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AI dictation app for every text field · United Kingdom

Voicy

Solo founderB2CProductivity software
Outcome
US$187K Stripe-verified revenue in 12 months, October 2026Revenue flat
Launch
September 2024
Team
1 founder with a day job, and a small team of unpublished size
Outside funding
None; the About page says 100% bootstrapped
Group
Voice and audio
Main channel
Search and AI answers

Voicy is a speech-to-text app: a program that turns spoken words into written text. It works by dictation, which means that you press a keyboard shortcut, speak, and the text appears in the field where your cursor is, in any app or website: Gmail, Word, Slack, ChatGPT or a code editor. The recognition is done by Whisper, a speech recognition model that OpenAI released as open source. Voicy's privacy policy says that the audio goes to the API of Groq, a cloud company that runs AI models for other companies; an API is a way for one program to call another program over the internet. Since 12 October 2026 the Mac, Windows and Linux apps can also transcribe offline, on the computer itself.

Kourosh Ghaffari, a developer who describes himself as a solo founder from Iran, built the first version in London in 2024 for his father, who typed his emails with one finger. It started as a free Chrome extension, then became a Windows app and a Mac app with paid plans. On 13 October 2026 TrustMRR, a site that reads revenue directly from a company's payment account, showed US$187,354 of revenue in the last 12 months from Voicy's Stripe account (Stripe is a payment processor that takes card payments for online businesses), US$17,246 of it in the last 30 days, and MRR, monthly recurring revenue, the subscription income that repeats every month, of US$12,201 from 1,501 active subscriptions. The verified history starts in December 2025, so the 12-month figure is also the all-time figure on that account. The founder still has a day job, and he gives SEO, search engine optimization, the work of making pages appear high in Google results, as the reason for the growth: more than 1,000 pages bring 20,000 to 25,000 clicks a month.

The revenue figures are grade A, because TrustMRR read them from Stripe through an API key. Everything about the team, the users and the marketing is the founder's own statement, grade C. Monthly revenue grew 2.16 times from December 2025 to April 2026 and has stayed between US$18,757 and US$20,564 a month since. AudioPen and Talknotes, also on this site, turn a voice note into clean text inside their own app. Voicy types into whatever text field is open, so its competitors are the dictation features that Apple and Microsoft build into their operating systems and other dictation apps such as Wispr Flow.

Voicy: US$187K Stripe-verified revenue in 12 months, October 2026. AI dictation app for every text field, United Kingdom, solo founder, evidence grade A.
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01

The numbers, graded

Each row shows the evidence grade and the source numbers from the list at the end of this page. The grades are explained in How Aiolum verifies.

