They sold AI that didn’t exist.
Then built a $1 billion company.

In 2017, Sam and Krish had $0.

Six failed startups behind them.
Backs against the wall in San Francisco.

They had an idea – an AI that joins meetings and takes notes.

People loved it.

One problem. The AI didn’t exist.

So they became the AI.

Logged in silently as “Fred from Fireflies.”
Took notes by hand.
Sent the summary 10 minutes later.
$100/month. 100+ meetings.
Zero technology.

But here’s what they actually built in those 100 meetings .. Certainty.

They knew the pain was real before writing a single line of code.

Fireflies.ai is now valued at $1 billion.

My take after starting from zero five times:

Most founders build first. Validate later.

That’s backwards.

Don’t fall in love with the technology.

Fall in love with the problem.

The product is just the delivery mechanism.