# Circleback Reaches $8M ARR at Eight People, Opens Free Tier and Engineering Roles

**Author:** Zero G Talent
**Published:** 2026-11-06
**Category:** software
**Tags:** yc-hiring, productivity, software engineering, typescript, b2b saas, growth engineering

[Read on Zero G Talent](https://zerogtalent.com/blog/circleback-reaches-8m-arr-at-eight-people-opens-free-tier-and-engineering-roles)

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[Circleback](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-companies/circleback) is generating more than $1 million in annual recurring revenue per employee with a team of eight. Operating profitably out of San Francisco at roughly an $8 million run rate, the Y Combinator-backed startup is expanding its headcount across engineering, product design, and marketing to turn its meeting transcription application into an automated knowledge platform for enterprise conversations.

Founded in 2023, Circleback builds AI-powered software that transcribes, summarizes, and extracts action items from customer calls and internal meetings. Rather than functioning solely as an audio repository, the product runs automated workflows on conversation transcripts—such as identifying product requests during sales demos to populate Linear tickets, or recording customer details directly into CRMs and Notion databases.

### Expanding Beyond Meeting Summaries

Circleback started as an alternative to transcription apps that require users to comb through lengthy audio logs. The company positions its software as a single repository for everything spoken across an organization, whether in video conferences, phone calls, or in-person exchanges. The software operates on Mac, Windows, the web, iOS, Android, and the Apple Watch.

After each call, the application organizes discussions into distinct sections, pulls out key takeaways, and assigns clear action items to participants. Through a feature called automations, teams can write custom prompts that parse conversations for specific entities—such as pricing discussions, objections, or feature requests—and send that structured data directly into external tools. Customers include PostHog, Browserbase, and Delve.

### Founders With Systems and Data Backgrounds

Chief executive officer [Ali Haghani](https://zerogtalent.com/people/ali-haghani) and chief product officer [Kevin Jacyna](https://zerogtalent.com/people/kevin-jacyna) founded Circleback after technical tenures at large software companies.

Before founding Circleback, Haghani worked as an engineer at Stripe, where he spearheaded the initial integration of large language models into customer support experiences, a project that lowered annual operating costs by more than $2 million. Earlier in his career, he worked on the ads experimentation platform at Twitter, creating infrastructure to support A/B testing across ad campaigns. 

Jacyna previously worked as a senior software engineer at Tableau, where he helped integrate predictive analytics into the core analytics suite and worked on feature parity between Tableau's desktop and browser clients. Outside of software engineering, Jacyna played Junior A hockey in Canada.

### Running Profitable on $3M in Capital

Circleback raised a $2.5 million seed round in 2024 backed by investors including Transpose Platform, Rebel Fund, Pioneer Fund, Grotech Ventures, TDF Ventures, CNF Investments, Syncom Venture Partners, and angel investor Kulveer Taggar. The company has taken in $3 million in total funding.

According to [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/31/meeting-notetaker-circleback-adds-a-free-tier-to-attract-more-customers/), the startup has stayed profitable since that round, allowing it to turn down incoming venture investment to avoid equity dilution. To counter competing services such as Granola, Read AI, and Fireflies, Circleback introduced a free tier in August 2026 that grants unlimited transcriptions with a 30-day history limit.

Paid subscriptions begin at $15 per month billed annually for unlimited storage, full API and Model Context Protocol (MCP) access, and third-party integrations. Rather than paying for digital advertising campaigns through Google or Meta, Circleback relies on its free plan and word-of-mouth adoption as its primary acquisition channels.

### Engineering Culture and Technical Stack

The company builds its platform with TypeScript, Next.js, React, Tailwind, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Prisma, and Postgres. Circleback ships software on a continuous schedule and maintains an entirely onsite working model at its San Francisco headquarters.

To build out its distribution and platform integrations, Circleback is hiring a [Growth Engineer](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/circleback/growth-engineer-119085) paying between $150,000 and $220,000, alongside a [Senior Product Engineer](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/circleback/senior-product-engineer-101690) with compensation up to $250,000. On the go-to-market side, the team is bringing on a [Founding Marketer](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/circleback/head-of-marketing-92631) paying $140,000 to $200,000 to own customer acquisition and product positioning.

### Open Roles at Circleback

All current roles are full-time, onsite positions based in San Francisco.

| Role | Location | Work Mode | Salary |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Growth Engineer](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/circleback/growth-engineer-119085) | San Francisco, CA, US | Onsite | $150,000 – $220,000 / year |
| [Senior Product Engineer](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/circleback/senior-product-engineer-101690) | San Francisco, CA, US | Onsite | $170,000 – $250,000 / year |
| [Product Engineer](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/circleback/product-engineer-101689) | San Francisco, CA, US | Onsite | $145,000 – $240,000 / year |
| [Software Engineering Intern (Summer 2027)](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/circleback/software-engineering-intern-summer-2027-96234) | San Francisco, CA, US | Onsite | $7,000 – $10,000 / month |
| [Design Engineer](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/circleback/design-engineer-92780) | San Francisco | Onsite | $170,000 – $280,000 / year |
| [Founding Marketer](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/circleback/head-of-marketing-92631) | San Francisco | Onsite | $140,000 – $200,000 / year |
| [Senior Software Engineer](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/circleback/senior-software-engineer-91861) | San Francisco, CA, US | Onsite | $170,000 – $250,000 / year |
| [Software Engineer](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-jobs/circleback/software-engineer-91924) | San Francisco, CA, US | Onsite | $145,000 – $240,000 / year |

[See all open roles at Circleback](https://zerogtalent.com/ai-companies/circleback)

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*Source: [Zero G Talent](https://zerogtalent.com), the job board for space, defense, AI, robotics and frontier-tech companies.*