aVenture · Jul 2026
Recent research page describes Draft The Record as an AI transcription platform for court reporters, with integrations, offline capture, export formats, competitor set, and a B2B sales motion.
Currently in stealth - previously FocusBuddy
Company research
Public company, workplace, funding, and market signals
Updated Jul 29, 2026
Overview
Sterling Labs, Inc appears to have pivoted from Focus Buddy, an AI productivity coach for ADHD and knowledge work, to DraftTheRecord AI, a YC-backed legaltech product for court reporting and litigation transcription. Public sources disagree on funding totals and founding year, so I used the strongest public evidence and left unsupported items null.
Primary product
DraftTheRecord AI — AI-powered court reporting and transcription for legal proceedings
Founded
2024
Headquarters
128 King St, FL 2, San Francisco, CA 94107
Team size
1-10
Work style
Flexible
Industry
LegalTech
Sub-industry
AI court reporting and legal transcription
Offices
San Francisco, California, United States
Business model
B2B SaaS
sales-led direct sales
subscription
Funding
Stage
seed
Total raised
$625K
Latest round
Pre Seed Round · Sep 2024
Latest amount
$500K
Sep 2024 · Y Combinator
Aug 2024
People & investors
Work & culture
Small founder-led YC-backed team with direct founder access, fast execution, and a customer-ownership culture; job copy emphasizes end-to-end responsibility, support, documentation, and iterative product feedback loops.
Work style
Flexible
Visa sponsorship
Limited
Compensation
YC job posting lists $80K-$120K salary plus 0.05%-0.10% equity for customer-success roles, with visa sponsorship mentioned on the posting.
Product & market
Pricing
Not publicly listed; demo-led, sales-led B2B pricing with custom enterprise contracts
Differentiators
- —98.5% accurate rough-draft transcripts
- —near-perfect speaker identification
- —supports remote, in-person, and offline proceedings
- —integrations with Teams, Zoom, Webex, and Google Meet
- —revocable real-time transcript sharing
- —exports to legal/CAT formats
- —claims no data selling and no training on customer data
Technology
AI transcription model
speaker identification
multi-channel audio capture
offline capture
secure revocable transcript links
Microsoft Teams
Zoom
Webex
Google Meet
Word/TXT/RTF/WordPerfect/PDF/CAT exports
encryption in transit and at rest
Customers
attorneys
court reporters
transcribers
scopists
legal teams
court reporting firms
Competitors
Verbit
VIQ Solutions
Stenograph
VoiceScript
CourtScribes
Notta
Scale & contact
Latest news
Society for the Technological Advancement of Reporting (LinkedIn) · Apr 2026
Industry post shows the current Draft The Record branding in court-reporting/legal-tech circles and indicates active sponsorship/participation in 2026.
Y Combinator (LinkedIn) · Sep 2024
YC’s LinkedIn post highlighted the launch, founder backgrounds at Google, and the product’s multimodal voice/text coaching for ADHD and productivity.
Y Combinator · Sep 2024
YC launch page describing the original Focus Buddy product as an AI productivity coach that stayed on multi-hour voice calls to help users focus and avoid procrastination.
Startup Intros · Sep 2024
Reports a Sep. 1, 2024 $500K seed round for Sterling Labs / Focus Buddy and lists Countdown Capital, Y Combinator, David Lieb, and Julia DeWahl among the investors.
Jobs and careers at Sterling Labs, Inc
2 jobs at Sterling Labs, Inc
Creative Director
On-site
Design Creative
New York
5mo ago
On-site
Full-time
Would you like to become a part of the team at Sterling?
On-site
Sterling Brands
New York/Cincinnati/San Francisco
1y ago
On-site
Full-time