Tolan · B2C · AI alien companion app
Quiz new users, match them to an AI friend, then start a voice chat
Advisor credits it as a big part of their success; no numbers
Workedonboardingproduct-activation
What they did
In the first minute or two, an 'oracle' asks the user questions about themselves; answers are used to match them with a Tolan that has its own personality, and the app explains why they were matched. The user is then quickly dropped into a voice-to-voice chat with the AI creature, which reacts to their answers in near real time. The match result is shown as a shareable personality-profile infographic.
What happened
Phil says the opinionated, crafted first 60 seconds is a huge part of why Tolan has been so successful; host calls it the most fun onboarding he's had.
- Stage
- growth
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · 12 AI Growth Lessons for Subscription Apps – Phil Carter, Elemental Growth“in the first minute or two, you have this oracle who asks you a bunch of questions about yourself. Based on your responses to those questions, you're then matched with a Tolan that has its own unique personality and character dimensions based off of your personality.”
“I do think that's a huge part of why they've been so successful because they have a very opinionated product that they've built.”
Related topics
Get tactics like this every Monday
New tactics from the week's founder interviews, each linked to where it was said.
More from Tolan
All 13 Tolan tactics- 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
- 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
- Soft-launch the app for free to see how people really use itSome users talked 30-40 minutes a day right away
- 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
- 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
- Put up a paywall 2-3 weeks after launch to cover AI costsGrowth self-funded; renewals give a clearer product signal than free usage
More from this episode
- Tolan: Show a shareable card of how the AI character's personality maps to yoursAdvisor calls it a viral artifact people share; no numbers
- Runna: Target serious runners with training plans that adapt after every runWon the race-training niche; later bought by Strava
- Wispr Flow: Put a small always-visible widget or calendar reminder where users already workGuest now uses voice nearly as much as typing; no company numbers
- StudyFetch: Ship many AI study features fast and show each one on TikTok and DiscordNo results shared
- Runna: Use AI tools to go from tens to 400+ ad concepts a month400+ concepts/month; said to lower CAC and speed up learning
- Film a real person once, then use AI for 30 languages and music variantsAdvisor's standing advice to clients; no numbers
- Photoroom: Show the AI background remover in the first 6 seconds of every adLower CAC, higher conversion; opened Mexico, Brazil and Indonesia
- Gamma: Let the decks and sites users make get shared and show up in searchGrew with very little paid acquisition; valued at $2B+
- Gamma: Use cheaper, faster AI models where the output is good enoughProfitable 6 months after launch; faster product and lower compute costs
- Notion: Get early-adopter creators to post tutorials and templates for your new AI featureDrove organic adoption of Notion AI and better new-user retention; no numbers
- Replace the hard paywall with a free plan plus a 7-day trial of the best version+75% LTV per user (other pricing changes made at the same time)
- Switch from a hard paywall to a free planSubscriber conversion fell 50%+; reverted after a couple of weeks
- Duolingo: Keep AI features in a pricier top plan; give basic users a taste
- Tolan: Start with a 7-day free trial, then tune trial length to limit AI costs