Portola · B2C · AI companion startup
Raise a small pre-seed first, then more from the same investor after launch
$10M seed in total
Workedfinancing
What they did
Raised a pre-seed from a known investor (Lachy Groom, ex-Stripe solo GP) on the three co-founders and a general direction while prototyping. After the soft launch showed traction, the same lead investor doubled down, making a $10M seed in total.
What happened
$10M seed round announced.
- Stage
- Pre-launch (pre-launch to post-launch)
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · Fueling Growth with AI and Viral Product Features — Ajay Mehta, Portola“And then as soon as we actually did launch Tolan in a soft launch in the App Store and things started to start to take off, that same lead investor, he's incredible, his name's Lachy Groom, he's an ex-Stripe, Solo GP.”
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More from this episode
- Tolan: Onboard with a fun voice quiz, then have the app bring answers up laterUsers call it a wow moment; part of what lifted early retention
- Tolan: Soft-launch the app for free to see how people really use itSome users talked 30-40 minutes a day right away
- Tolan: Put up a paywall 2-3 weeks after launch to cover AI costsGrowth self-funded; renewals give a clearer product signal than free usage
- Tolan: Hire a group of college-age creators to post lots of TikToks on their own accountsAbout 1 in 20 videos takes off; viral days brought 10-15K installs and #1 in category
- Tolan: Make videos of people using the app while studying, cooking or getting readyStudying ('up at 3am') took off first; a cooking video got ~10M views
- Tolan: Pay creators with about a million followers to post a video on their accountNewer effort; these do better on average than the small creators
- Tolan: Hire artists to make a bright, cute character that looks great in videosLow install costs even on paid; users show it to friends and post it unprompted
- Tolan: Make the AI companion a friendly, non-romantic alien instead of a human80-90% of users are women aged 15-25 with normal social lives
- Tolan: Improve conversations and add a shared planet until D7-D15 retention risesD5, D7 and D15 retention went up; growth then started paying off
- Tolan: Run small paid ads from day one to test retention and conversionLow install costs gave room to experiment; organic later beat it