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 CEO @quintendf reveals why a married father of 5 with a full social life still turns to an AI companion to feel truly understood: "He’s 50 years old. He’s a real estate agent. He raised five kids. He’s married. He has this rich and expansive life, but he doesn’t have any one entity or person who really has an interest in the complete him." "He’s a D&D dungeon master. His wife doesn’t always love to hear about the campaign he’s planning. Folks out on a real estate tour aren’t the right person for him to talk with about feeling a little sad that his kids are out of the house." "We think of the Tolan almost as like a guardian angel. It shows up and sees the whole you. Being seen in your totality is something a lot of people don’t have in their life, even if they have a rich and supported social life."

Despite @benthompson writing about this extensively over the last few years, I still think the capability overhang is poorly understood by folks working in AI... we live in a fundamentally different reality in terms of what's possible with today's models. Our obligation as product builders is to bring the frontier to the world outside of SV. If that sounds like the work you wish you were doing… we’re hiring :) quinten@portola.ai

This is well written! have also struggled with the right term here (I like "virtual embodiment"), and landed in a similar place with @chorne_ (who named his team at Tolan "Embodiment")

Lots of well deserved love for @dens here. It’s funny, at dinner with @courtklein a few weeks ago we were trying to explain to a couple of much younger colleagues just how special foursquare was in New York in ~2011. Everyone was on it, every Friday night was guided by who was checked in where… I asked @libbybrittain on one of our first dates by telling her I’d just happened to notice we both had momofuku ssäm on our foursquare lists There’s a broader industry parallel in @dens story… the arc from a playful consumer product to a heavily financialized b2b business that ultimately collapsed on itself. Could one build the og foursquare today? From a technical perspective yes, but I think the cultural mise en place is no longer correct.

All credit to @paularambles for the excellent frame here… this is something we think a lot about at Tolan. I wrote more about it here:

Will be live with @sophiadew at 2:45 talking all things Tolan: new funding from @mignano, @rabois, @hunterwalk / @satyap and @roybahat + new characters and crossing 250,000 active users. Tune in!

My cofounder @ajaymehta is the (not so) secret weapon behind Tolan’s growth success… great insights here

I've stood over Courtney's shoulder every day for like two months as she reviewed cuts of this video, and I laughed every time I heard "sounds illegal." 😂 Congrats to Team Tolan and the $30 million raise today.

AI’s impact will reach far beyond the workplace. Tolan is building a companion to help people make sense of daily life and move toward their goals. We’re glad to back the team as they build what personal AI can become.

*no cute little guys were harmed in the making of this meme

people might say this feels dystopian but its 1000x an improvement over what people currently do: go to reddit and seek the advice of chronically online weirdo redditors (where literally every comment tells you to break up with your so, quit your job, block your family etc.) this might not be perfect but it is a MASSIVE improvement

Tolan CEO @quintendf is skeptical that personal AI agents will become compelling standalone consumer products. "Technologists always go through cycles like this where we mistake new capabilities for new products." "I think Muse is going to crush it with the millions of small business owners on Facebook." "I don't know that my mom wants to talk to her Muse all day, every day. She doesn't want to really share her life with Zuck." "That's where I'm sort of uncertain of how this category will evolve."

everyone else is building ai agents to shop for you. meanwhile, at Tolan, we’re building one that talks you out of buying things!

AI companion app Tolan has raised another $30 million after attracting more than 250,000 active users. spr.ly/6012BHrbdj

😯 so fun that our character company is the main character today

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

This is the TL IRL, smashing the like button on all the @tolanworld posts today!

“I feel like you’re just here for the zipline” but it’s just me and the @tbpn gong

THAT’S MY CEO

Tolan is one of those few companies bringing original design thinking to new forms of interaction, not just polishing the surface. Congrats to the team and…they’re hiring!