It took me a while to figure out why I liked Granola’s homepage more. All three products can take notes, so I expected to compare features. But Granola made me think about a specific kind of conversation I’ve had.
When I interviewed sales reps and admins at Zergaw, people would sometimes mention something useful almost in passing, usually when we got off the questions I’d prepared. I remember wanting to follow that thread instead of worrying about writing everything down. Granola’s pitch, an “AI notepad for back-to-back meetings” without a bot joining, gets at that feeling. On Bain’s pyramid I’d put it under saves time and reduces anxiety. Otter has bot-free recording too, though, so Granola’s advantage might be more about how it presents itself.
Otter seems to be selling to people who need meetings to turn into work, especially sales teams. It advertises pre-call briefs, live coaching, and follow-ups (informs, reduces effort). The follow-ups sound great. Live coaching, less so. I think I’d get distracted trying to read it while someone was talking.
Fireflies is more convincing for a team than for me individually. Its searchable meeting history and integrations promise organizes and integrates. I understand why a manager would care, but I kept scrolling and wondering which feature I’d actually use first.
I’d pick Granola, even though I can make a pretty good case for Fireflies if I were buying for a whole team. For our class pitch, I’m realizing I should probably spend less time talking about what the product can do and more time thinking about what would make someone care enough to try it.
