For The Founder CEO podcast, I had the privilege of speaking with Colin Treseler, co-founder and CEO of SuperNormal, a transformative tool designed to streamline meetings and reduce stress. Colin’s journey is a testament to resilience, curiosity, and a relentless focus on tackling meaningful challenges. Rooted in a background defined by competitive sports, his story provides an inspiring guide for aspiring entrepreneurs ready to take bold steps.
A Competitive Foundation
Colin’s journey starts atop Heartbreak Hill in Boston where he grew up as the youngest of four in a lively and athletic family. His father was an Olympic running coach, and world-class Kenyan athletes often trained at their home, where Colin was exposed to the world of discipline, excellence, and cultural diversity. Dinner conversations were as competitive as sports, and these sparked his love for learning and critical thinking.
After studying at Dartmouth and doing well as a rower, Colin suffered a back injury and turned to sailing. The transition taught him much about communication and teamwork. Colin’s career began in an unusual fashion: he landed his first job through a Craigslist ad at a small Boston startup. That was the experience that ignited his fire for entrepreneurship and led him to impact roles at companies like Klarna and Facebook, helping him perfect his skills in technology and product development.
However, Colin’s insatiable curiosity consistently led him to more difficult tasks. He and co-founder Fabian Perez set out to create a solution in 2019 that would revolutionize team communication, collaboration, and time savings after years of witnessing inefficiencies afflict enterprises.
Business Growth and Success
SuperNormal launched with a bold vision: to end the need for meeting notes. What started as a simple concept quickly gained steam, especially as remote work increased. Today, SuperNormal supports over 365,000 organizations in 150 countries, providing a seamless solution to automatically capture, summarize, and organize meetings.
Under Colin’s leadership, SuperNormal evolved beyond note-taking into something even more exciting. That’s when “Norma” was introduced to this organization-an AI assistant who can attend meetings, respond to questions, and even brainstorm ideas in real-time. Imagine Norma as your colleague, who remembers everything discussed during previous meetings, provides relevant inputs during a discussion, and makes sure never to miss a follow-up task. “We wanted to give people back their time,” Colin said. “Let them focus on meaningful work rather than the mundane.”
Unique Value or Product Offering
What makes SuperNormal special is that it is uniquely human-centric. Unlike other typical tools, Norma learns through the specific context of the organization and adapts according to individual needs with tailored solutions. It is more than just a meeting, however—it’s a trusted partner helping lighten the workload. It’s about summarizing the quarterly review or helping brainstorm through the session. That’s what Norma can do for you: free up your time for creativity and collaboration.
For Colin, the true essence of SuperNormal lies in its purpose: “We’re not just building tools; we’re creating solutions that help people spend less time on screens and more time living.”
Future Plans
Colin and his team are looking into a not-so-distant future with AI that not only aids but works actively along with him. The next step forward for SuperNormal would mean task execution: the actual follow-up, draft, scheduling of meetings, and perhaps even content creation, all will be done automatically.
“We spent years optimizing for time spent in apps,” Colin said, recalling his days at Facebook. “Now, it’s about time saved. That’s the true value technology should provide.”
Saving billions of hours across the globe, one meeting at a time is SuperNormal’s final mission.
Advice to Entrepreneurs
Colin’s path from competitive family dinners to leading an innovative AI startup demonstrates the power of persistence and adaptability, but it’s also a deeply human story. As a father, runner, and lifelong learner, Colin has built his company around a core belief: time is our most precious resource, and it should be spent wisely.
When asked what advice he’d give to aspiring entrepreneurs, Colin said, “Take care of yourself. It’s easy to sacrifice sleep, health, and relationships when you’re building something, but you’ll do your best work when you’re balanced and present.”
