Aside for founders
Founders spend the week on calls that each need something different: a pitch, a customer interview, a candidate. Aside records them on your computer without a bot and keeps each call’s plan in view while you talk.
The calls a founder runs
Investor meetings, customer interviews and hiring interviews, often back to back on the same day. Each has its own goals, and what you hear in one changes what you say in the next.
Investor pitches
Partners ask about revenue, churn, the market and the round. A question about burn lands while you’re still on the previous point, and the exact number is in a spreadsheet you can’t open on camera.
Customer interviews
You’re there to hear about the problem, not to sell. It’s easy to start pitching halfway through, and the quote that would have changed the roadmap goes unwritten.
Hiring
You run first calls with candidates yourself. Without notes, comparing five people a week later comes down to who you remember best.
Calls stacked up
With six calls in a day, the follow-up from the morning is still unwritten in the evening, and the investor update needs details from all of them.
How Aside fits a founder’s week
Give each call a short plan, or have Claude write it, use a playbook for each kind of call, and let Aside write the summary and follow-up afterwards.
Plans from your calendar
Connect Claude or ChatGPT to Aside and ask it to prepare tomorrow’s calls. It sees your next two weeks of meetings, reads what Aside remembers about the people and companies, and writes a plan for each: goals, background and ready answers.
Answers for the hard questions
Put your round size, use of funds, current revenue and your answer on competition into the plan. During the pitch, the answer appears in the pill when the topic comes up, so you give the number you meant to give.
A playbook per kind of call
Add the Investor pitch, Customer interview and Hiring interview starter playbooks and make them your own. The coach reads the playbook named in the plan, so a rule you wrote such as “don’t pitch until the last five minutes” is part of the guidance on that call.
Notes and follow-ups
Press ⌃⌥N or CtrlAltN to note something from any app; it lands in the transcript where it was said. After the call you get a summary, the goals you reached, next steps and a follow-up email. Later, ask a connected AI app what three investors said about your pricing and it reads across those meetings to answer.
Numbers you haven’t shared
English and 24 European languages are transcribed on your computer (add another language and every call is transcribed online, as on computers too slow to keep up, but for notes-only calls on the free plan), and the recording stays there. Meeting text, such as transcripts and summaries, syncs to your Aside account when you’re signed in, so connected AI apps can read it. Read the privacy policy for the details.
An example
A seed pitch on Google Meet
Your plan has three goals: reach traction within ten minutes, learn the fund’s cheque size, agree a next step. Halfway through, the partner asks how you’ll spend the money, and your prepared split appears in the pill. Later, one line suggests asking about their cheque size, which you haven’t covered. After the call, the summary lists what they asked to see, ready for the follow-up email.
An illustration of how Aside works, not a customer story.
What Aside doesn’t do for founders
Aside covers your own calls on your computer. It doesn’t replace a CRM for your fundraise or an applicant tracker for hiring.
No CRM or tracker sync
Nothing goes to a fundraising tracker, CRM or Notion automatically. Copy the summary, or ask a connected AI app to update your notes from the meeting.
No shared workspace yet
If your cofounder records calls too, they need their own account. A Team plan with shared plans and a team library is planned, not available yet.
No phone app
Calls on your iPhone aren’t recorded unless they go through your computer.
No video
Aside keeps audio and the transcript, not the video or your slides.
Related
Investor pitch playbook
The flow of a pitch, the questions partners ask and the facts to have ready.
Read the playbookCustomer interview playbook
How to hear about the problem without leading the customer.
Read the playbookConnect AI apps
Let Claude or ChatGPT write plans and read your meetings.
Set it upAI notetaker vs live call coach
Notes after the call, or guidance toward your goals while you talk.
Read the guideQuestions
Can Aside help me prepare for an investor meeting?
Yes. Write a plan with your goals, background on the fund and ready answers on the round, or ask Claude, connected to Aside, to write it. During the pitch, your answers appear when the topic comes up. Live guidance on every call is part of the paid plan; Free guides 2 calls a week.
Will investors see that I’m using Aside?
No bot joins, so nothing appears in the participant list. Aside’s pill and cards are hidden from screen sharing, on Mac and Windows, so only you see them. Recording laws differ by place and many require everyone’s consent. Tell people at the start, for example with a line in the call’s chat.
Is my pitch audio uploaded?
Only if you’ve added a language the on-device model doesn’t know (then all your calls are) or your computer is too slow to keep up, and on Free only the calls Aside guides. Aside transcribes English and 24 European languages on your computer. If you’ve added a language the on-device model doesn’t know, all your calls are sent to a speech-to-text service, with the title, plan, names and terms; so is a call on a computer too slow to transcribe it live. On Free, only guided calls are transcribed online; in 13 of the online-only languages, the rest are transcribed on your computer after the call. The audio is sent as you talk, and for a language the on-device model doesn’t know, again after the call if the live transcript missed lines, and when you press Transcribe. When you’re signed in, meeting text syncs to your Aside account so connected AI apps can read it.
How much does Aside cost?
Recording, notes, transcripts and speaker names are free, with no meeting limits. On Free, only guided calls are transcribed online; in 13 of the online-only languages, the rest are transcribed on your computer after the call. Live guidance and a write-up come free on 2 calls a week; on every call they’re $48 a month, or $456 a year. New accounts get 14 days of the paid features, no card needed. See pricing.