Ramineni would dial in under the alias "Fred," posing as a Siri-like AI assistant. "We’d sit there silently, take detailed notes, and send them 10 minutes later," Udotong wrote.

A person taking note. Photo from Pexels

The pair performed this manual transcription for about 100 meetings, covering the cost of their $750 monthly rent in a small San Francisco apartment, according to tech site PC Gamer . Udotong described this as the turning point when they decided to automate the process.

Fireflies, which later received a $1 billion valuation earlier this year, now claims that "75 percent" of Fortune 500 companies use its AI transcription services. However, Udotong's revelation about the startup's early, less-than-transparent methods has sparked mixed reactions online.

Some LinkedIn users criticized the early business practices. Automation expert Umar Aftab called joining meetings uninvited a violation of privacy, stating, "They wanted a bot in the meeting, not an uninvited person." Software engineer Mauricio Idarraga also expressed concern, describing the post as "one of the most reckless and tone-deaf posts I’ve seen in a while."

Others defended the startup's hustle, calling it an inspirational story. One co-founder and CEO wrote, "Haters will always hate. And most others won't understand what it takes to build from 0-1 while trying to survive as humans. In the end, your grit paid off immensely and you have changed the world."

Udotong stood by the company's unconventional start, adding in his post that "the best way to validate your business idea is by becoming the product yourself." He clarified that early enterprise customers were aware that there was a "human in the loop" and were not bothered by the method.