# Sam Liang

> Sam Liang is the co-founder and CEO of Otter.ai, the AI meeting intelligence platform that crossed $100M ARR in 2025 with just under 200 employees. A Stanford-trained electrical engineer who co-invented Google Maps' Blue Dot and sold his first startup Alohar Mobile to Alibaba in 2013, Liang founded Otter in 2016 after drowning in 30-40 weekly meetings with no reliable way to capture what was said. Today Otter serves 35 million users across enterprise, education, and government, processing tens of billions of minutes of conversation - and has evolved from a transcription tool into an autonomous AI meeting agent suite that can answer questions, coach salespeople, and conduct product demos in real time.

- **Role:** CEO and Co-Founder at Otter.ai
- **Organizations:** Otter.ai, Alohar Mobile, Google
- **Nationality:** American (Chinese-born)
- **Education:** Bachelor's degree, Computer Science, Peking University, Master's degree, University of Arizona, PhD, Electrical Engineering, Stanford University
- **Known for:** Co-invented the Google Maps 'Blue Dot' - the real-time user location indicator used by billions, Founded Alohar Mobile, acquired by Alibaba in 2013, Built Otter.ai to $100M ARR with under 200 employees (~$500K revenue per employee)

## Career timeline

- **2002-2006** — PhD at Stanford University under Prof. David Cheriton (Google's first investor)
- **2006-2010** — Google - led Google Maps Location Platform & API, co-invented the 'Blue Dot' real-time user location feature
- **2010** — Founded Alohar Mobile, a context-aware persistent sensing platform
- **2013** — Alohar Mobile acquired by Alibaba; investors included Tim Draper, Ken Xie, David Cheriton
- **2016** — Co-founded Otter.ai (AISense) with Yun Fu (CTO) in Mountain View, CA; raised $3M seed
- **2017** — Raised $10M Series A
- **2019** — Otter reached 250 million minutes transcribed; launched Otter for Teams
- **2020** — 800% revenue growth during COVID remote work boom
- **2021** — Raised $50M Series B; launched OtterPilot AI meeting assistant; Zoom partnership deepened
- **2023** — 1 billion meetings transcribed milestone; expanded to Microsoft Teams and Google Meet
- **2024** — 50 billion minutes of meetings processed; launched AI chat and meeting summary features
- **2025** — Crossed $100M ARR; launched industry-first AI Meeting Agent suite (Meeting Agent, Sales Agent, SDR Agent); HIPAA compliance; Enterprise Suite with public API and MCP Server
- **2026** — Appointed Kenny Scannell as CRO; expanded multi-language support; accelerating global enterprise adoption

## Achievements

- Co-invented the Google Maps 'Blue Dot' - the real-time user location indicator used by billions
- Founded Alohar Mobile, acquired by Alibaba in 2013
- Built Otter.ai to $100M ARR with under 200 employees (~$500K revenue per employee)
- 35 million global users as of 2025
- 50+ billion minutes of conversations processed
- WSJ Top 10 AI App recognition
- Named top AI app by both Apple App Store and Google Play Store
- Delivered $1 billion+ in annual ROI for enterprise customers
- Achieved HIPAA compliance enabling healthcare sector expansion
- Launched industry's first autonomous AI Meeting Agent suite in 2025
- Strategic Zoom partnership giving Otter deep integration with the world's leading video platform
- Built proprietary speech recognition engine outperforming Google and Microsoft in meeting transcription accuracy

## Latest updates

- **2026-03** — Appointed Kenny Scannell as Chief Revenue Officer to accelerate global enterprise growth
- **2025-12** — Otter.ai capped 2025 with $100M ARR milestone, 35M users, and industry-first AI Meeting Agent suite
- **2025-10** — Launched comprehensive Enterprise Suite with public API, MCP Server for AI model integration, desktop app, and advanced admin controls
- **2025-07** — Achieved HIPAA compliance, opening healthcare sector
- **2025-03** — Unveiled industry's first AI Meeting Agent suite: Meeting Agent (real-time Q&A), Sales Agent (live coaching), SDR Agent (autonomous demos)

## Links

- Website: https://otter.ai
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samliang/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/goopt
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/OtterAI

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/sam-liang
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-07