Milo's founder messaged Sam Altman after laying off her team, then built on OpenAI models

A text-based AI assistant that reads parents' messages and photos of school forms and turns them into calendar items and reminders

Large language models like GPT-4 are the missing piece that makes an AI assistant for busy parents actually work

Undisclosed pre-seed and seed from Y Combinator, OpenAI, Magnify Ventures, Bronze Ventures and angels

Avni Patel Thompson, a former Starbucks and Reebok brand strategist, spent two years building an automated assistant for her kids' schedules, named Milo for 'my important loved ones', with early funding from Y Combinator in 2020.

By the end of summer 2022 each iteration glitched, funding was drying up, and she could no longer pay employees and let them all go. She messaged Sam Altman, whom she knew from YC, asking if large language models were the missing piece. He replied quickly and put her in touch with his team, which led to a new CTO and cofounder, Archa Jain, new money from OpenAI and access to its models.

Each iteration of the product kept glitching and funding was drying up

She had laid off the whole team, leaving a direct ask to Altman as the last option

OpenAI saw potential for its models beyond work uses, in helping families

When a product keeps failing for lack of the right technology, ask the people building that technology; a single direct message to Altman changed the company's tooling, team and funding.

As of August 2023 Milo was in a paid beta, had raised an undisclosed sum and had not opened to the general public.