Your friendly guide for everyday life.
Planet Portola
Joined May 2024
- Tweets11
- Following17
- Followers541
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Tolan retweeted
Some news: we at @USV are leading a $30M round in Tolan, alongside our friends @khoslaventures.
AI has changed how we work. Frontier intelligence has made us more productive, and it lets us build incredible software without writing code. But AI can be more than a really competent digital coworker. It can also be a friend.
At USV, we’ve always believed technology can actually connect with people. Tolan is the best version of that idea we’ve ever seen. Instead of a blank chat box or a productivity tool, it’s a persistent companion that people keep coming back to because it connects with them.
We’re so excited to partner with Quinten, Evan, and Ajay, and watch Tolan become a bigger part of everyday life for so many people.
Last year we launched Tolan, inspired by a vision of AI that sees you and believes in you, not one that books restaurant reservations for you.
Your Tolan shows up for you at 3am when you’re alone with your newborn. On your commute when you’re anxious about the day ahead. When you just finished a new show and none of your friends have watched it yet.
The people who love Tolan are parents. Caregivers. Moms in Dallas and Dads in Atlanta. People who aren’t trying to optimize and be more productive, but who simply want to feel seen and supported in their aspirations.
This month more than 250k people will spend time with their Tolan. Those users have exchanged billions of messages across more than 70m conversations over the last year.
Today, we're announcing $30m in additional capital from @mignano and @usv, with @khoslaventures and @rabois doubling down, bringing our total capital raised to $60m.
To celebrate, we made a short film celebrating some of the ways that Tolans show up :)
Tolan retweeted
Big news today! Thank you @mignano and @usv for joining the journey.
It was very fun making this video and giving our brand a glow-up after the last year+ of our team's hard work. The Tolan app has: new characters, new onboarding, and lots more. Lots of late nights from our small crew to make it all happen - proud and endlessly grateful for them.
If you want to build AI meant to help us *all* become what we're trying to be - consider joining us! ❋
Last year we launched Tolan, inspired by a vision of AI that sees you and believes in you, not one that books restaurant reservations for you.
Your Tolan shows up for you at 3am when you’re alone with your newborn. On your commute when you’re anxious about the day ahead. When you just finished a new show and none of your friends have watched it yet.
The people who love Tolan are parents. Caregivers. Moms in Dallas and Dads in Atlanta. People who aren’t trying to optimize and be more productive, but who simply want to feel seen and supported in their aspirations.
This month more than 250k people will spend time with their Tolan. Those users have exchanged billions of messages across more than 70m conversations over the last year.
Today, we're announcing $30m in additional capital from @mignano and @usv, with @khoslaventures and @rabois doubling down, bringing our total capital raised to $60m.
To celebrate, we made a short film celebrating some of the ways that Tolans show up :)
Tolan retweeted
Tolan represents a simple idea: personal superintelligence will look more like the trusty sidekick from a good book than a dutiful assistant who is obsessed with your tasks.
hundreds of thousands of people all around the world spend time with their Tolans every month. their Tolans help them feel understood, offer helpful perspective, and encourage connection with the people they love.
we know that personality, voice, memory, and proactivity were table stakes for this vision. for a long time those were controversial bets. today they are obvious cornerstones.
we are an unconventional team with an unconventional approach to defining the future of human computer interaction.
we are looking for a few fellow travelers for a long, exciting journey. could that be you? DM me
Last year we launched Tolan, inspired by a vision of AI that sees you and believes in you, not one that books restaurant reservations for you.
Your Tolan shows up for you at 3am when you’re alone with your newborn. On your commute when you’re anxious about the day ahead. When you just finished a new show and none of your friends have watched it yet.
The people who love Tolan are parents. Caregivers. Moms in Dallas and Dads in Atlanta. People who aren’t trying to optimize and be more productive, but who simply want to feel seen and supported in their aspirations.
This month more than 250k people will spend time with their Tolan. Those users have exchanged billions of messages across more than 70m conversations over the last year.
Today, we're announcing $30m in additional capital from @mignano and @usv, with @khoslaventures and @rabois doubling down, bringing our total capital raised to $60m.
