Meeting notes for founders
Listenr records your customer, investor and hiring calls from your Mac with no bot in the meeting. Notes can come from a model on your Mac or your own API key, so a solo founder pays nothing per seat.
Nothing joins the call
Recording comes from your Mac’s call audio and microphone. An investor or a candidate sees no extra participant.
Sensitive calls stay on your Mac
Transcription runs on-device by default. A local model or Apple Intelligence writes the notes without sending anything.
No seat to pay for
A local model costs nothing to run. Your own Anthropic or OpenAI key bills you by token, directly.
Ask what customers said
Every call is searchable text on your disk. Claude Desktop or Claude Code can read it through the free local MCP server.
Listenr is an AI notetaker for founders who run their own customer, investor and hiring calls on a Mac. It records from the menu bar using your call audio and microphone, so no bot joins and the participant list looks unchanged. Transcription runs on your Mac, and notes come from the model you pick: a local model or your own API key on the free plan, or Listenr Cloud on Pro. The free plan is licensed for personal use, so company calls belong on Pro.
Calls you would rather not hand to a vendor
Some early-stage calls are sensitive: a term sheet discussion, a candidate stating their current salary, a reference call. For those, decide where the content goes before the call:
- Transcription stays on your Mac with every engine except OpenAI cloud transcription, which you would have to select.
- Notes stay on your Mac with a local model or Apple Intelligence. Your own Anthropic or OpenAI key sends the prompt straight to that provider. Listenr Cloud sends it through Listenr’s servers.
- The recording is kept only if you choose to keep it, and it stays on your disk. Temporary recovery audio is deleted once transcription succeeds.
What it costs with one seat
The free plan has no meeting limit. A local model costs nothing to run, and your own API key bills you per token with no seat in between. Pro adds Listenr Cloud notes, so there is no key to manage, plus Notion delivery and the hosted MCP connector. The pricing page has the current prices.
Local models need memory: the smallest needs 8 GB, the best on-device notes need 32 GB. Which model your Mac can run goes through the options.
Finding patterns across customer calls
Thirty customer calls show a pattern no single call does. Every call becomes searchable text on your disk. Search it in the app or with the listenr command line, or ask Claude Desktop or Claude Code, through the local MCP server, what three customers said about pricing last month. Both are free on every plan and read only the database on your Mac.
Calls in more than one language
The default transcription engine is Apple’s on-device speech recognition, which uses one fixed language. If you sell in several languages, switch to Parakeet Ultra before the first call: it covers 25 European languages and detects which one is spoken, on your Mac. SenseVoice covers more than 50 languages including Chinese, Japanese and Korean. Notes are written in the meeting’s language by default.
Getting a call to your team
Notes deliver to Obsidian or Apple Notes for free, or to Notion on Pro. Once a connector is enabled, every finished meeting is delivered automatically. Any meeting also exports as Markdown, and on Pro you can share one as a browser link. A shared team library is coming with the Team plan.
When to pick something else
If you want every call from the whole founding team in one shared library automatically, a hosted product with a shared workspace does that. Listenr keeps each person’s meetings on their own Mac and, on Pro, shares one meeting at a time as a link. Listenr also needs macOS 15 or later on Apple Silicon and records only the Mac in front of you, so a call you take on your phone is not captured. The Granola comparison and the notetaker bots comparison cover the common alternatives.
Common questions
What is the best AI notetaker for a solo founder?
One that does not charge per seat and does not put a bot in front of investors and candidates. Listenr records from your Mac with nothing joining the call, and its free plan writes notes with a local model or your own Anthropic or OpenAI key. It needs macOS 15 or later on Apple Silicon.
Is Listenr free for founders?
Recording, on-device transcription, speaker labels, notes from a local model or your own API key, the CLI and the local MCP server are free. The free plan is licensed for personal use, so company calls belong on Pro, which adds hosted notes, Notion delivery, browser share links and the hosted MCP connector. Prices are on the pricing page.
Will an investor or a candidate see that I am recording?
Not from Listenr. Nothing joins the call, so the participant list looks the same as without the app, and no banner is shown. Only your own Mac shows its microphone indicator. Consent rules differ by country and state, so telling people is up to you.
Where do my fundraising and hiring calls end up?
On your own Mac. The meeting library and any recording you choose to keep are owner-only files on your disk, and audio leaves only if you pick OpenAI cloud transcription. Notes go to whichever model you choose, and a meeting is uploaded only when you share it.
Does it transcribe calls in German, French or Spanish?
Yes, after one change. The default engine, Apple’s on-device speech recognition, uses one fixed language. Switch to Parakeet Ultra, a one-time download of about 632 MB, for 25 European languages with automatic detection, all on your Mac.
Can my co-founder and I share one library?
Not today. Each person’s meetings live on their own Mac. You can send a meeting to Obsidian, Apple Notes or Notion, export it as Markdown, or on Pro share it as a browser link. A shared team library comes with the Team plan, which is coming soon.
Install it before your next call.
Recording, transcription and notes from a model on your Mac are free. macOS 15 or later, Apple Silicon.