Nathan Xu’s bootstrapped company has sold more than 1 million AI recording devices that transcribe and summarize the busy days of doctors, lawyers and business people — and he’s just getting started.
Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/iainmartin/2025/09/02/how-an-ai-notetaker-became-one-of-the-few-profitable-ai-startups/
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00:00Today on Forbes, how an AI note-taker became one of the few profitable AI startups.
00:08On a rainy July morning in a plush Amsterdam suburb, Nathan Shue has camped out at an Italian coffee shop for a full slate of meetings.
00:17Smiling, he asks if he can record the conversation he's about to have with the Forbes reporter and clips a slim memory stick-sized device to his shirt.
00:25With a click, the pill-shaped gadget starts recording, transcribing, and summarizing everything he says.
00:33And everything anyone around him says, too.
00:36The device, made by Shue's San Francisco and Shenzhen China-based startup Plod, can on a single charge capture 20 hours of recordings,
00:45turning that into searchable transcripts by connecting its microphones with Plod's own software and a bundle of AI tools like ChatGPT.
00:53Dubbed the NotePin, the gadget has found a fast-growing audience.
00:59Since launching in 2023, Shue has sold over 1 million such devices to doctors, lawyers, and other overworked folks with long days and short memories.
01:09That makes Plod an early frontrunner in the race to move artificial intelligence tools out of your phone or laptop and onto your body.
01:17Shue's team has already lapped some early American competition, like Rabbit and the now-defunct Humane,
01:24that promised an AI-powered helper but delivered costly duds.
01:29Investors have plowed close to $350 million in the space with a new crop of startups like OMI and Limitless releasing wearables,
01:37while Amazon just snapped up B, a tiny note-taking device startup, for an undisclosed amount.
01:44In May, OpenAI spent a stunning $6.4 billion to bring iPhone designer Johnny Ives' future AI device in-house.
01:54Plod and its ilk are taking advantage of shifting norms in the tech industry,
01:59where AI note-taking bots are increasingly common participants in a conference call.
02:03With many shrugging off such transcriptionists inside the office, etiquette around recording outside the office is fraying.
02:12New Wave VC co-founder Pia Diribarn, who backed B, said,
02:16Now I assume that everything, even coffee meetings, are being recorded.
02:20Well aware of the sprawling privacy implications of ubiquitous personal recording devices,
02:27Chu is careful to position Plod devices as professional tools,
02:31not gadgets made to surreptitiously capture dinner table conversations.
02:35He says, quote,
02:37We always recommend users get consent before they start recording.
02:42Unlike many AI companies, Plod not only makes money, it's profitable.
02:46Between sales of the $159 note-pin and revenue from annual transcription plans starting at $99,
02:54the company is on track to bring in $250 million in annualized revenue this year,
03:00with Chu bragging about margins on par with Apple's 25% on every iPhone sold.
03:06And unlike its rivals, Plod has done it without handouts from venture capitalists.
03:11Chu, who is 34 years old, bootstrapped the company by pooling his savings with his older co-founder,
03:17Charles Liu, a Shenzhen factory owner, and launching a $1 million crowdfunding campaign.
03:23The pair still own the vast majority of the business.
03:27But competition is heating up, and Plod is facing a growing cohort of startups
03:31hoping their personal AI device can bite off a chunk of the $540 billion annual smartphone market.
03:39Chu said, quote,
03:40In the next decade, every single person is going to have a wearable AI device.
03:45It will be more popular than smartphones.
03:48When Chu started to realize that some of Plod's biggest fans were folks in meeting-heavy roles
03:53like doctors, lawyers, and salespeople,
03:56he began to build templates for common scenarios like patient consultations and sales calls.
04:01Earlier this year, Plod acquired a small San Francisco-based startup
04:05building software for hospitals,
04:07hoping to speed the company's move into healthcare.
04:10Chu opened a Plod office in San Francisco in 2023,
04:14and he's now based there, along with 20 members of Plod's 200-strong team.
04:19He says, quote,
04:20We have the best talent in Shenzhen for hardware design,
04:23and the best engineers in San Francisco for AI development.
04:26But with the growing tensions between Washington, D.C. and Beijing,
04:31he's keen to reinforce that Plod is an American company.
04:35It's registered in Delaware,
04:36and its user data is securely stored in Amazon data centers on U.S. soil.
04:42For full coverage, check out Ian Martin's piece on Forbes.com.
04:47This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes, thanks for tuning in.
