Medford man launches an app, and a dream

It was nearly a decade ago when Jack Mengel thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool if you had a call, and a machine could tell you all the takeaways of that call and who said what, if it could just do all that for you?”

Well, now there’s a new app for that and it’s called Notezy, Mengel’s creation, where you can “effortlessly keep everyone on the same page.”

“The app is basically a note-taking app,” said Mengel, a Boston University graduate who has made Medford his home. 

Notezy will record your conversation or whatever you want to record audio-wise, Mengel said, then using AI technology it is transcribed into text delineating between speakers.

“You can really see what the conversation is saying,” he said. “It’s very accurate.”

But wait – that’s not all.

Mengel said a second AI program will then summarize the audio into bullet points and takeaways. The transcription is then stored in the user’s account and the user can revisit it, share it via email with colleagues, or text it to friends.

“I know it’s my app, so I’m biased, but it’s really cool how it works,” Mengel said. “It’s pretty transformative if you use it in your everyday life.”

And, why would you use it in your everyday life?

Mengel said his clients run the gamut from real estate and construction developers, who are often meeting on site and on the fly, to administrative assistants to a mom who recorded her son’s karate class so he could remember what his instructor said. 

A data scientist by trade, Mengel was previously a project manager. He said one of his biggest problems was always trying to take notes while listening at the same time. People would agree to tasks but somewhere along the line, wires could get crossed, people would remember the meeting differently, and tasks would fall by the wayside, he said.

It was around 2015 when Mengel had the first tickle of an inspiration for Notezy, but that was before AI technology had become a cultural phenomenon, and though he is a code writer, he wasn’t sure how to build such an app. A few years later, however, and along comes Chat GPT and again the wheels began to turn for Mengel. 

Developed by OpenAI and released in November 2022, Chat GPT is a program that can generate human-like conversational responses to questions, topics and queries posed by the user – and the user can direct the response by refining what it asks. 

Mengel said it still took him a while to figure out how to use the technology for his app, but once he did he and Notezy were off and running. 

What sets it apart

While there is competition in this field, Mengel said, that didn’t deter him. He said that in speaking with customers what he consistently hears is that Notezy is the most accurate when it comes to converting audio into text.

 “I think the way that I present the notes is the most digestible of all the others,” he added. 

He said his format is more standardized in that it creates takeaways and also identifies who owns what tasks. That tool doesn’t exist in other apps, he said. 

“You can also import audio with this app,” Mengel said. “So if you have something that already exists that you recorded and you want to transcribe it, there’s a tool for that.” 

Notezy also supports over 17 languages. Mengel said he has customers all over the world, including in Europe and Asia. 

How much

The first 30 minutes are free, then users can do a yearly or a monthly subscription, Mengel said. 

“Monthly is $10,” he said. “And then annual is $80. It makes it worthwhile."

Next up

Mengel’s next step is to continue to grow his user base, which has proved tougher than he originally thought, but he is optimistic that it will take off. He also hopes to build the app out, broaden it for laptop/desktop computer use and eventually for a smart watch. 

The dream, he said, would be to create an app with a Zoom-like application where the audio would automatically be recorded, transcribed, and summarized, and the app would instantly populate to-do tickets for each person involved. 

He’s also churning a few other ideas. 

“I had been wanting to start a business for a long time,” he said. “My family is almost entirely entrepreneurs.”

He said he’s had other ideas and when he thought he had a good one he’d run it by his wife. 

“She almost universally did not like my ideas,” he said with a smile. “However, when I suggested the note taking app with bullet points, she immediately said she liked it and that I should pursue it.  So, from there I took it seriously and pursued it into what it is today.”

Check out Notezy for yourself wherever you get you apps or at Mengel’s website.