US$187,354 of Stripe-verified revenue in the 12 months to 13 October 2026, US$17,246 of it in the last 30 days, and US$12,201 of MRR, read by TrustMRR from the company's Stripe account
FactValueGradeHow we knowSources
Revenue in the last 12 months, to 13 October 2026US$187,354ARead by TrustMRR from Voicy's Stripe account through an API key, last synced on 13 October 2026 at 23:43 UTC. It equals the all-time total on that account, because the verified history starts in December 2025. The copy cached on 12 October showed US$186,894.[1]
Revenue in the last 30 days, to 13 October 2026US$17,246ASame source. The stored 30-day snapshot shows US$17,268 and a fall of 14.0% from the 30 days before. It includes one-time Lifetime licences and yearly payments in full.[1]
MRR, 13 October 2026US$12,201 from 1,501 active subscriptionsAMonthly recurring revenue counts monthly plans at their price and yearly plans at one twelfth of the yearly price. Lifetime licences are not in it. TrustMRR shows MRR up 4.4% in the last 30 days.[1]
Difference between 30-day revenue and MRRUS$5,045; revenue is 1.41 times MRRcalcCalculated: US$17,246 minus US$12,201. Revenue can be above MRR because a US$260 Lifetime licence counts once in revenue and never in MRR, and a US$82 yearly payment counts in full in revenue but as US$6.83 in MRR. TrustMRR does not publish how much of each kind was sold.[1, 4, 5]
Verified revenue per month, December 2025 to September 2026US$10,263 in December 2025, highest US$22,133 in April 2026, US$19,495 in September 2026ATrustMRR monthly timeline. Revenue grew 2.16 times from December to April, then stayed between US$18,757 and US$20,564 a month from May to September; September was 11.9% below April (calculated). October to the 13th: US$7,649.[1]
MRR times 12US$146,412 a yearcalcCalculated: US$12,201 times 12. This counts only the subscriptions, not the Lifetime licences.[1]
Average MRR per active subscriptionUS$8.13calcCalculated: US$12,201 divided by 1,501. Close to the US$8.49 price of monthly Pro.[1, 5]
Founder's MRR statements, September and October 2026US$11,000 in September; US$12,000 in his profile in OctoberCPosts on X on 16, 17 and 30 September 2026, and his X profile read on 14 October. The TrustMRR figures give about US$11,687 of MRR 30 days before 13 October (calculated: US$12,201 divided by 1.044), so his statements agree with the verified figures.[15, 16, 19, 14, 1]
Paying users, September 2026over 2,000CFounder's post, 30 September 2026. TrustMRR counts 1,501 active subscriptions. The sources do not explain the difference.[19, 1]
Chrome extension users and rating10,000 users; 4.6 stars from 102 ratingsBChrome Web Store listing, read on 14 October 2026, marked Featured and updated on 7 September 2026. The company's home page says 10,000+ users and over 500 million words dictated.[10, 4]
Visits from Google search20,000 to 25,000 clicks a month to more than 1,000 pagesCFounder's posts, 26 and 30 September 2026. He credits 'SEO + GEO'; GEO, generative engine optimization, means getting a product named in the answers of AI chat assistants. On 1 October he wrote that the site gets more than 1,000 clicks a day.[20, 19, 21]
Speech recognitionthe Whisper model through Groq's API, with servers in the EU and the USCVoicy's privacy policy: the audio goes to Voicy's servers, then to Groq for transcription and for the text clean-up step, with Groq's zero data retention setting turned on. Voicy's Whisper page says that it uses OpenAI's Whisper API; the privacy policy names Groq.[6, 7]
Groq's list price for WhisperUS$0.04 to US$0.111 per hour of audioCGroq's documentation: US$0.04 for whisper-large-v3-turbo and US$0.111 for whisper-large-v3. At these prices, 10 hours of dictation a month cost US$0.40 to US$1.11 (calculated), against US$8.49 for monthly Pro. Voicy's own rates and the cost of the clean-up step are not published.[34]
Offline modeMac, Windows and Linux, 25 languages, since 12 October 2026CChangelog, version 3.0.0. The audio is then transcribed on the computer and is not sent to Voicy or to Groq. The sources do not name the model used offline.[8, 6]
Profit margin, last 30 days90.0%CTrustMRR snapshot, outside its list of Stripe-verified metrics. The pricing page promises that the price will never be more than 20% above total costs, which allows a margin of at most 16.7% (calculated). The two figures do not agree unless the page counts costs that TrustMRR does not.[1, 5]
Price of unlimited recordingUS$12.99 a month in 2025, US$8.49 a month in October 2026BInternet Archive copies of the pricing page from 21 April and 16 September 2025, which also show a plan of US$6.99 a month for 600 minutes. Today's Pro is 34.6% cheaper than the 2025 unlimited plan (calculated).[12, 13, 5]
iPhone app revenue, 3 September 2026US$100 MRR, 0.9% of the totalCFounder's post.[24]
Team1 founder with a day job, and a small team of unpublished sizeCThe About page says 'a small, bootstrapped team' and that support emails are read by 'me and the team'. The founder calls himself a solo founder (16 September 2026), works on Voicy 'after my 9-5' (17 September 2026) and has hired a growth person. His X profile gives his day job as product manager at Tiiny Host.[3, 15, 17, 18, 14]
Outside fundingnoneCAbout page: '100% bootstrapped, with no outside investment'. The TrustMRR profile says Bootstrapped. His X profile says 'Prev: Meetwaves (YC20)', an earlier company that is separate from Voicy.[3, 1, 14]
CountryLondon, United KingdomCAbout page. The TrustMRR profile gives the country as AE, the United Arab Emirates. The sources do not explain the difference.[3, 1]
Founder's other income, not in these figuresRomeoSEO at US$269 MRR, and sponsored YouTube videosCRomeoSEO is an SEO tool that he announced on 30 September 2026, with a goal of US$1,000 MRR by the end of 2026; his X profile gives its MRR. On 4 September 2026 he wrote that 4 to 5 sponsored videos a month can make him more money than his MRR. TrustMRR lists Voicy as his only startup with verified revenue.[14, 19, 28, 25, 2]
Time from the first public copy of the site to the October 2026 figures25 monthscalcCalculated: September 2024 to October 2026.[11, 1]

How to read this table: a grade A value was read by TrustMRR from Voicy's Stripe account through an API key; it is not a founder statement. A grade B value is a record kept by an outside platform: the Chrome Web Store or the Internet Archive. A grade C value is a statement by the founder or the company, or a profile field that the founder filled in. A "calc" value was computed on this page from the rows above it.

