By profession3 min read16 September 2026
AI notes for investor and board meetings
The thing founders lose from an investor meeting is not the outcome — it is the conditions attached to it. "I’d support a round at this stage if we see three more enterprise logos by Q2" becomes "they seemed positive", and a precise roadmap turns into a vibe. The same happens in board meetings, where the caveats are the content. Capture the session, pull the conditions out within a day, and write the follow-up around the specific things that were said. That is a different email from the one that attaches a deck.
What to do with the record
01 / Pull out the conditionals first
Read for every sentence with an "if" in it. Those are the roadmap. A summary reliably flattens conditional into positive, which is the single most expensive compression in fundraising because it turns a checklist into a feeling.
02 / Name the specifics in the follow-up
Referencing the portfolio company they mentioned, or the metric they flagged, is what separates a follow-up from a form email. It is also trivially easy when you have the record and effectively impossible when you do not.
03 / The suggestions made sideways
Board members and investors drop hires, channels and partnerships into the conversation without flagging them as important. These disappear from memory first because they did not announce themselves, and they are often worth more than the agenda items.
04 / Continuity across a long relationship
Plenty of investors who eventually back a company said no the first time. Being able to open the next conversation with what they asked for last time, and what has changed since, is the difference between a fresh pitch and a continuing relationship.
05 / Board sessions need a different consent conversation
A personal record of a board meeting sits alongside the formal minutes and raises real confidentiality questions. Agree it with the chair, be clear about who can access it, and do not treat it as the company record.
Where these numbers come from
Competitor pricing moves. Every figure here is quoted from the vendor’s own published pages on the date given — check theirs before you decide anything on ours.
Otter, Fireflies, Fathom, Notta and Granola each require a virtual meeting or a running app to capture from — checked on 15 September 2026 against each vendor’s own product pages and documentation. All five offer mobile apps that can record in person from a phone; none captures a conversation with no session and no app running. If that changes, this page is wrong and we would like to be told.
Questions
What is the best tool for recording investor meetings?
For in-person meetings — a coffee shop, a venture firm’s office, a boardroom — a recording device, because there is no call for a software tool to join. For video calls, Otter, Fireflies or Granola. We make a pen for the first case.
Should I record a board meeting?
Raise it with the chair first. A board session carries confidentiality expectations that a customer call does not, and a personal recording is not the company’s minutes. Some boards will be fine with it; some will not, and finding out afterwards is the bad version.
How do I write a better investor follow-up?
Around the two or three specific things they said — the condition, the comparison, the concern — rather than around your deck. That requires having the specifics, which is the whole argument for capturing the meeting.
What do founders forget from investor meetings?
The conditions attached to interest, and the suggestions made in passing. The overall verdict is easy to remember and is the least useful part of the record.
Does this help with customer discovery too?
Yes, and arguably more — founders filter customer conversations through what they already believe. See customer discovery interviews.
A board meeting is a governance setting with its own confidentiality expectations, and a personal recording is not the same as the company’s minutes. Raise it with the chair before recording a board session rather than after. Scriben is recording people know about. You say what the pen is and what it does, they agree, and then it stays out of the way for the rest of the conversation — that second half is the product, and it only works after the first. Recording law varies by jurisdiction and by profession: see recording people lawfully before you start.
Read next
- Customer discovery interviews — You hear confirmation. Here is the fix.
- Board meeting notes — What the minutes deliberately leave out.
- For fractional executives — Five companies, one head.
- All-hands agenda — Forty-five minutes, a third of it questions.
- Investor update template — Six sections, and one ask people can act on.