In contrast to AI devices like Rabbit or Humane, firms that focus on creating specialized gadgets for recording and transcribing meetings have gained noticeable traction. The potential market is vast — although somewhat limited, as smartphones adequately handle these tasks when used with note-taking applications — and startups such as Plaud, Mobvoi, Anker, Viaim, and Vibe have jumped in to capitalize on this opportunity.

Amidst this competitive landscape, Y Combinator-supported Pocket believes it can stand out through its design, packaging, and pricing strategy. The company offers a $129 credit card-sized puck that adheres to the back of your phone, promising limitless recordings, transcriptions, and to-do items, all without a subscription.

The startup claims it has sold over 130,000 units since its launch last year, with this momentum now allowing it to secure $11 million in funding from Accel, Y Combinator, and ElevenLabs CEO and co-founder Mati Staniszewski.

The foundational concept behind Pocket isn’t original: You attach the puck to your phone’s back, initiate recording during a meeting, and it will capture and transcribe your discussions.

Users are then able to instruct the related phone application to produce summaries of meetings, pose questions to an AI assistant concerning the discussions, create mind maps, and convert the text into various templates.

While the basic transcription service is complimentary with the puck, the company also offers a $200-per-year subscription that unlocks unlimited AI-generated summaries, inquiries to the AI assistant, daily highlights, and file attachments.

“You can record while on the move, offline, and in the field, which is precisely how lawyers, sales personnel, doctors, real estate agents, construction workers, and students utilize Pocket today,” said Accel partner Cecilia Wang. “People are engaged rather than distracted by taking notes, and consequently, more data and insights are captured than ever before, which would otherwise have been overlooked. Over time, this accumulation of insights is incredibly valuable: a single central repository where your ideas, discussions, and reflections reside, as opposed to being disorganized and lost,” Wang added.

Pocket was established by Akshay Narisetti, a founding figure of the competing note-taking startup Omi; and Gabriel Dymowski, who previously launched a blockchain-focused document management initiative.

“We believed that all meeting notetakers were designed for virtual interactions, but none were tailored for in-person discussions. AI requires substantial context to function optimally for us, and much of that context is present offline,” Narisetti shared with TechCrunch.

For its business clients, Pocket delivers custom workflow management, webhook support, and compatibility with applications like Google Calendar, OneDrive, Google Drive, Obsidian, Claude, and Cursor. Additionally, there exists a model context protocol (MCP) server to link its AI assistant to other databases.

Similar to other meeting notetakers, Pocket aims to assist users in automating tasks such as composing emails, updating customer relationship management systems, and generating action items after meetings. The company is focused on quickly deploying software to facilitate these integrations.

Devices like Pocket undeniably encounter competition from software solutions such as Granola, Zoom, Fireflies, Otter, and Read AI. However, device-first companies like Plaud, which is projected to reach an annual revenue of $100 million through software sales, are also developing enterprise capabilities alongside desktop applications for online meetings.