Voicy prices on 14 October 2026, read from the company's pricing page and the price answer on its home page (grade C)
PlanPer month, billed yearly (US$)Per month, billed monthly (US$)Limit
Free trial0030 minutes of recording, all features
Pro6.838.49unlimited recording and personal devices; US$82 a year
Lifetime260 one-timeunlimited recording and personal devices
Team6.79per user, minimum 3 users; billing period not stated

Pro is US$8.49 billed monthly or US$82 billed yearly, which is US$6.83 a month and 19.5% less (the page rounds it to 20%). Lifetime is one payment of US$260, the price of about 31 months of monthly Pro, and it is never paid again. The Team plan needs at least 3 users; the page does not say how it is billed. Students and people with disabilities get 20% off, and the disability discount needs no proof. There is a 7-day money-back guarantee. In April and September 2025 the Internet Archive shows other plans: a 30-minute free trial, US$6.99 a month for 600 minutes and US$12.99 a month for unlimited recording, with no lifetime plan.

02

The timeline

From a free Chrome extension for the founder's father to US$12,201 of monthly recurring revenue in about 25 months, while the founder kept a day job. Each entry carries its grade.

  1. 2024CKourosh Ghaffari builds a dictation tool in London for his father, who types emails with one finger. He is already using AI to dictate his own writing. [3]
  2. 9 September 2024BFirst Internet Archive copy of usevoicy.com: a speech-to-text Chrome extension with grammar and punctuation 'powered by AI', and 'it's free'. [11]
  3. 21 April 2025BThe pricing page shows paid plans: a 30-minute free trial, US$6.99 a month for 600 minutes and US$12.99 a month for unlimited recording. [12]
  4. By December 2025CVoicy has become a Windows app and then a Mac app. The changelog starts at version 1.8.9 and calls the earlier versions 'Built over a loooong time'. [8]
  5. December 2025AFirst month of the Stripe history that TrustMRR verifies: US$10,263. The profile gives 24 November 2025 as the founded date. [1]
  6. April 2026AHighest verified month so far: US$22,133, 2.16 times December. [1]
  7. 22 May 2026CVersion 2.2.0 adds the transcription of audio files. [8]
  8. 9 July 2026CVersion 2.3.3: users who invite friends get free months of Pro, and users can sign in with Microsoft. [8]
  9. 2 September 2026CThe founder writes that the 20% disability discount, given without proof, has saved users over US$10,000 in two years, 80% of it in the last four months. He first sold Voicy to 'tech bros like myself' and changed after dozens of user interviews. [23]
  10. 3 September 2026CThe iPhone app reaches US$100 of MRR, 0.9% of the total. [24]
  11. 16 and 17 September 2026CHe describes himself as a 27-year-old solo founder from Iran at US$11,000 MRR, works on Voicy after his 9-to-5 job, and calls AI dictation 'the most basic thing that EVERYONE built since wispr flow'. [15, 16, 17]
  12. 26 September 2026CThe site has more than 1,000 pages and 20,000 clicks a month from Google. He pays Framer US$250 a month for it and starts to move it into his own code. [20]
  13. 30 September 2026CHe announces RomeoSEO, built on Romeo, the AI agent that he says writes Voicy's blog posts, and gives Voicy's numbers: US$11,000 MRR, over 2,000 paying users and 25,000 monthly clicks from Google. [19]
  14. 12 October 2026CVersion 3.0.0 adds offline dictation on Mac, Windows and Linux in 25 languages. The same day he writes that growth has slowed down and that he will check his Stripe dashboard only once a week. [8, 22]
  15. 13 October 2026ATrustMRR sync: US$187,354 in the last 12 months, US$17,246 in the last 30 days, MRR of US$12,201 and 1,501 active subscriptions. [1]
03

Why it worked

Four causes, in the order they mattered. Each one is a reusable lesson.

01

A free extension first

The first product was a free Chrome extension that typed into any text field on any website. It collected users and ratings in the Chrome Web Store, which now marks it as Featured, with 10,000 users and 102 ratings. Paid plans and the desktop apps came later, and the free product became a 30-minute trial.

02

A page for every place where people type

The site has more than 1,000 pages, one for each app or need: dictation in Gmail, Word, Claude Code or Cursor, an alternative to Dragon or Apple Dictation, help for carpal tunnel syndrome, and versions in German, Spanish, French and Japanese. The founder says they bring 20,000 to 25,000 clicks a month from Google and that he wrote none of the blog posts himself: an AI agent that he built, Romeo, writes them.

