These 20-year-olds have grown their AI note-taking app for students by 5 million users in 6 months

Rudy Arora and Sarthak Dhawan, both just 20 years old, have taken the educational landscape by storm with their AI-driven note-taking application, Turbo. Friends since sixth grade, the duo has a history of collaboration, previously creating successful apps including a Christmas lighting installation tool that generated $60,000 in revenue. In just six months, Turbo has surged from 1 million to an impressive 5.7 million users, adding around 20,000 new users daily and positioning itself to achieve eight-figure annual recurring revenue. The inspiration for Turbo emerged when the two began their college journeys in 2023, with Arora enrolling at Northwestern and Dhawan at Duke. Dhawan faced challenges in balancing note-taking with active participation in lectures, coinciding with the AI boom. This spurred them to develop an innovative tool that uses AI to record lectures and generate comprehensive notes, flashcards, and quizzes to streamline the learning experience. It's important to note that Turbo is not a tool for procrastinators; both founders boast impressive academic records. Dhawan was his high school's salutatorian, taking 21 AP classes and achieving a perfect ACT score, while Arora completed 16 AP courses and scored 1560 on the SAT. Their experiences as top students have informed Turbo's internal benchmarking system, which identifies the most relevant information for users. The AI notetaking sector has gained significant traction in Silicon Valley recently, with competitors like Granola and Read AI securing substantial funding. However, when Turbo launched, the founders saw a gap in the market specifically for students, contributing to their rapid success. Their grassroots marketing included campus outreach with cookies and posters, coupled with a robust social media strategy that eventually led to a viral TikTok video garnering 20 million views. Turbo now counts users from prestigious institutions like Harvard and MIT among its clientele, along with professionals from Goldman Sachs and McKinsey. The founders have since transitioned from college life to running a full-time team of 15, focusing on subscription revenue with plans of $20 per month or $120 annually. Having raised over $750,000, they have opted to remain bootstrapped and profitable without seeking additional funding. Quality remains the cornerstone of Turbo's development. Dhawan emphasizes that advancements in AI have lowered barriers to software creation, raising expectations for quality and user engagement. Their quiz feature, which has undergone multiple redesigns, has become the most utilized aspect of the app. The founders recognize the importance of aesthetics in user experience, noting that students prefer visually appealing notes, driving many to use Turbo to enhance the readability of unattractive PDFs. Looking to the future, Arora and Dhawan are committed to showcasing the positive potential of AI, aiming to enhance learning efficiency and effectiveness through their innovative technology.