
By turning meetings into immediate output, Earmark cuts operational overhead and accelerates product cycles, while its low‑cost, privacy‑first model makes AI assistance viable for large organizations.
The rise of AI‑driven meeting assistants promises to streamline collaboration, but most solutions stop at transcription or generic summaries that quickly gather dust. Earmark differentiates itself by delivering actionable artifacts in real time, a capability that directly addresses the hidden labor cost of turning discussions into implementation tasks. This approach resonates with product teams that juggle rapid iteration cycles and need immediate, reliable documentation without manual follow‑up.
Under the hood, Earmark orchestrates a fleet of purpose‑built agents that run concurrently during a call. One agent translates technical jargon, another drafts specification outlines, while a third spins up prototype code in tools like Cursor or V0. The company’s prompt‑caching layer stores reusable LLM prompts, driving per‑meeting AI expenses from a prohibitive $70 down to under a dollar. An "ephemeral" mode ensures no conversation data is persisted, turning a privacy concern into a marketable feature for enterprises bound by strict data‑governance policies.
For the broader market, Earmark’s model signals a shift toward AI as a true chief of staff rather than a passive recorder. By targeting product managers as extreme users, the platform validates a high‑value use case that can be extended to other functions such as legal review or security compliance via persona‑based agents. As organizations seek to embed AI deeper into workflow automation, solutions that combine cost efficiency, privacy, and tangible output—like Earmark—are poised to become indispensable components of the modern digital workplace.
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What if your meetings could actually produce the artifacts you need—specs, tickets, slides—before the call even ends?
In this episode of Just Now Possible, Teresa Torres talks with Mark Barbir (CEO) and Sanden Gocka (Co-Founder), the co-founders of Earmark, about building a productivity suite that turns unstructured conversations into finished work in real time. Unlike generic AI notetakers that produce summaries nobody reads, Earmark runs multiple agents in parallel during your meetings—translating engineering jargon, drafting product specs, even spinning up prototypes in Cursor or V0 while you're still talking.
You'll hear how they pivoted from an Apple Vision Pro presentation coaching tool to a web-based meeting assistant, why their ephemeral (no-storage) architecture became a feature for enterprise sales, and the technical challenges of making real-time AI affordable—from $70 per meeting down to under a dollar through prompt caching. They also dig into why vector search falls short for analysis questions and how they're building agentic search to find insights across months of meetings.
Whether you're a PM drowning in follow-up work or a builder curious about real-time AI architectures, this conversation offers a detailed look at what it takes to ship an AI product that people can't imagine working without.
Mark Barbir – CEO, Earmark
Sanden Gocka – Co-Founder, Earmark
How Earmark differs from generic AI notetakers by producing finished work, not just summaries
The pivot from Apple Vision Pro presentation coaching to a web-based meeting assistant
Running multiple agents in parallel during live meetings
Template-based agents: Engineering Translator, Make Me Look Smart, Acronym Explainer
Personas that simulate absent team members (security architect, legal, accessibility)
Why ephemeral mode (no data storage) became a selling point for enterprise
Reducing AI costs from $70/meeting to under $1 through prompt caching
Why GPT 4.1 still beats newer models for prose quality in their use case
The limits of vector search for analysis questions across meetings
Building agentic search with multiple retrieval tools (RAG, BM25, metadata queries, bespoke summaries)
Designing for product managers as the extreme user to solve for everyone
Their vision for an AI chief of staff that goes beyond automating deliverables
Earmark — Productivity suite where the work completes itself
ProductPlan — Roadmapping tool where both founders previously worked
Granola — AI notetaker mentioned for comparison
Assembly AI — Speech-to-text service used by Earmark
OpenAI API — LLM provider with prompt caching support
Cursor — AI code editor with build integration in Earmark
V0 by Vercel — AI prototyping tool with build integration in Earmark
00:00 Introduction to Earmark Founders
00:28 Background and Experience
01:05 What Does Earmark Do?
01:23 AI and Productivity
03:09 Comparing Earmark to Competitors
03:41 Earmark's Unique Features
05:53 Templates and Personas
10:06 Technical Details and Development
17:12 Early Product Versions and Challenges
28:44 Understanding Prompt Caching
29:49 Managing Multiple Tools and Costs
30:59 Optimizing Transcript Summarization
35:11 Challenges with Context and Reasoning Models
38:10 Innovative Search and Retrieval Techniques
44:06 Creating Actionable Artifacts from Meetings
48:30 Ensuring Quality and Managing Hallucinations
58:20 Future Vision for AI Chief of Staff
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