A tech-preneur who hit multi-million dollar success despite Covid-19.
Fireflies, co-founded by American-born African Udotong, attracts $19 million in the midst of a pandemic thanks to tech innovation in Silicon Valley, USA
Professor Chris Imafidon – I was privileged to Beta-test a new app and observed how Fred Fireflies.ai – an Artificial intelligence app easily performs complex tasks which 15 Ivy-league PhD holders will struggle to complete in 12 months. But this app did it in less than 10 minutes in Europe. It is a pure miracle application, thus unsurprisingly raised additional $14 million in A series investment in addition to an earlier $5 million seed. This confirms the young Hackathon participant and MIT graduate Mr Sam Udotong as one of the world’s most sought after tech-preneurs not only in Silicon Valley, USA but in Europe, Asia and globally.
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MATHEMATICS, MAGIC AND ALGORITHM
The app, controlled by an algorithm (mathematical formula) which makes it capable of attending parliamentary meetings on my behalf, while simultaneously acting as a participant representing me in a clinical meeting and joining a global conference as well as taking multiple calls. It then reports back as if it’s some super-scribe with multiple specialisms. And nine minutes after each meeting, long before the end of a such busy day, it gave me: a) An executive summary, b) Full transcripts of all discussions c) Action points of all conversations d) Short bullet point notes like a human, e) Entered into my calendar dates of the next meeting when applicable and many more.
However, those who have not thoroughly used the app, erroneously think that Fireflies only helps take notes and forms short bullet points from conversations. Based on the app’s performance in various European studies alone, this technology is magical or a miracle worker. So, it’s no surprise to hear from the company’s co-founder, Sam Udotong, that this organization received additional $14 million in series A funding, from technology heavy weights investors such as investors Canaan Partners and Khosla Ventures. So the company founded in 2016, Fireflies.ai has a total of $19.0M in total equity funding. The other co-founder is Krish Ramineni, formerly of University of Penn, who was expected to start post-graduate studies in England’s University of Cambridge.
THE MAKING OF THE MIRACLE APP
This level of success wouldn’t surprise Mr. Udotong’s Professors or mentors because long before now, in 2014 as an undergraduate at MIT, he won the University’s “AWESOME AWARD” for developing an app called “FIREFLIES”. The app allowed students and scholars to exchange bitcoins for errands. Udotong intended to spend his $100 on having other students fetch him candy and ice cream from the student center: “I always crave those two things, but I never want to go get them.” So his genius just found a new expression in tackling today’s most pressing needs of online meetings and enterprise intelligence.
After graduating from MIT, he turned down opportunities for postgraduate studies in Ivy-League universities, and top jobs from Fortune 100 companies to work on his dream projects.
Since the pandemic, the app has been quietly revolutionizing different sectors of the European and British systems. In media and publishing, its generating authors from individuals who traditionally hate to put pen to paper. It created easy pathways for journalists to become book authors. And has turned speakers, dead or alive to authors without writing a single word. In healthcare, it has changed clinicians and other healthcare providers into researchers and scientific contributors. It has also boosted the productivity in patient documentation, and inter as well intra-departmental referrals. In government, it is changing the speed of running various departments, and likely to impact the cost of governance. In religion, its extracting preaching into epistles and manuscripts, this made Muslim and Christian, and other faith leaders to refer to it as a modern day super-scribe.
In Technology, it is much more than a voice assistant transcription tool, and is used in connection with video, audio conferencing apps like Zoom and Google Meet. This is because after transcribing everything in the meeting, the AI analyses the discussions and automatically generates a report with insights to share by email or through apps like Slack and Salesforce.
There is a conservative independent estimate than more than 50,000 teams use Fireflies.ai today. As far as personal usage goes, its user base is represented by about 1.5M.
GENIUS SUCCESS SECRETS
From three pizza slices and Soylent drink daily, Mr. Udotong, a Black America who receives mentorship from United Kingdom based professors, transitioned to found and run one of the world’s largest technology of its niche company, according to a recent social media post. The road to Mr. Udotong’s success can be described in terms of the direct application of the #GenisuFormula. In 2016, he moved to San Francisco with as little as $100 in his pocket,
Mr. Udotong changed the direction of his company seven times before eventually finding a solid footing for it. The company employs more females that most technology organisations and the staff who mostly work remotely are drawn from BAME communities in the UK, Europe, Africa, Asia and North America. However, it has offices in Hyderabad, India and San Francisco. It will be recalled the app, fireflies started at an MIT hackathon.
GENIUS FORMULA
A clear understanding of the genius formula led to the relentlessness, determination and godly vision which became the recipe for this leg of the tech breakthrough and the ingredients for future global success.
After graduation, most of Mr. Udotong’s colleagues were happy with various Fortune 100 companies and job security but he understood that in everyone lies a genius for innovation, creativity and re-defining any known boundaries. So he decided to bootstrap his company. His renewed vision sustained him as he searched for mentors, scientists, engineers willing to work remotely until Fireflies which started as an on-campus food delivery app that you could pay for in bitcoin, became a global breath-taking miracle which is now revolutionizing Technology, Education, Entrepreneurship, Healthcare, Law, Science, Governments, Entertainment, Law Media/Publishing, Defense, Banking amongst others.
CONCLUSION
It is now evident that the Knowledge economy enters a new dispensation where information and learning assumes the level earlier predicted as a 4-staged process turning every human into a genius. – It’s a tool of knowledge A4 – acquisition, accumulation, application, and absorption. Fred Fireflies.ai effortlessly turns your meetings into an automated knowledge base that flows through the organisation and boosts productivity by over 700%.
A very quiet revolution in human ability, capability and redefinition of productivity has arrived. With this unique application of deep learning and machine learning combined with AI. Each super-genius is able to casually do what normally takes a team of highly skilled, super-educated bright humans to complete.
Professor Chris Imafidon’s research and innovation have been recognised internationally, winning multiple awards in many continents across multiple disciplines and his mentees are global leaders in pioneers. He is a multi-Guinness World record holder; Internationally renowned adviser to monarchs, governments, presidents and corporate leaders; Mentor to New York Times Bestellers and a Sunday Times Op-ed author. [Twitter @ChrisImafidon; Instagram @CoImafidon; Facebook/Linkedln –Professor Chris Imafidon and Clubhouse] PS:
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