• Google's cofounder Larry Page made an appearance at a Y Combinator meeting in December.
• He spoke to a group from the fall 2024 class of startups.
• He talked about the origins of Google and listened to founders talk about their startups.

Google's cofounder Larry Page made a rare public appearance last month during a Y Combinator event for startups in San Francisco, Business Insider has learned.

Page showed up at an "office hour" for a group from the fall 2024 class of startups during the final days of the event, where he listened to founders talk about their business ideas, a person who attended said. Lulu Meservey, a Y Combinator spokesperson, confirmed Page's attendance at the event.

Y Combinator is a startup incubator that holds seasonal classes — known as "batches" — where budding startup founders can network and get advice from Silicon Valley luminaries.

Page was brought along to the event by the Y Combinator group partner Paul Buchheit, the attendee said, adding that Page also shared some anecdotes about the early days of Google. The person asked to remain anonymous because they had not been permitted to speak with the media about the event.

A public sighting of Page is extremely rare these days.

He and his Google cofounder, Sergey Brin, stepped away from their executive roles at Alphabet in 2019, giving the pair time to pursue other business interests such as flying cars and disaster relief. The pair still sit on the Alphabet board and hold shares of a special voting stock that gives them ultimate control of the company.

While Brin has returned to work on AI projects at Google, Page has remained more distant. He continues to financially support Pivotal, a startup working on electric vertical-take-off and -landing vehicles.

Got more insight to share? You can reach the reporter Hugh Langley via the encrypted messaging app Signal (+1-628-228-1836) or email ([email protected]).

• A few months ago, I started using an AI notetaking app, Granola, in meetings.
• I take notes and then after the call, the AI builds a more fulsome outline of the conversation.
• Taking notes on what's most important helps us get more from meetings, Granola's CEO said.

A few minutes after I'd hopped on a call with a tech founder, he mentioned that he'd started using an "amazing" AI notetaking app.

It was helping him capture the various decisions and to-do's that came up in the many meetings that punctuated his calendar.

I was intrigued. I'd tried artificial intelligence tools for summarizing interview notes and transcripts. The results were often great at capturing themes, yet the AI tended to sweep past the details, pithy comments, or intriguing ideas I would tend to highlight.

It was like getting a book report from someone who'd only skimmed the reading.

Not long after my call with the tech founder, I downloaded the app, which is called Granola, on my Mac. It's a desktop tool, for now. An iOS version is on its way and Windows after that.

I've been using Granola since midsummer, and it's changed my meetings. To be clear, I also use a different app to get a full recording of the call to ensure my reporting and quotes are accurate. But what delighted the founder who tipped me off to Granola is also what I like best: I get to shape the outline for the notes that the AI generates.

My kind of notes

When I began using it, I allowed Granola to synch with my calendar. A few minutes before, I get a prompt to join a meeting. When the call begins, I then get permission from whomever I'm talking with to record the conversation. (Granola also has a prompt that pops up at the bottom that reminds users to get the OK to transcribe calls.)

The notetaking window in Granola is pretty much a blank page, which I like because it's a clean UX. I can drop in a title or use the one populated by what's on my calendar.

Once things begin, I only type what's most important, and the AI follows my lead. I can type just a few words and know that, after the call, with a click, Granola will build an outline around the points I flagged.

That's a huge help and different from the summaries I often get from other AI tools. Plus, I also always look back at the untidy notes I took in case something in the AI version feels off.

If I take no notes at all — which is rare — Granola will still deliver a pretty sharp summary complete with subheads and bullets.

The biggest benefit for me is that I worry less about scribbling down each thing that I might later deem important. In essence, I can be more present.

That's a frequent comment from users, Chris Pedregal, Granola's CEO, told me over a call in which we each took notes with the app.

In fact, given the whac-a-mole way many of us work — quickly triaging the messages that bombard us throughout the day — AI notetaking apps could have our back.

Pedregal said he was surprised when the company began hearing from users that they'll often zone out during a meeting to respond to an urgent Slack or WhatsApp message, then go back to Granola and pop up the transcript to read what they missed.

That's notable, in part, because in a recent survey, 57% of Granola users reported being in leadership roles. Pedregal said that supports the narrative that many top execs might be more excited about AI than some rank-and-file workers.

Pedregal, 38, cofounded Granola in March 2023. He's from the US, though he and the company's staff are based in London. Granola is focused on the American market and has US investors, he said. The company recently completed a $20 million Series A round. Google acquired Pedregal's prior startup, Socratic, in 2018.

Finding the sweet spot

The benefit of having an AI notetaker, I've found, is more than knowing I don't have to worry as much about details in the moment (though I'll always double-check afterward). Pedregal said the reason the app doesn't record audio is to make it less invasive.

The things I type are often the points that stand out because they're unique — or questionable — and that I want to think or ask more about.

Pedregal says jotting down a few notes during a meeting — but not being slavish about capturing everything — is the sweet spot. Unless we're trying to multitask, that middle path often enough, he said, to keep us tethered to the conversation and engaged with what speakers are saying.

I admit I've felt good while in meetings on busy days knowing that the safety net is there.