03

The model is bought per hour, the product is sold per month

Voicy sends the audio to Whisper, an open model from OpenAI, running on Groq, which lists it at US$0.04 to US$0.111 per hour of audio. A customer pays US$8.49 a month for unlimited dictation. The product work is everything around the model: one shortcut that works in every app, punctuation, text replacements, custom modes and rewriting, on six platforms.

04

Low prices and discounts

Pro costs US$8.49 a month, 43% less than the US$15 of Wispr Flow's Pro plan (calculated). The price of unlimited recording fell from US$12.99 in 2025. Students and people with disabilities get 20% off, with no proof needed for the disability discount. The founder says that user interviews showed him that for some people dictation is an essential tool, not a way to write emails faster.

How it was built

These details come from the company's pages, the founder's posts and the founder-written fields of the TrustMRR profile. They are grade C, except the Chrome Web Store record, which is grade B. [1, 6, 8, 10, 20, 21, 26, 4]

  • Desktop apps for Mac, Windows and Linux, a Chrome extension, and phone apps for iPhone and Android. The tech stack field on TrustMRR lists Electron, React, React Native, Kotlin and SwiftUI.
  • Cloud transcription: the audio goes to Voicy's servers in the EU or the US (US servers only for US users), then to Groq's API, which runs the Whisper model and also does the text clean-up. Groq's zero data retention setting is on, and Voicy says that it stores no recordings or transcripts.
  • Offline transcription on the computer since version 3.0.0 of 12 October 2026, in 25 of the more than 50 languages.
  • Payments through Stripe, which TrustMRR reads through an API key.
  • The website ran on Framer for US$250 a month until September 2026, when the founder moved it into his own code. His next steps, posted on 1 October 2026, were A/B tests with PostHog and Microsoft Clarity to see where visitors leave.
  • Marketing: search pages and blog posts, the blog posts written by his own AI agent, a YouTube channel with 15,000 subscribers after 100 videos, free months for referrals, an affiliate program, and the founder's posts on X. No source mentions paid ads.

Tools named in the sources

Each one opens its page in the Tools tab, with every story that uses it.

Groq APICElectronCReactCReact NativeCKotlinCSwiftUICFramerCNext.jsBCloudflareBSign in with MicrosoftCApple App StoreCGoogle PlayCStripeAChrome Web StoreBGoogle Search (organic)CYouTubeCXCLinkedInCCal.comCGoogle Tag ManagerBMicrosoft ClarityCTrustMRRA
04

The dead that came before

Four companies in the Loot Drop database tried to sell a better way to type or to talk to a computer, against free tools from the companies that own the platform. The values below are from that database and are not independently verified.

Died 2014 to 2017Burned US$500K

Whirlscape

The promise

Minuum, a one-line phone keyboard that saved screen space.

Why it died

The default keyboards on the phones got better AI predictions and users stayed with them. The new layout did not get past novelty.

CompetitionLoot Drop entry ↗
Died 2014 to 2025Burned US$12M

Petalite

The promise

A privacy-first voice assistant that ran locally on the device.

Why it died

It could not compete with the subsidized hardware, the training data and the ecosystems of the large technology companies, although its privacy was better.

CompetitionLoot Drop entry ↗
Died 2014 to 2024Burned US$21M

Kite DevTool

The promise

AI code completion inside the programmer's editor, years before GitHub Copilot.

Why it died

The free version did not turn into enough paying users, and GitHub Copilot won with its distribution and a stronger OpenAI model.

CompetitionLoot Drop entry ↗
Died 1999 to 2011Burned US$238M

Tellme

The promise

Information and transactions by voice, over the phone.

Why it died

Smartphones moved people to apps with screens, and the voice service did not adapt.

CompetitionLoot Drop entry ↗

What changed

Each of the four sold a better input tool, a keyboard, a voice assistant, a code completer or a voice service, and lost to a free tool from the company that owned the phone, the speaker or the code editor. Voicy is in the same position: Apple Dictation and Windows voice typing come with the operating system at no extra price, and Apple's guide says that its dictation adds punctuation by itself and has no time limit.

Two things are different. First, the model is no longer the hard part. Whisper is open, and Groq rents it out at a few cents per hour of audio, so a solo developer can offer recognition in more than 50 languages without training a model, and can spend his time on the shortcut, the formatting and the six apps. Second, Voicy gets its users from search, not from an app store or a device: it has a page for every app, every competitor and every need, and the founder says that an AI agent that he built writes the blog posts.

05

Can one person copy it now?

The product, no. The method, yes.

