How Tolan Built a Viral AI Companion

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May 15, 2025

Ajay Mehta, cofounder and president of Portola, discusses the viral AI companion app Tolan. Tolan, designed as a Pixar-like alien friend, has captivated Gen-Z women by providing emotional support and relationship advice. Ajay reveals how Tolan's surprise memory feature creates deep emotional connections with users. He also explains the power of TikTok in driving the app's explosive growth and the transition from a paywall to a freemium model to enhance user experience and community building.

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ANECDOTE

Memory Sparks Emotional Connection

Toland's viral success started when users experienced the AI companion remembering past conversations.
This emotional recognition made users feel truly seen and cared for by their Toland.

INSIGHT

Unique AI Companion Formula

Toland offers a unique AI companion experience combining personality, animation, and voice interaction.
It stands apart by not fitting into typical assistant or role-play categories.

ANECDOTE

Viral TikTok Drives Growth

Viral TikTok videos showcased diverse Toland use cases: cooking tips, emotional support, relationship advice, and study help.
These user stories fueled organic growth by demonstrating Toland's versatility.

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Ajay Mehta is an accomplished entrepreneur who is currently cofounder and President of Portola, the company behind a viral AI companion app called Tolan. Prior to launching Tolan, Ajay founded other successful consumer startups including Birthdate Co., Therapy Notebooks, and FamilyLeaf, and he has held product and growth leadership roles at Wealthsimple (Canada’s largest FinTech company) and Tilt.

Key Takeaways:

After finding product-market fit with an AI companion in the form of a Pixar-like alien friend and officially launching its app in February 2025, Tolan has gone viral among Gen-Z women who use it for everything from emotional support to relationship advice to help with homework and everyday tasks.
The magic moment for users is when their Tolan remembers something they said the previous day and realize their Tolan really sees and understands them. The “wow factor" of this emotional connection has helped the app go viral, similar to how the stunning speed and quality of ChatGPT’s responses made it go viral.
TikTok has been the top channel for Tolan. Because of the way TikTok’s algorithm works, Tolan was able to generate multiple viral videos even before it had any real online following, which has helped propel its exponential growth.
Tolan is doubling down on its rapid organic growth by transitioning from a hard paywall to a freemium model and building social experiences into its app that will allow users to create a “solar system” of close friends and their Tolans.
Like many AI apps, Tolan’s monetization strategy must consider the underlying costs of AI-powered features. However, as these costs have continued to come down dramatically, it has allowed application-layer companies like Tolan to push the envelope on feature development and give more value away to users for free.

Ajay Mehta:

Website: https://www.tolans.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajayumehta/
X: https://x.com/ajaymehta

Phil's Carter:

Website: https://www.philgcarter.com
Substack: https://philgcarter.substack.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philgcarter
X: https://x.com/philgcarter