With a notetaking device the size of a credit card, less than three millimeters thick, and powered by artificial intelligence, Plaud has sold more than one million units across 170 countries.
In an interview with Forbes in September, Plaud co-founder Nathan Xu said the company expects to generate USD 250 million in revenue this year. That figure includes both hardware sales and subscriptions to its Plaud Intelligence software, which costs USD 99–240 annually for international users.
On September 22, Plaud held a product showcase in Shenzhen, unveiling two new card-sized devices, Plaud Note and Plaud Note Pro, along with its first wearable recorder, Plaud NotePin S. The event also marked Plaud’s official debut in mainland China.
For startups like Plaud, the common playbook has been to test products through overseas crowdfunding, build momentum, and only then launch domestically. Yet Plaud’s trajectory has been a tad more distinct. The company has not relied on a blockbuster lineup of founding members or massive venture backing. Neither does Xu frequently appear in public to rouse interest. Instead, Plaud grew steadily through product reputation.
So what is the real secret behind its success? On the eve of the company’s China launch, 36Kr sat down with Mo Zihao, Plaud’s partner and China CEO. His answer was blunt: the only real moat is total commitment.
That commitment includes an unrelenting focus on one mission: AI-driven notetaking. Mo breaks down choices into three categories: things you can do, things you must do, and things you’ll die without doing. “We only do the latter two,” he said.
Even before Plaud entered the Chinese market, tech giants like DingTalk, Mobvoi, and Qihoo 360 had already released similar products at lower prices with more bundled features. Yet Plaud never felt threatened. Its hardware prices in China are identical to those overseas, with no discounting.
“The determination and philosophy behind what big companies invest in depends on how much they believe in it,” Mo said. “We invest ten times the manpower and resources, and that creates meaningful differentiation.”
Two days after DingTalk launched its DingTalk A1 recorder, Mo mused in a WeChat post that “hardware can be copied, but philosophy cannot.”
Plaud’s global team now numbers more than 400 employees, far larger than most peers in the AI hardware space. From recruitment, Mo said, new hires must align on one thing: believing that Plaud is pushing the boundaries of human intelligence.
That philosophy is rooted in dialogue. Both Xu and Mo frequently cite Ludwig Wittgenstein’s famous line: “The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.”
The team noticed that in many organizations, work isn’t driven by documents but by conversations. Tools like DingTalk and Lark (known in China as Feishu) already serve document-focused needs. Plaud instead targets professions where dialogue drives work. This focus shaped its product design. Its new “Plaud Ask” feature lets users interact with recorded content through Q&A. “Everyone else lets you ask questions. We designed Plaud to ask you,” Mo said.
Alongside this focus, Plaud enforces strict boundaries: it doesn’t build document features, PowerPoint generators, or lifestyle functions like ordering coffee. The goal is to avoid dilution and concentrate resources on notetaking.
Mo brings nearly a decade of entrepreneurial experience in mobile internet. He rejects piling on functions or using buzzwords like “ecosystem” and “empowerment.” Instead, he told 36Kr, “We want to go back to how products were built ten years ago: identify the factor that creates the biggest change, and deliver the most value around it.”
Both Xu and Mo consider themselves “people who’ve failed before.” Xu had three startups that didn’t take off, while Mo’s first venture in the nonprofit space was acquired after what he calls “not good enough execution.”
“Sometimes success isn’t about what you did right,” Mo said. “It’s about what you didn’t screw up. So far, we haven’t made any fatal mistakes.”
The following transcript has been edited and consolidated for brevity and clarity.
More than just a “workplace gadget”
36Kr: Why has Plaud chosen to launch in China now?
Mo Zihao (MZ): We’d been preparing for some time. The idea took shape at the end of 2024. From our data, model capabilities, and market expectations, we felt that if we wanted to build something big but ignored 1.4 billion people, it didn’t make sense. I joined Plaud on May 6 this year, and we’ve been preparing nonstop since.
36Kr: This year, DingTalk and Mobvoi both released notetaking devices. Did you pay attention?
MZ: Honestly, I haven’t tried them. But we’re quite different. They focus on summarizing meetings and generating to-do lists. We want to save users time and help them create more value.
36Kr: Do big tech companies entering the space make you feel threatened?
MZ: I’ve been in the mobile internet space since 2013, so none of this is surprising. If you’ve found product-market fit (PMF) and a track proves successful, it would be unusual if nobody followed.