A dictation app is easy to build in 2026, and the founder himself calls it the most basic idea that everyone built after Wispr Flow. The method is still open to copy: rent an open model by the hour, sell a flat monthly price, and get users from search pages written for each app and each need, including groups of users that the larger products do not target, such as people with disabilities.

Where it is still open: Dictation for groups with specific needs, which Voicy already targets with its own pages: people with disabilities, carpal tunnel syndrome or dyslexia, users of older dictation software such as Dragon, and programmers who dictate prompts to coding agents.

  1. 1Start with a free browser extension that works in every text field, and collect ratings in the store.
  2. 2Use an open model through a pay-per-hour API, and check that a heavy user costs less than a dollar a month.
  3. 3Write one search page for each app, each competitor and each need, in several languages.
  4. 4Offer offline processing for people who will not send their voice to a server.

What to watch

The risks are the mirror image of the causes above.

The operating systems include dictation

Apple Dictation on the Mac and voice typing on Windows 10 and 11 come with the operating system at no extra price. Apple's guide says that its dictation inserts commas, periods and question marks in supported languages, has no time limit, and on some setups is processed on the device. Microsoft's voice typing uses Azure Speech services and needs an internet connection. Voicy's home page claims 99% accuracy against about 90% for both; that is the company's own comparison, with no published test.

Many dictation apps do the same thing

Wispr Flow has a free plan with 2,000 words a week on desktop and Pro at US$15 per user a month, or US$12 billed yearly. Superwhisper has a free tier with unlimited use of Whisper models, Pro at US$8.49 a month and a lifetime option. MacWhisper transcribes audio files with the Whisper, Qwen and Nvidia Parakeet models. The founder calls AI dictation 'the most basic thing that EVERYONE built since wispr flow', and on 29 September 2026 he answered a post that called Wispr Flow a feature, not a product, with 'We do the same thing'.

One model, one provider

Cloud transcription and the text clean-up both run on Groq's API. If Groq changes its prices, limits or terms, Voicy's costs change with them. Whisper is open source, so other providers can run the same model, and since 12 October 2026 the desktop apps can transcribe offline. The offline mode is only for Mac, Windows and Linux.

Lifetime licences do not recur

The US$260 Lifetime licence is paid once. It counts in the 30-day revenue, which is US$5,045 above MRR, but it is not paid again, while a lifetime user who dictates in the cloud still costs Groq fees every month. Yearly plans also count in full in the month when they are paid. The 12-month headline includes both kinds of payment; MRR, US$12,201, is the part that repeats.

Revenue flat since April 2026

Verified revenue grew 2.16 times from December 2025 to April 2026, then stayed between US$18,757 and US$20,564 a month. The last 30 days were 14.0% below the 30 days before, although MRR rose 4.4%. On 12 October 2026 the founder wrote that growth has slowed down. The verified history covers only the Stripe account that starts in December 2025; any earlier revenue is not shown.

A part-time founder with a second product

The founder has a day job as a product manager, makes sponsored YouTube videos, and launched a second product, RomeoSEO, in September 2026. The team size is not published. The About page says that Voicy is profitable, and TrustMRR shows a 90.0% profit margin for the last 30 days, which does not agree with the pricing page's promise that the price will never be more than 20% above total costs.

Sources

The grade next to each source is the best grade that the source can support. "Read in full" means that the text of the page was downloaded and the numbers were checked in it.

