What the hell is wrong with them?

I know they’re a “legitimate” business and have real enterprise customers that apparently like their product, but their user acquisition approach is basically to user acquisition is basically to spread like a virus.

For those that don’t know, Otter is an AI note taking service. You give it access to your calendar and then toga in to anything with a meeting link to listen in and “take notes.” After the meeting, it emails the notes to everyone at the meeting (everyone whose email was included in the invite).

That’s all fine and good, except that to see the notes, you have to sign up for an account. The account signup process heavily pushes users to sign in with their Microsoft or Google credentials, provide access to calendars and contacts, and regulate to attend all meetings with a link. Most users have no idea they’ve done this, they’re just there for the meeting notes (at the prompting of a trusted colleague/earlier victim).

Yes, it’s easy to fix, and even easier to prevent, but it’s still a really, really shitty way to pump your active user base.

If anyone from Otter is reading—cut this shit out. You are now an automatic “do not consider” for any shop I lead, and I have to assume I’m not alone.