36Kr: Do you see them as competitors?
MZ: Not really. Our philosophies, services, and resource commitments differ.
36Kr: What exactly sets you apart?
MZ: We want to help people push the boundaries of intelligence by improving decision-making and providing intellectual value. That’s a very different ambition from being an “efficiency tool” or a “workplace gadget.” We don’t want Plaud to be just an assistant. We aim for it to be an equal partner, a smart aide who knows you well and can help in decision moments.
That’s why we built “Plaud Ask.” Everyone else lets you ask questions. We designed Plaud to ask you.
36Kr: Since this is your first domestic launch, what challenges have you faced?
MZ: First, we can’t rely on overseas infrastructure. We need local models, payments, and storage. In China, we use Doubao 1.6 Pro, Qwen3-235B-A22B, and DeepSeek. Pricing competition is also tougher here. Some players use half or one-third of our price but don’t deliver much value.
36Kr: Did you need to localize the product for China?
MZ: This era’s biggest opportunity is that fundamental needs are similar across countries and cultures. Thanks to large models, we can deliver intelligence universally. We’ve sold in 170 countries. Aside from compliance adjustments, the product is the same everywhere. What we do need in China is to communicate our philosophy.
36Kr: What kind of philosophy?
MZ: There’s a lot of noise online. Some call Plaud a “workplace gadget.” But that’s not accurate. Hardly anyone who sits in an office all day writing documents actually uses Plaud.
Our use cases aren’t limited to meetings or offices. We emphasize work and dialogue itself. Many people don’t need documents. For them, conversations are how value is created and transferred.
Industries like healthcare, law, sales, consulting, and investing rely on dialogue to function. That’s where we come in.
The real moat is the team
36Kr: What’s Plaud’s moat?
MZ: Just one: the team.
The determination and philosophy behind what big companies invest in depends on how much they believe in it. We invest ten times the manpower and resources, and that creates meaningful differentiation.
36Kr: Could competitors copy your features?
MZ: Sure, in three to six months. But we’d have moved forward by then. And the stability and quality we deliver aren’t things you can replicate cheaply in Shenzhen’s Huaqiangbei electronics market.
36Kr: UC Berkeley’s Su Hao said it’s tough to break down barriers between hardware and software teams. Do you face those issues?
MZ: No. We operate on trust. Leadership sets that tone. Our folks believe we’re the best, and we believe they are too.
36Kr: How would you describe Xu Gao’s leadership?
MZ: He’s a simple guy, and that simplicity grounds our startup. One of our core values is to help others succeed. Both Xu and I had failed ventures before. That pain builds trust. None of us can do everything alone, so we focus on enabling each other.
36Kr: What lessons did you take from your own failures?
MZ: Market choice and size matter more than sheer effort. Also, character matters in hiring. Raising the bar makes everything easier.
36Kr: What made you join Plaud?
MZ: Few of our generation built truly successful mobile internet companies. I started after being admitted to Peking University in 2013, but the internet wave was already receding.
I later spent a year in large language models, but I realized they didn’t fundamentally change what I was selling, only how I sold it. That felt unoriginal.
At Baichuan, I saw how hard it was to break new ground. When Manus launched, it shook us. We didn’t want to copy it. Instead, we asked why we hadn’t created something at that level. I realized differentiation must come from context and extreme personalization.
Meanwhile, I’d been a Plaud user for a year. Watching its growth, then getting Xu’s invitation, I saw a real path to building meaningful products.
36Kr: How does Plaud’s culture differ from your past experiences?
MZ: We’re fast, simple, rational. Decisions and pivots happen quickly, with heavy investment. Once we decide, we give people autonomy.
36Kr: What does “simple” mean in practice?
MZ: Communication. We’re 400 people, but my structure only goes one or two layers deep. Fewer levels help us stay close to the front lines.
36Kr: And to be “rational” means?
MZ: That the management team never argues. When there are disagreements, we reason it out.
36Kr: What was the last big disagreement?
MZ: Prioritization and organizational adjustments. Models evolve quickly, so our deliverables must adapt. We reorganize accordingly.
36Kr: Will Plaud expand into B2B business in China?
MZ: We’ve already been doing B2B business for more than six months here, but consumer products remain the priority. Our B2B offerings are also hardware-plus-software. Splitting them doesn’t make sense. We aim to push the boundaries of intelligence through integration.
Staying focused matters more
36Kr: How has Plaud’s strategy changed since 2023?
