In one of his oldest public Instagram reels, Tae Lee claimed he found “the best study method” to ace a college exam in one day: Turbo AI, an artificial intelligence note-taking platform.

But Lee hasn’t needed to use the tool in a while. 

Now, as Turbo AI’s head of marketing, the self-proclaimed Northwestern dropout left Evanston behind for a gap year in Los Angeles to take a gamble on the startup’s future. 

Instead of taking classes in what would have been his sophomore year, he now spends his days analyzing online trends and how he can weave them into marketing tactics for Turbo. 

In less than two years since its founding, Turbo AI has blown up on social media. 

The startup, co-founded by Rudy Arora and former Duke University student Sarthak Dhawan, is designed to help students study for their classes. Arora, who is also taking an indefinite leave of absence from school, would have started his junior year at NU this year if not for his move to California.

Turbo AI allows users to record lectures and upload course materials that are then transformed into notes, flashcards and quizzes. Aside from creating more traditional study tools, the platform turns course materials into a podcast with AI hosts or even “brainrot” videos. 

Developing in the Dorm 

Arora said he initially created Turbo AI as a side project “just for fun.” He said he used AI to study throughout high school and realized that a specialized product would be helpful for him and his friends.  

After receiving positive feedback from others at NU, Arora said he decided to market the platform and get feedback from other students. 

“I would take like 100 cookies from Sarge or Elder, and then I would give them out in exchange for user signups roughly two years ago,” he wrote in a message to The Daily. “And then people would stop by and give me product ideas and feedback.” 

Attention toward Turbo AI continued to climb. At VentureCat 2024, NU’s annual startup competition, Turbo AI won first place in the “Consumer Products and Services” track and won the overall final grand prize of $100,000.

Arora said that while the Turbo AI team has yet to spend the grand prize, the competition was a great opportunity for the company to gain exposure. 

Turbo Taking Off

Since his freshman year, Arora has left behind his days of trading snickerdoodles for sign-ups. 

The summer after his sophomore year at NU, Arora announced he would be dropping out of college to pursue the company full-time. 

Turbo AI has since climbed to over five million users. Arora said he believes Turbo AI has risen in popularity for two main reasons: the intentionality of the product and its marketing campaign. 

“One of the things that we’ve been very intentional about is keeping the product clutter-free and very intuitive. We try to have as little options and buttons on the screen while still being feature-rich,” Arora wrote. “I think an easy-to-use and understand (user interface) and (user experience) have helped with word-of-mouth growth a lot.”

He also credited the company’s marketing strategy for helping Turbo blow up online. 

Arora said the company’s seven full-time content creators and influencers have helped market Turbo to the public. 

“We drive hundreds of millions of views a month on social media,” he wrote. “Because of this, we have a lot of mind-share.”

A Marketing Machine

Lee said he first met Arora at a party after seeing videos he created, and Lee was determined to do marketing for Turbo. 

Though he was always scared of putting himself out there online, Lee thought that if he made videos for the company, it would be a good way to get started. After he started posting videos on social media, he quickly amassed a large follower base. He now stands at over 40,000 Instagram followers. 

While Lee never expected to leave school to pursue Turbo, he said the massive upside to Turbo’s potential future success compelled him to take time off.  

“For one [quarter] worth of missing out with school, this completely makes up for it because regardless of whether I go back to school or continue here, it’s going to help me in my life so much,” he said. “When weighing the pros and cons, obviously, I miss school, I miss my classes and my friends and stuff, but when you think long term, this is definitely a very beneficial and once-in-a-lifetime experience that I was just like, I can’t turn it down.” 

Lee said that one of the marketing team’s goals is to consistently grow their online presence. One way the team has done that is through the TurboShip program, which Lee said has amassed hundreds of part-time creators. He said that through the program, the Turbo marketing team has taught people how to become better creators. 

For Lee, this type of marketing strategy is optimal because of the potential profitability of the approach. 

“The (return on investment) is insanely high because even if you burn thousands of dollars on one creator or hundreds of creators, if you get a couple of viral videos that hit a couple million views and people actually sign up to buy a subscription, you make all that money back,” he said. 

One of those many creators is Weinberg sophomore Katelyn Liu. During her freshman year, the Turbo team reached out to Liu over TikTok, asking if she would want to become a creator for the company. Liu has been making videos as a Turbo creator since early February. 

As a member of the TurboShip program, she receives coaching on how to create successful videos for social media. Liu said that while the content creators’ posts are up to them, the coaches provide feedback on how to improve video production and quality. 

“We just send in our videos to our coaches, and we’re like, hey, do you have any feedback for me? If there’s no feedback, we’re just good to post, but sometimes they might correct you on lighting or props or backgrounds,” she said. “These people are people who have experience with content creation. They know what goes viral.” 

According to the TurboShip website, compensation for creators can range from $25 to $2,000, depending on the level of engagement their video receives.

Aside from compensation, Liu said being a creator has been a good opportunity to work on her content creation skills. 

“It’s really cool to be a content creator because by being part of this company, I’ve been able to kick-start my own content creation journey on my personal account,” Liu said. “And it’s honestly, a really good way to meet new people from all over the country and all over the world because we just have such a large reach.” 

The Future of Turbo

In his time away from NU, Arora is always considering where the company goes next. 

He said that in the short term, Turbo is focused on improving its study-related features. But, down the road, they are looking to expand Turbo’s user base beyond students. Arora is hoping to build the platform to be a general-purpose note taker that people use within everyday life, while still focusing on helping students. 

“We’ve done a really good job of building a sticky product that students love, and we’re good at getting students to use our product,” Arora wrote. “The natural extension of the company that I envision is that we are a note taker that people use not just in high school and college, but after they graduate and for life.”

Email: [email protected]

X: @SarahSerota 

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