The Morning Brief ET in the Valley: Krish Ramineni, Co-founder & CEO at Fireflies.ai
6 snips
Dec 10, 2025 
Krish Ramineni, Co-founder and CEO of Fireflies.ai, shares his journey from a young engineer manually taking notes as 'Fred' to leading a profitable AI company. He reveals how early access to OpenAI transformed their product and discusses the shift towards AI employees handling routine tasks. Krish emphasizes prudent growth by resisting fundraising pressures and evaluating M&A offers, focusing instead on sustainable adoption in a competitive market. This engaging conversation dives into the future of AI in diverse sectors and the importance of real-world applications.
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Manual MVP Validated Product Market Fit
- Krish validated demand by manually joining calls as a human assistant before building any code.
- After ~100 meetings of manual work they paused and then built the automated product over 18 months.
Rebuilding With LLMs Turned Threat Into Growth
- Early access to OpenAI APIs let Fireflies rebuild its product and accelerate its roadmap after the ChatGPT moment.
- That pivot turned a potential threat into rapid growth from 2022 onward.
Prioritize Deep Work Over Chasing Competitors
- Focus on deep product work and customer happiness rather than reacting to fast followers.
- Continuous innovation and integrations create a competitive moat that's hard to replicate quickly.