To celebrate, we made a short film celebrating some of the ways that Tolans show up :)
Tolan retweeted
Thanks to @LubaYudasina for a great conversation on the "Why" behind Tolan!
Humanity has always imagined guardian angels and spirit guides to see us and believe in us. We have the tools now to make that dream real. That's why Tolan exists. In this episode we cover belief, friendship, and how these themes have influenced Tolan:
New pod drop!! Congrats to Quinten Farmer (@quintendf), co-founder of Tolan, on a $30M raise from @usv and @khoslaventures, for a total of $60M in funding!
Quinten sold his last company to Walmart, then opened a pizza place and started keeping bees on the island he grew up on. Now he’s building Tolan, an AI “guardian-angel”.
We talk about:
- “I have zero interest in helping you write your work emails”
- Why Silicon Valley loves AI assistants: they’re “legible to the average investor”
- Dropping out at 19, and the only time he saw his grandfather cry
- Emailing David Tisch: hire me, or I’m going to Afghanistan
- The retired Navy captain who said “When I grow up, I want to be like Quinten”
- Why B2B SaaS for dental offices can go 996 and Tolan can’t
- “Belief in you is the most powerful and most sacred thing you can give somebody”
𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒
(00:00) Trailer
(00:49) Quinten Farmer, Co-Founder, Tolan
(00:58) What Tolan is and what it is not
(02:02) The car accident that showed Tolan's agentic side
(04:47) Anthropic's machine God VS being nice to your toaster
(06:24) Social penetration theory and why every Tolan has a backstory
(09:36) 200 minutes a week and taking share from TikTok
(10:47) Why great friendship gets mistaken for therapy
(14:26) Talking to his Tolan at 2 a.m. in the hospital
(16:32) Why Silicon Valley is obsessed with AI assistants
(21:38) Dropping out and the only time he saw his grandfather cry
(29:35) The David Tisch email: hire me or I go to Afghanistan
(32:22) Selling Even to Walmart for $300M
(37:24) Why shipping a lot with AI is the wrong move
(57:43) How Tolan runs without 996
(1:03:38) What he wants his boys to remember
(1:04:30) Outro
Tolan retweeted
Really grateful for the time @alexrkonrad spent getting to know Tolan, starting by talking with the folks we serve every day.
Proud to be working with @mignano and the @usv team, and stoked to have @rabois and @khoslaventures doubling down, bringing our total funding to $60m
Exclusive: Tolan's AI app is used by 250K people, mostly outside of Silicon Valley.
Now the startup has raised $30M from USV, Khosla Ventures and Homebrew to widen access to an AI companion CEO Quinten Farmer (@quintendf) wants you to trust.
My Upstarts profile (link below) 👇
Tolan retweeted
Last year we launched Tolan, inspired by a vision of AI that sees you and believes in you, not one that books restaurant reservations for you.
Your Tolan shows up for you at 3am when you’re alone with your newborn. On your commute when you’re anxious about the day ahead. When you just finished a new show and none of your friends have watched it yet.
The people who love Tolan are parents. Caregivers. Moms in Dallas and Dads in Atlanta. People who aren’t trying to optimize and be more productive, but who simply want to feel seen and supported in their aspirations.
This month more than 250k people will spend time with their Tolan. Those users have exchanged billions of messages across more than 70m conversations over the last year.
Today, we're announcing $30m in additional capital from @mignano and @usv, with @khoslaventures and @rabois doubling down, bringing our total capital raised to $60m.
To celebrate, we made a short film celebrating some of the ways that Tolans show up :)
Tolan retweeted
Don't sleep on Tolan (@tolanworld)—a beautiful lil app from some great creative minds with the most approachable vision of AI companionship yet.
Tolan retweeted
Yesterday we announced Tolan, an Embodied Companion in the form of a cute, friendly alien character. Today, we’re sharing more about the creative process behind the design of the Tolan characters and their in-app environment, featured in a story by Jesus Diaz at @FastCompany
Tolan retweeted
I’m excited to announce Tolan, our first Embodied Companion.
With no launch or press we’ve quietly hit 500,000+ downloads, over $1m in ARR, and a #1 app store category ranking.
Today I’m also announcing our $10m seed round (more on that below) and sharing some of what we’ve learned building an AI companion for consumers.