  1. A TrustMRR: Voicy, payment-verified revenue profile, synced 13 October 2026
    Read the markdown profile (https://trustmrr.com/startup/voicy.md) in full, live copy synced on 13 October 2026 at 23:43 UTC, and compared it with the copy cached on 12 October. The revenue, MRR, subscription and monthly figures were read from Stripe through an API key. The description, founded date, pricing, funding, country, tech stack and profit margin fields are not in the verified list and are grade C.
  2. A TrustMRR founder page: Kourosh Ghaffari (@buildingwaves)
    Read in full. Ties the founder's name and X account to Voicy, his only startup with verified revenue on TrustMRR.
  3. C Voicy: About Voicy, our story
    Read in full. Source for the founder, the reason for the product, the founding in London in 2024, the team and the funding.
  4. C Voicy home page
    Read in full on 14 October 2026. Source for the privacy answers, the price answer with the yearly price, the user and word counts, and the comparison with Apple and Windows dictation.
  5. C Voicy pricing page
    Read in full on 14 October 2026. Source for the plans, the discounts and the fair pricing promise.
  6. C Voicy privacy policy
    Read in full. Source for Whisper, Groq, the server locations, the zero data retention setting and the offline mode.
  7. C Voicy: Best OpenAI Whisper alternative 2026
    Read in full. The company says that it uses OpenAI's Whisper API and explains the low price by the small team.
  8. C Voicy changelog
    Read in full. Source for the release dates from December 2025 to 12 October 2026 and the order of the platforms.
  9. C Voicy refund policy
    Read in full. Source for the 7-day money-back guarantee.
  10. B Chrome Web Store: Voicy, Voice to Text Powered by AI
    Read the listing on 14 October 2026. A record kept by Google: users, ratings, the Featured mark and the update date.
  11. B Internet Archive copy of usevoicy.com, 9 September 2024
    Read in full. The earliest copy in the archive's index; it offers a free Chrome extension.
  12. B Internet Archive copy of the Voicy pricing page, 21 April 2025
    Read in full. Source for the 2025 plans and prices.
  13. B Internet Archive copy of the Voicy pricing page, 16 September 2025
    Read in full. The same plans and prices as in April 2025.
  14. C Kourosh Ghaffari's X profile, @BuildingWaves
    Read through the fxtwitter API on 14 October 2026. The profile text gives Voicy at US$12,000 MRR, RomeoSEO at US$269 MRR, his job at Tiiny Host and Meetwaves as a previous company.
  15. C Kourosh Ghaffari on X, 16 September 2026: solo founder from Iran, US$11,000 MRR
    Read in full in his timeline through the fxtwitter API.
  16. C Kourosh Ghaffari on X, 17 September 2026: the most basic thing that everyone built since Wispr Flow
    Read in full in his timeline through the fxtwitter API.
  17. C Kourosh Ghaffari on X, 17 September 2026: work after his 9-to-5 job
    Read in full in his timeline through the fxtwitter API.
  18. C Kourosh Ghaffari on X, 17 September 2026: hiring a growth person for Voicy
    Read in full in his timeline through the fxtwitter API.
  19. C Kourosh Ghaffari on X, 30 September 2026: US$11,000 MRR, 2,000 paying users, Romeo
    Read in full in his timeline through the fxtwitter API. Source for the user count, the Google clicks and the AI agent.
  20. C Kourosh Ghaffari on X, 26 September 2026: 1,000 pages and 20,000 clicks a month
    Read in full in his timeline through the fxtwitter API. Source for the site size and the Framer cost.
  21. C Kourosh Ghaffari on X, 1 October 2026: raising the conversion rate
    Read in full in his timeline through the fxtwitter API. Source for the daily clicks, the move from Framer and the testing tools.
  22. C Kourosh Ghaffari on X, 12 October 2026: checking Stripe once a week
    Read in full in his timeline through the fxtwitter API. Source for the slower growth.
  23. C Kourosh Ghaffari on X, 2 September 2026: US$10,000 saved with the disability discount
    Read in full in his timeline through the fxtwitter API.
  24. C Kourosh Ghaffari on X, 3 September 2026: US$100 MRR for the iPhone app
    Read in full in his timeline through the fxtwitter API.
  25. C Kourosh Ghaffari on X, 4 September 2026: sponsored videos and MRR
    Read in full in his timeline through the fxtwitter API.
  26. C Kourosh Ghaffari on X, 23 September 2026: 15,000 YouTube subscribers
    Read in full in his timeline through the fxtwitter API.
  27. C Kourosh Ghaffari on X, 29 September 2026: reply to a post about Wispr Flow
    Read in full with the quoted post in his timeline through the fxtwitter API.
  28. C Kourosh Ghaffari on X, 20 September 2026: goal for RomeoSEO
    Read in full in his timeline through the fxtwitter API.
  29. C Apple Support: Use Dictation on Mac
    Read the sections on starting Dictation, punctuation, time limits and on-device processing.
  30. C Microsoft Support: Use voice typing to talk instead of type on your PC
    Read the Windows 11 section on how voice typing works and what it needs.
  31. C Wispr Flow pricing page
    Read in full on 14 October 2026. Source for the free plan limit and the Pro prices.
  32. C Superwhisper home page
    Read in full on 14 October 2026. Source for the free tier, the Pro price and the lifetime option.
  33. C MacWhisper on Gumroad
    The page loads by script; read its title and description in the page source.
  34. C Groq documentation: Speech to text
    Read the model and price tables. Source for the Whisper prices per hour of audio.
  35. C Loot Drop database export, 1,749 failed startups
    Local export. AI-written summaries, not independently verified. Source for the failed predecessors.

More in Voice and audio

Other businesses in the same group, best evidence first. All 10 stories in the group.

