Pocket's AI notetaker device hits $100M run rate, 50% monthly growth

AI hardware has had more misses than hits. Pocket wants to change that.

The notetaker startup says it has reached a $100 million run rate eight months after launching its first product. The company sells a thin recorder that snaps onto the back of a smartphone and transcribes conversations. Run rate projects current revenue over a full year, not trailing 12-month revenue.

CEO Akshay Narisetti told Business Insider the company is growing roughly 50% a month. "It's only going to go up from here," he said. "We have so much money coming in from subscriptions." Narisetti believes Pocket could reach a $1 billion run rate within two years.

The device costs as little as $129. A basic subscription is free. Premium plans with more advanced AI models start at $16.59 a month. Pocket has sold more than 200,000 devices with only 12 employees, Narisetti said.

The startup was part of Y Combinator's 2025 accelerator class. Narisetti and co-founder Gabriel Dymowski met at The Residency, a San Francisco hacker house backed by Sam Altman. They initially built a meeting-notes app. Users, such as busy doctors and salespeople, wanted dedicated hardware to record back-to-back appointments without unlocking a phone. "Every single time they tried to unlock their phone, they could rather press a simple button," Narisetti said. After trying glasses and pendants, Pocket settled on a credit card-sized form factor.

Competition is intense. Google Meet and Zoom now include AI-powered note-taking. Microsoft Teams offers similar tools. Granola competes for meeting notes. OpenAI is planning to release a device as early as next year, designed by former Apple designer Jony Ive.

Narisetti argues Pocket's edge is offline conversations, where no single platform controls the experience. "Every single time they tried to unlock their phone, they could rather press a simple button," he said. The visible device requires placing it on a desk and pressing a button to start recording, which he contrasts with always-on wearables that people "inherently hated."

Pocket last raised $11 million in venture funding from Accel, Y Combinator, and Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch, according to Pitchbook. Narisetti declined to give a new valuation. "We don't like to grow into valuations," he said.

Direct-to-consumer sales and word of mouth drive most growth. Amazon represents less than 5% to 10% of revenue, Narisetti said. About 85% of business still comes from the United States. The company plans to expand into retail and international markets. It aims to move beyond conversation notes into personal note-taking and dictation.

"It's ony going to go up from here," Narisetti said. "We have so much money coming in from subscriptions."