College Dropouts’ AI Notetaking App Turbo AI Hits 5 Million Users, Expands Beyond Academia

Rapid Growth for AI Notetaking Startup

Turbo AI, an artificial intelligence-powered note-taking application launched by 20-year-old college dropouts Rudy Arora and Sarthak Dhawan, has reportedly reached five million users while generating eight-figure annual recurring revenue, according to sources familiar with the company‘s performance. The platform has been adding approximately twenty thousand new users daily, with most of this growth occurring within the past six months as the service expanded from one million to five million users while maintaining profitability.

Rapid Growth for AI Notetaking Startup
From Classroom Struggle to Tech Solution
Beyond Traditional Note-Taking
Expanding Beyond Student Users
Founders’ Track Record and Strategic Approach
Market Position and Future Development

From Classroom Struggle to Tech Solution

The concept for Turbo AI originated from a common academic challenge, the report states. CEO Sarthak Dhawan described his personal difficulties with simultaneous listening and note-taking during lectures. “I would always struggle with taking notes because I just couldn’t both listen to the teacher and write at the same time,” Dhawan explained, noting that this frustration led to the question: “What if I could use AI?”

What began as a side project called Turbolearn has evolved into a comprehensive learning assistant that records lectures and automatically generates notes, flashcards, and quizzes. After sharing the tool with friends, it quickly spread across their campuses at Duke and Northwestern Universities before expanding to other institutions including Harvard and MIT., according to related news

Beyond Traditional Note-Taking

While Turbo AI incorporates standard note-taking features like recording, transcription, and summarization, analysts suggest its interactive elements differentiate it from competitors. The platform includes study notes, quizzes, flashcards, and a built-in chat assistant that explains key terms or concepts.

Sources indicate the product has evolved beyond its initial focus on live lecture recordings. “Recordings in large halls often pick up background noise,” the founders noted, leading them to develop features allowing users to upload PDFs, pre-recorded lectures, YouTube videos, or reading materials instead. This adaptation has reportedly become more common than live recording usage., according to recent innovations

Expanding Beyond Student Users

The company’s recent rebranding from Turbolearn to Turbo AI reflects its expanding user base beyond academia. According to reports, professionals including consultants, lawyers, doctors, and even analysts at Goldman Sachs and McKinsey have adopted the tool. Some professionals reportedly upload reports and use Turbo to generate summaries or convert documents into podcasts for consumption during commutes.

“Students will upload a 30-page lecture and spend two hours going through 75 quiz questions in a row,” Dhawan observed. “You don’t do that unless it’s really working,” he added, noting that users appreciate how the product saves time and enhances information retention., according to related news

Founders’ Track Record and Strategic Approach

The middle school friends have collaborated on multiple projects over the years, with Dhawan previously building UMax, an advice app that reportedly reached #1 on the App Store with 20 million users and $6 million in annual revenue. Arora specializes in social media strategies to drive user growth, according to their backgrounds.

Despite their viral app experience, sources indicate the founders only decided to leave college for Turbo when they identified an opportunity to build a lasting business. Unlike many rapidly growing AI companies, they’ve taken a cautious approach to funding, having raised only $750,000 last year before gaining significant traction.

“We raised that before we had a lot of traction,” Arora stated. “Since then, we’ve had a lot of inbound interest, but we’re taking our time because we’re cash-flow positive and have been profitable our entire time as a company.”

Market Position and Future Development

Turbo AI reportedly positions itself between fully manual tools like Google Docs and fully automated note-takers like Otter or Fireflies. Users can choose to let the AI take notes entirely or write alongside the artificial intelligence, an approach that analysts suggest has helped Turbo stand out even as competitors like Y Combinator-backed YouLearn target similar audiences.

The company’s 15-person team operates from Los Angeles, strategically located near student and creator communities at universities like UCLA. While students currently pay approximately $20 monthly for the service, the founders indicate they’re exploring alternative pricing options through A/B testing to address the price sensitivity of their original target market while scaling beyond it.

“What’s cool now is that when students think of an AI notetaker or AI study tool, we’re the first ones that come to mind,” Dhawan stated, suggesting the platform has achieved significant brand recognition within its core demographic.