AI meeting and call note-taker app · USA

Wave AI

Evidence A
US$4Mstill running, revenue flat · 16 months after launch
The product

An app for iPhone, Android, Mac, Windows and the web that records meetings, phone calls and lectures, writes a transcript with the speakers identified, and then a summary with action items. A user can also ask questions about a recording. It is free for 30 minutes a month; Pro costs US$100 a year in the app stores.

Why it worked

It reached the App Store early, in July 2023, with the simplest form of the idea: press one button, get a transcript and a summary. The founder paid for Meta ads while they still worked for a new kind of app, tested paywalls constantly and moved buyers to annual plans. He works alone with AI coding tools, so in his own 2026 account about US$3 million of about US$7 million a year stays as profit.

Evidence strength3/4
Copyable pattern2/4
Capital needed2/4
Launch 26 July 2023Status November 2024Channel Paid ads Read the story
Voice notes and dictation app · Spain

Letterly

Evidence A
US$3Mstill running, revenue flat · 29 months after launch
The product

An app for iPhone, Android, Mac, Windows and the web that records speech and returns finished text: a clean note, an email, a list, a social post or a meeting summary split by speaker. A phone keyboard and a desktop dictation tool let users speak into any other app. It handles more than 90 languages and recordings of up to 90 minutes.

Why it worked

The first apps that combined OpenAI's Whisper and ChatGPT for voice notes appeared in 2023, and the founder found them "not implemented well enough". His team built a simpler one, collected early users and feature requests through lifetime deals on AppSumo in 2024, and in 2025 grew with advertising and paywall tests measured in Adapty's subscription data.

Evidence strength3/4
Copyable pattern2/4
Capital needed2/4
Launch November 2023Status April 2026Channel Paid ads Read the story
AI audio mastering from text prompts · Turkey · Funded

SoundBoost.ai

Evidence A
US$217,705still running, revenue growing · 32 months after launch
The product

A website and phone app that masters a song from a written request such as "warm, powerful and wide stereo". Each request comes back as a new revision that the user can compare with the earlier ones, and a Spotify link can serve as the reference for loudness and tone. The same subscription includes a splitter that separates a song into vocals, drums, bass and instruments. Since September 2026 the company also offers a generator that makes a music video from the song. Unlimited use costs US$16 a month or US$48 a year on the web.

Why it worked

For its first 20 months the product brought in about US$3,500 a month. Then three things came together: phone apps with weekly plans from August 2025, web plans with unlimited use at US$4 a month billed yearly, and a new group of customers, people who make songs with AI generators such as Suno and need the last step done for them. Monthly revenue rose 7.2 times between January and July 2026. No source states which of the changes caused the rise.

Evidence strength3/4
Copyable pattern2/4
Capital needed2/4
Launch 8 February 2024Status October 2026Channel Creators and short videos Read the story

Built with the same tools

Businesses whose sources name tools that Voicy also uses: React, Cloudflare, Apple App Store, Google Play. Every tool has its own page in Tools.

Live AI voice translation for churches · Cyprus

Glossa.live

Evidence A
US$182,185still running, revenue growing · 16 months after launch
The product

A church connects the audio of its service, from a microphone or the sound desk, to Glossa in a browser and starts a stream. Glossa turns the speech into text, translates the text, and reads the translation aloud with a synthetic voice. Each visitor scans a QR code, picks one of more than 100 languages on a phone, and listens with earphones or reads the captions. The church needs no receivers and no interpreter booth. It pays for the minutes of speech in each language, not for the number of listeners.

Why it worked

Churches with members from many countries meet every week, and the older solutions cost too much for most of them: an interpreter for each language, or radio receivers to hand out and collect. Glossa charges US$5 for one hour of speech in one language, counts by the minute, and charges nothing for silence, songs or extra listeners, so a small church can start with four free hours and then a few dollars a week. The product is shaped for this one buyer: captions go into ProPresenter and OBS, which churches already run, and a church can fix how names, Bible quotations and its own terms are translated. A very small team can offer this because the speech recognition and the voices are rented from model companies and paid by use.

Evidence strength3/4
Copyable pattern2/4
Capital needed1/4
Launch 1 June 2025Status October 2026Channel Search and AI answers Read the story
AI presentation generator and Google Slides add-on · India

MagicSlides

Evidence A
US$722,575still running, revenue falling · 45 months after launch
The product

A user gives a topic, a text, a PDF, a web address or a YouTube link, and a language model writes a slide presentation from it. MagicSlides runs as an add-on inside Google Slides and as a web application that exports editable PowerPoint, PDF and Google Slides files. Since July 2026 the same account also includes AI tools for spreadsheets, documents, meeting notes and a design canvas, under the name Magic Suite.

