Personal AI 🧠

Setting the Scene

• Imagine a morning routine where pre-drafted texts and emails await your approval, requiring just a tap to send.

  • The best part: These responses sound like they were transcribed from your mind. 🤔

• Current AI, powered by large language models (LLMs), is trained by big tech on public data, which results in generic responses and privacy concerns.

• This week's company develops personal language models (PLMs) trained on personal data, resulting in AI tailored to the individual.🤯

In a Sentence

Personal AI enables individuals to build, own, and operate AI models trained on their data.

• Build: Users train their models by prompting messages and integrating their websites, texts, documents, emails, and more.

• Own: Individuals own and control their models, building privacy and combatting biases.

• Operate: Users interact with their model through the desktop and mobile apps or connect to text, email, and socials to auto-draft responses to others.

The Basics

• Industry: AI, Business/Productivity Tool

• Headquarters: New York, NY

• Year founded: 2020

• Employee count: 5 FTEs

• Investors: Differential Ventures, Supernode Global, BBGV, Jane Street, Village Global, Keshif Ventures, Good Friends, a16z Scout Fund, Beni VC

• Amount raised: $8.4m

• Currently raising: $10m Series A with $6m committed

• Business model: Freemium subscription with tiered pricing

• Early traction: 50k PLMs created, 11 million memories created, 3.3 daily sessions and 90 minute daily use per subscribed user

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

• Personal AI, ChatGPT, and other AI models are shaping the future of every industry, and venture capitalists are pouring billions into AI startups to capitalize on this disruption.

  • But investing in the AI revolution is not just for venture capitalists.

• Jurny, an AI-powered startup that has partnered with Airbnb to streamline operations in the rapidly growing short-term rental industry, is one of the few companies that has opened its round for anyone to invest.

• The company has raised a $5.5 million seed round from Mucker Capital, VITALIZE, Singularity Capital, and others.

  • Jurny has seen high interest in its private crowdfunding raise on Wefunder, with $2 million invested before going live.

• Bulletpitch readers get exclusive access to a discounted valuation before the official crowdfunding launch on July 31st.*

*This is sponsored content.

Due Diligence

WHAT WE LIKE

• 👤 Tailored to the individual: While large language models are accelerating productivity, Personal AI has the potential to advance this disruption with a quicker-to-train model that better understands the user.

• 📈 End market: Personal AI targets a broad end user, including small business owners, C-suite executives, authors, and professionals with personal brands who readily invest in tools to manage their knowledge and communication.

  • Plus, PLMs are smaller and more cost-effective to develop, which will help the company as it expands.

• 😄 Retention: The platform demonstrates increasing user engagement with Day 60 retention surpassing Day 30 retention, suggesting that the company re-engages users as their Personal AI gets smarter.

POTENTIAL RISKS

• 🏋️‍♀️ Personal training: The tool is most useful when the individual has spent enough time training their model by prompting the chatbot and connecting their data.

• 🥷🏻 Adoption hesitancy: While the company protects user privacy, individuals may be hesitant to create an AI model trained on their own data.

• 💰 Costly development: AI competitors have required significant funding to develop their tech, and Personal AI may require the same as it scales and finds product-market fit.

Founder Profile

• Suman Kanuganti, CEO: Previously founded and served as CEO at Aira and worked as an engineering manager at Intuit.

• Sharon Zhang, CTO: Previously worked as a software engineer at Nuance and LinkedIn and as Head of AI/ML at Glint.

• Kristie Kaiser, Head of UX and Design: Previously served as a product designer at Aira and several other startups.

Comps

• Rewind: Backed by a16z, First Round, and Vela Partners.

• Character.ai: Backed by a16z, Nat Friedman, Elad Gil, and others.

• Perplexity: Backed by NEA, Databricks Ventures, Nat Friedman, and others.

• Inflection: Backed by Microsoft, Reid Hoffman, Bill Gates, Nvidia, and others.

📌 Bulletin Board

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

• 🗣 Are you building the future of finance? Restive supports the best early-stage fintech startups through capital, professional guidance, and access to an elite network of tech and finance leaders.

  • Apply now to accelerate your growth and build the future of fintech with Restive. Applications are open through August 1st!*

• 📈 This week in tech: The United States government secured commitments from leading AI companies to help manage the rights and safety risks associated with AI.

• 💡 The innovation situation: Apple hopes to compete with OpenAI by developing its own AI tools.

*This is sponsored content.

🗳 Cast Your Vote

Last Week Today

• The results are in: Fit!, a connected fitness company that offers affordable equipment and influencer-led training content, was narrowly defeated in the polls.

• Subscriber feedback: “The early traction is promising, but the connected fitness model has struggled even at scale.”

✍️ Written by Brett 

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