MZ: Our first stage was all about educating users on AI hardware across recording, transcription, and summarization. By late last year, we felt we had become a leader in AI note-taking, and global users were beginning to adopt AI-driven workflows. That was when we shifted to promotion.
Now, we want Plaud to be an “AI work companion.” It’s not just about notes or slides. We aim to help users make better decisions and generate ideas, expanding their intellectual boundaries.
36Kr: What sparked this shift?
MZ: The release of Gemini 2.5 Pro. Its ability to handle very long texts showed us that AI’s value extends far beyond meeting summaries.
We often quote Wittgenstein: “The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.” Dialogue embodies intelligence. It’s more than information. It’s perspective, knowledge, judgment. That’s why we insist on face-to-face interviews instead of text messages.
36Kr: Why focus on a work companion, not a general companion?
MZ: Because we refuse to chase everything. We don’t do document tools, we don’t do PowerPoint generation, we don’t do lifestyle apps like food delivery. Those are distractions. We’d rather focus on leveraging best-in-class AI to deliver intellectual value.
36Kr: Doesn’t that mean you’ll miss opportunities?
MZ: Maybe. But I’m from the mobile internet era, and I think too many people forgot how to build products simply. We want to go back to finding the biggest drivers of change and focusing resources there. As I said: things you can do, things you must do, and things you’ll die without doing. We only do the latter two.
36Kr: Why insist on hardware? Couldn’t an app suffice?
MZ: Phones weren’t built for this. To capture context and intention properly, you need hardware that bridges the physical world, the mind, and the digital world. That’s what we deliver.
36Kr: Why not other hardware, like smart glasses?
MZ: Most smart glasses don’t have PMF. I only use Meta glasses while rock climbing, for hands-free phototaking. But they can’t capture intention. You have to shout “Hey Meta!” and then give a long prompt. That’s inefficient.
Meta’s recent wristband changed my mind, though. Gestures like double taps let you express intention directly. That’s more meaningful.
Selling out in China isn’t top priority
36Kr: Why keep pricing in China the same as overseas? Many see DingTalk or Mobvoi as cheaper alternatives.
MZ: Pricing isn’t the main story. AI models have made intelligence a commodity. The question is how much value you deliver. People will pay for state-of-the-art tech and maximum value.
36Kr: So Plaud aims to stay state-of-the-art?
MZ: We already are globally. The real challenge is staying that way. If our tenfold effort doesn’t translate into product differentiation that justifies pricing, then that’s on us.
Discounting might boost sales, but selling out isn’t what matters most now.
36Kr: What does matter most?
MZ: That models keep evolving, delivering more value. If we chase short-term profits now, tomorrow’s changes could wipe them out. The pace of change is faster than expected. We need to grow stronger as models advance.
36Kr: How do you measure if you’re the state-of-the-art in notetaking?
MZ: External feedback makes it clear. Not everything needs metrics. PMF, for instance, you just know when you have it.
36Kr: How did you know Plaud had PMF?
MZ: We didn’t raise funding. We launched on Kickstarter and immediately sold well, turning profitable on day one. Growth hasn’t stopped since. That’s classic PMF.
36Kr: How do you avoid false PMF, given that some devices like Humane’s AI Pin also had strong crowdfunding but fizzled?
MZ: Simple: see if growth continues. We keep hitting record highs each month.
36Kr: What metrics matter most to you: growth, retention, usage?
MZ: We track them all, but honestly, they are all meaningful. So we don’t obsess. Growth is the top priority, as long as nothing breaks badly.
36Kr: Isn’t that at odds with saying sales aren’t the most important thing?
MZ: It depends. Overseas, better products drive growth. In China, pricing and competition might matter more. So the question is where to spend our energy, whether that’s on features, or on advertising and price wars.
36Kr: Are there any missteps since you joined?
MZ: Not really. I think Plaud’s growth owes less to what we’ve done right and more to what we haven’t done wrong.
36Kr: Some investors say successful commercial products are often built on “boring, stable” technology. Do you agree?
MZ: No. Investors see only polished stories, while we live the daily grind. The reality looks different. From our perspective, nothing matters more than the team. Back in 2011, could anyone have clearly identified the moats of Meituan, Xiaomi, or Li Auto? If so, they would have invested then.
KrASIA Connection features translated and adapted content that was originally published by 36Kr. This article was written by Zhou Xinyu for 36Kr.