Why it worked

It appeared in January 2023 inside Google Slides, a program where people already work, when writing slides from one sentence was new, and users showed it to each other without paid advertising. A blog about presentation topics then brought about 80% of new users from Google search, by the founder's account. Both channels weakened: search traffic fell, and Google added the same function to Slides. The verified total is real, and so is the fall: monthly revenue fell by half between February and July 2026.

Evidence strength3/4
Copyable pattern2/4
Capital needed1/4
Launch January 2023Status October 2026Channel Inside another platform Read the story
AI writer and scheduler for LinkedIn posts · India

Supergrow

Evidence A
US$386,592still running, revenue falling · 34 months after launch
The product

A web app that writes LinkedIn posts in the member's own style from an idea, a voice note, a video, an article or a short interview with an AI, then schedules and publishes them. Team plans add approvals, a shared calendar and analytics for each employee. It can also be used from inside Claude and ChatGPT.

Why it worked

It entered a market where people already paid for tools such as Taplio, and did the one core task better: writing the post. The founders' public posts brought the first customers and a lifetime-deal platform, and that deal paid for growth without investors. Subscriptions, partnerships with LinkedIn influencers, affiliates and a move to team plans came after.

Evidence strength3/4
Copyable pattern2/4
Capital needed1/4
Launch April 2023Status February 2026Channel Founder's posts and audience Read the story

Same pattern: Built on another company's platform

These products live inside or on top of another company's product: a browser extension, an add-in, an app in a store, or a tool for the users of one platform. The host brings the users. The host can also change its rules, its prices or its own features, and the product must follow. All 22 stories with this pattern.

AI agent and MCP server for ad campaigns · USA

Adspirer

Evidence A
US$656,208still running, revenue growing · 7 months after launch
The product

An AI agent for paid advertising that works inside ChatGPT, Claude, Claude Code, Cursor and other AI assistants. It connects to the customer's ad accounts at Google, Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok, Amazon and ChatGPT Ads, researches keywords, builds campaigns (always created paused), reports results and finds wasted spend. Scheduled agents can also watch the accounts and make reversible changes. The customer pays the ad platforms directly.

Why it worked

It went where the users already were: an app in ChatGPT's app store, a plugin in Claude's directory and in Claude Code, and setups for Cursor and Codex, in the months when these directories were new. It charges per tool call instead of a share of ad spend, so a small advertiser starts at US$49 a month. And it applied to the platforms' own API programs; the company says Google approved it in June 2026 and Amazon admitted it to its partner network.

Evidence strength3/4
Copyable pattern2/4
Capital needed1/4
Launch November 2025Status June 2026Channel Inside another platform Read the story
LinkedIn lead finder for sales teams · USA · Funded

traxy

Evidence A
US$645,024still running, revenue growing · 5 months after launch
The product

A LinkedIn lead finder for B2B sales teams. You list LinkedIn profiles to watch; traxy collects the people who like, comment on or repost their posts, scores each one against your ideal buyer, adds an email address and phone number, and an AI agent can write and send the first message.

Why it worked

The founder already ran a LinkedIn ghostwriting agency and built the lead tool that the agency needed. He sold it with the tool itself: traxy found the leads, and his team contacted them. Daily posts on X added trials, and credit-based prices let heavy users pay more.

Evidence strength3/4
Copyable pattern2/4
Capital needed1/4
Launch 1 May 2026Status October 2026Channel Cold outreach Read the story
AI generator of coloring, puzzle and journal books for Amazon KDP · Italy, listed as United Kingdom on TrustMRR

Low Content AI

Evidence A
US$642,409still running, revenue flat · 26 months after launch
The product

A web application for people who sell simple books through Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing. The user describes a book, and AI models produce its pages: line drawings for coloring books, puzzles and mazes for activity books, text and layouts for journals and planners, and a description for the Amazon listing. A subscription buys credits. By the terms of service one generated image costs 200,000 credits, so the smallest plan, with 40 million credits a month, pays for about 200 images.

Why it worked

It sold one narrow job to a group that already existed: people who learn from YouTube channels and paid courses how to publish many simple books on Amazon. The product carries that group's own word in its name, tutorial channels in English and Italian showed it from January 2025, and the site runs an affiliate script. Two thirds of the US$642,409 came in the first 14 months, at about US$30,300 a month. The last 12 months average about US$17,600 a month.

Evidence strength3/4
Copyable pattern2/4
Capital needed1/4
Launch August 2024Status October 2026Channel Creators and short videos Read the story

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