AI companion app
Ajay Mehta's Tolan lets users build a customizable alien 'guide' powered by AI. The app is two years old, most subscribers pay $25/month for Tolan Plus, and Shaan estimates it is past $10M in revenue or run rate.
“So with, uh, the app that I'm working on now with, with an awesome team of folks, Tolin, we have over 100,000 paying subscribers to our iOS app.”
Shaan pushes back on dismissing Tolan as a cute wrapper on ChatGPT. People pay triple for minimalist, aesthetic versions of ordinary household items, so a better-feeling version of the same AI utility is a real market.
“But I don't know, I look at my wife, we will buy, we'll pay like triple for something that goes in the house that's just like white and minimalist and aesthetic looking. It's the aesthetic looking version of a normal thing. It's made out of wood instead of out of plastic. And there's just like a market for people who want a better feel of the same utility. And so maybe what you've done is the digital version of that where ChatGPT is just the plastic and you've made the kind of wood, the sort of the more ceramic, the more, uh, a better feeling version of the utility. And that's not to be overlooked.”
Tolan made voice its core interaction from early on, and more than 70% of messages on the platform are spoken. Ajay Mehta guesses ChatGPT is 90–95% text and argues small framing choices change how people relate to the character.
“So it's not just texting, it's mostly voice. And I think, you know, I mean, we're, we're like 70+% voice in terms of, like, the quantity of messages happening on the platform. And, you know, that's totally not the case with ChatGPT, right? ChatGPT has got to be 90, 95 plus percent text, I would, I would assume.”