This AI Alien Will Bring In $4 Million This Year in Revenue

TL;DR: Today we’re releasing a new episode of our podcast AI & I. Dan Shipper goes in depth with the team behind the delightful AI companions called Tolans—Portola’s cofounder and CEO, Quinten Farmer, and head of story, Eliot Peper. Watch on X or YouTube, or listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Here’s a link to the episode transcript.

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There’s an alien living on more than 500,000 phones in America—and people are talking to it like it’s their best friend. 

It’s called a Tolan: a voice-based, AI character that looks like a cute, colorful alien; remembers your conversations; and speaks with personality. And in just four weeks, the company behind it—Portola—went from $1 million to $4 million in annualized recurring revenue (ARR). LLMs are creating a new way for us to tell stories, one that helps us make sense of ourselves. Portola is turning that potential into growth. 

On this episode of AI & I, Dan Shipper talks to two people who make interacting with Tolans delightful: Portola’s cofounder and CEO, Quinten Farmer, and head of story, Eliot Peper. Farmer’s last company was a fintech business that he sold for $300 million, and Peper is a best-selling science fiction novelist of 11 books. Together, they trace Portola’s evolution from building software for children to AI companions, discuss how to design an AI personality that resonates with users, and tell the inside story of what it’s like to build a new storytelling medium from the ground up.