Generative AI and deciding what to build first with Elaine Zelby of Tofu
Oct 24, 2023
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Elaine Zelby, co-founder of Tofu and a VC, talks about startup priorities, evaluating co-founders, fundraising in 2023, and the capabilities of generative AI. They discuss the challenges of transforming written content into audio, tool coordination in organizations, starting a company, and the potential of generative AI models in text, image, and video. Fundraising strategy and lessons learned are also shared.
Tofu is a generative AI platform that automates top-of-funnel B2B marketing processes through hyper-personalization and content repurposing.
Elaine Zalbi identified a gap in the market for generative AI-driven marketing tools and built Tofu to address the pain points and needs of marketing teams.
Deep dives
Tofu: Revolutionizing B2B Marketing with Generative AI
Tofu is a platform designed to automate top-of-funnel B2B marketing processes, allowing for hyper-personalization and content repurposing. By tailoring content based on persona, industry, and account, Tofu helps marketing teams achieve more with less. Co-founders Elaine Zalbi, EJ Cho, and Han Le Lu combine their expertise in AI, product design, and go-to-market strategy to build a seamlessly integrated platform. The power of generative AI enables Tofu to create highly personalized, omni-channel marketing content that increases conversion rates. By automating repetitive tasks and leveraging AI to assist with content creation, Tofu streamlines workflows and allows marketing teams to focus on more strategic initiatives. With the ability to analyze data and optimize campaigns, Tofu aims to become a must-have platform for enterprise B2B marketing.
The Journey to Tofu: Initial Idea and Market Exploration
Elaine Zalbi's journey to building Tofu began when she became fascinated with AI technology and its potential applications in the marketing world. As a participant in ODF2 and a venture capitalist at SignalFire, Zalbi gained firsthand insight into the AI landscape. In 2018, she started exploring the space further and identified a gap in the market for generative AI-driven marketing tools. Through extensive conversations with CMOs and heads of marketing, Zalbi honed in on the pain points and needs of marketing teams, leading to the early version of Tofu. The journey involved ideation, meeting co-founders, and aligning on a shared vision for Tofu's future.
Harnessing Generative AI for Hyper-Personalization and Repurposing Content
At the core of Tofu's capabilities is the utilization of generative AI. Tofu's platform creates hyper-personalized content by crawling and analyzing both public-facing and internal materials, including sales enablement, objection handling, competitive intel, and value propositions. By generating content tailored to specific accounts, personas, and industry segments, Tofu ensures a personalized touch across various channels. Additionally, Tofu enables marketing teams to repurpose existing content, such as white papers, eBooks, podcasts, and webinars, by leveraging AI to create different assets suited for specific channels and formats. By automating these tasks, Tofu saves time and resources, allowing teams to focus on creative and strategic work.
Building Defensibility: Workflow, Distribution, and Data
To create a defensible position in the market, Tofu focuses on three key factors. First, Tofu aims to excel in end-to-end workflow optimization, ensuring a seamless experience for marketing teams. Second, Tofu prioritizes building proprietary distribution channels, leveraging relationships, connections, and strategic partnerships, to reach its target audience effectively. Finally, Tofu recognizes the importance of data and plans to leverage customer data in a privacy-preserving manner to enhance its models and provide valuable insights for customers. This approach ensures that as Tofu continues to evolve, it remains well-positioned to achieve its goal of becoming an essential platform for enterprise B2B marketing.
Joining me in the deep end is Elaine Zelby — co-founder of Tofu (https://www.tofuhq.com/) — a powerful generative AI platform that enables marketing teams to repurpose their content and run more successful campaigns. Tofu recently announced their $5M seed round led by Index Ventures.
We’ve known Elaine for years — first as a friend, then as a participant in ODF2, then as an investor in On Deck during her time as a VC at SignalFire. She’s the first person we refer founders to when it comes to marketing, growth or go-to-market.
In this episode, Elaine and On Deck co-founder Julian Weisser discuss how to decide what your startup should build first, what to consider when evaluating potential co-founders, how to think about fundraising in 2023, and the current capabilities of generative AI.
Are you exploring starting a company? We’ve got a program for that.
ODF has helped 1k companies get started and go on to raise over $2B. Applications for our 19th cohort in San Francisco are due this week. Learn more and apply at beondeck.com
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