This 11 year old

@josh_larosa

39.3K followers · usually 1.4K views a post

Views

5.1K

Likes

235

Comments

Selling · SaaS › AI Tool

Wispr Flowseen in 5 videos →

Why it worked

The video leverages a compelling underdog narrative, starting with a young prodigy facing a corporate giant, and then showcasing a successful comeback with a disruptive AI product. The inclusion of Steven Bartlett adds credibility and reach, appealing to a business-minded audience.

Summary

This video tells the story of Tanay Kothari, who at 11 years old, created a voice app with 2.5 million users but was shut down by Google. After years of development and a pivot, he co-founded Wispr Flow, an AI voice productivity tool that has raised significant funding and is gaining traction in the enterprise market.

Structure

1Introduction of Tanay Kothari and his early success with a voice app.
2Google's cease and desist and the shutdown of his app.
3Tanay's persistence and collaboration with a friend to code.
4His time at Stanford and meeting his co-founder.
5The development and pivot to Wispr Flow.
6Wispr Flow's success, funding, and comparison to other AI tools.

Original caption

👇This 11-year-old builds voice assistant, gets 2.5M users, then Google shuts him down. 15 years later he raises $25M to replace your keyboard. Meet Tanay Kothari — the kid who wanted to build Jarvis from Iron Man. At 11, he had 1-hour screen time limits, so he coordinated sleep schedules with his best friend for 4 years. One slept while the other coded all night. He’d steal his mom’s laptop, memorize the battery percentage, code until sunrise, and return it to the exact same spot. His quote: “I had written more code than I had spoken words in my life.” Fast forward to Stanford. He meets roommate Sahaj who invented diffusion models. So they pivot. They build Wispr Flow — 3x more accurate than OpenAI Whisper, 5x better than Apple Siri. You can speak silently in offices and it transcribes perfectly. After 3 months, users write 50% of their words through voice instead of typing. Today: 270 Fortune 500 companies use it daily. 125 new enterprise customers per week. 1 million daily users. Just raised $25M from the VCs who backed Airbnb and Slack. 👇Tag someone who needs to hear this story and let me know what impressed you most about their journey. #wisprflow #startupstory #founderjourney #technews #ai

More from @josh_larosa

Their other posts in the index, biggest breakout first.

On-screen text

Tanay Kothari This 11 year old 2.5 million users voice app, Flow Google Cease and desist Hi Tanay.... and desist Flow Now, 15 he just raised $81 million your keyboard. STEVEN BARTLETT Wispr Flow + Follow We're thrilled to announce that Wispr Flow raised another $25M round after 10x'ing our revenue in just 5 months. This Series A2 brings our total funding to $81M, led by Hans Tung at Notable Capital, with Steven Bartlett joining as an investor and partner. We're grateful for their conviction in what we're building. you the insane Tanay Kothari Founder & CEO Tanay Kothari is the co-founder and CEO of Wispr, the AI- powered voice productivity tool. A four-time founder, he launched Wispr, an AI-powered conversational startup for online stores, while still in college. After it was acquired by engineering and product. Earlier, he built Convo, a mobile organic monthly active users. Tanay holds a bachelor's degree in Computer Science and a master's degree in Artificial Intelligence from Stanford. Alongside Prof. Andrew Ng and published research at the Stanford AI Lab, Andrew Ng and published research at the Stanford Venture Capital Club for three years. In 2023, he was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. Download Headshot He gained 2.5 million users. a problem app scraped YouTube music massive scale, Google Cease and desist Hi Tanay.... and desist found out, to shut down. to Stanford SAHAJ who invented diffusion behind and after graduation, Tanay Kothari Tanay Kothari Your Plovnay Hey Tanay... Le to start Their moonshot was a brain interface your thoughts, connect it and Siri all suck. The Hardware Pivot That Changed Everything Tanay spent three years building what seemed impossible: a wearable device that could translate thoughts into text. When it finally worked, he connected it to the most advanced AI systems available. "We used it with ChatGPT, Siri and Alexa to see if these would be good voice assistants for that device to work with," Tanay recalls. "Turns out they all sucked." Instead of abandoning the project, his team built something different. "What we decided to do was build a system that goes from the rambles that you have into something that is structured and ready to send. And we call that a little Project Flow." Because voice take rambling and transcribe them word and they built Flow Flow 3x more accurate 5x more accurate 270 fortune 500 companies use it daily, adding 125 enterprise per week and just raised $25 million. more? STEVEN BARTLETT and hosts of a CEO million Subscribers. one year Sponsorship with Wispr that voice keyboard who needs let me know you most about

Transcript

This 11 year old 2.5 million users voice app, Flow Google Cease and desist Hi Tanay.... and desist Flow Now, 15 he just raised $81 million your keyboard. STEVEN BARTLETT Wispr Flow + Follow We're thrilled to announce that Wispr Flow raised another $25M round after 10x'ing our revenue in just 5 months. This Series A2 brings our total funding to $81M, led by Hans Tung at Notable Capital, with Steven Bartlett joining as an investor and partner. We're grateful for their conviction in what we're building. you the insane Tanay Kothari Founder & CEO Tanay Kothari is the co-founder and CEO of Wispr, the AI- powered voice productivity tool. A four-time founder, he launched Wispr, an AI-powered conversational startup for online stores, while still in college. After it was acquired by engineering and product. Earlier, he built Convo, a mobile organic monthly active users. Tanay holds a bachelor's degree in Computer Science and a master's degree in Artificial Intelligence from Stanford. Alongside Prof. Andrew Ng and published research at the Stanford AI Lab, Andrew Ng and published research at the Stanford Venture Capital Club for three years. In 2023, he was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. Download Headshot He gained 2.5 million users. a problem app scraped YouTube music massive scale, Google Cease and desist Hi Tanay.... and desist found out, to shut down. to Stanford SAHAJ who invented diffusion behind and after graduation, Tanay Kothari Tanay Kothari Your Plovnay Hey Tanay... Le to start Their moonshot was a brain interface your thoughts, connect it and Siri all suck. The Hardware Pivot That Changed Everything Tanay spent three years building what seemed impossible: a wearable device that could translate thoughts into text. When it finally worked, he connected it to the most advanced AI systems available. "We used it with ChatGPT, Siri and Alexa to see if these would be good voice assistants for that device to work with," Tanay recalls. "Turns out they all sucked." Instead of abandoning the project, his team built something different. "What we decided to do was build a system that goes from the rambles that you have into something that is structured and ready to send. And we call that a little Project Flow." Because voice take rambling and transcribe them word and they built Flow Flow 3x more accurate 5x more accurate 270 fortune 500 companies use it daily, adding 125 enterprise per week and just raised $25 million. more? STEVEN BARTLETT and hosts Of a CEO million Subscribers. one year Sponsorship with Wispr that voice keyboard who needs let me know you most about