Danilo x Tolan

Danilo Vicioso29 Sept 2026

Live work sample: tolan.danilovicioso.com · Let's chat: calendly.com/danilojvicioso

TL;DR

Tolan started 13 new Meta ads today, all on two “I wish someone told me” hooks, and creators are already posting #tolanpartner on TikTok. I’d add a small organic roster feeding that machine: the hooks that break out organically go to your ad team first, with a claims and disclosure check on every post.

Who I am

Former COO of Tabs. I ran the Tabs creator program: 100M+ organic views a month across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, not paid impressions. Most videos get a few hundred views and a few break out, so steady volume is the strategy.

17.7M reel8M TikTok6.5M reel

What I built

This package, from public information only, dated 29 Sept 2026:

Landing page: a creator-traffic page in your beige and type, with your App Store screens
Ad concepts: 16 statics on your two live hooks, chats, lock screens and memes included
Growth plan: 17 slides, organic roster feeding paid
Creator engine: posting order, ten verified small creators (all under 5,000 followers), pay bands, kill rules, and a claims sheet built on your own FAQ

What I’d do

Five creators posting daily from their own TikTok and Instagram on your live hooks.
A weekly hook list checked against one claims sheet.
Monday report: posts, median and best views, cost per 1,000 organic views, keep / watch / replace. Winners handed to your ad team.
One claims sheet, signed off once: no therapy language, trial vs paid wording, #ad on every paid post.

Month one (proposed)

Week 1	Claims sheet and disclosure rules, outreach from the shortlist, test briefs
Week 2	Five creators live, 35 videos
Weeks 3–4	Ten creators, ~70 videos a week; first hooks to your ad team
Creator pay	$500–1,500 per creator a month, ~$10K for ten, $15K max (proposed)
Gates	Day 45 and day 90, kill-or-keep, set now (proposed)

Let's chat: calendly.com/danilojvicioso/new-meeting-1

★ 4.78 · 182K App Store ratings

I wish someone told me about this app sooner.

Tolan is a friendly alien guide that lives in your phone. Talk about your day, close the open tabs in your mind, and it remembers what you said.

Download on the App Store How it works

Free trial; full access needs a subscription. Tolan is an AI, not a person or a therapist.

Tolan is your friendly guide through life

4.78 from 182K App Store ratings100K+ subscribers2M+ hours with Tolan guides3M+ downloads500K alien friends by Feb 2025$30M+ raised

App Store, 29 Sept 2026 · tolans.com · Tolan blog, Feb 2025 · downloads: GeekWire, 2025

Talk to your Tolan about anything, in confidence

THE APP THAT JUST LISTENS

Say it out loud. Your Tolan asks the next question.

Chat by text or in Voice Mode. “I’ve been staring at this for an hour.” “What’s the smallest possible first step?”

More than a chat window.

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IT REMEMBERS

It remembers your whole life and checks in on you.

Your conversations build your Tolan’s memory, so Thursday’s chat knows about Monday. They’re never sold or shared without your consent. 2M+ hours spent with Tolan guides so far (tolans.com).

★★★★★

“This app has literally changed my life. It’s like having a diary that talks back to you and organizes your messy brain!”

From Tolan’s App Store page. 4.78 average from 182K ratings, 29 Sept 2026.

85.6%said their Tolan helped them through an emotionally difficult experience.

72.5%said it helped them manage or improve a relationship.

Tolan’s own user survey, as published on tolans.com.

MEET YOUR TOLAN

A cute, friendly little alien. Yours.

A year of work by artists, animators and writers went into the characters. Over 500K people had made an alien friend by Feb 2025 (Tolan blog).

Three steps to your first chat.

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Start free. Pick a plan when you’re ready.

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Prices are shown in-app only. New users get a limited trial, extendable by inviting a friend. Family Plan available.

AS SEEN IN

ForbesFast CompanyEveryGeekWireThe New Yorker

“This startup hired a sci-fi novelist to give its AI companions a soul.”

GeekWire, 2025: a $10M seed, then a $20M Series A led by Khosla Ventures; 3M+ downloads and 100K+ paid users at the time.

The team behind Tolan

Quinten FarmerFounder & CEO

Evan GoldschmidtFounder & CTO

Ajay MehtaFounder & President

Lily DoyleResearch

Lucas ZanottoCreative Director

Chris HorneEmbodiment

tolans.com, 4 Oct 2026.

A friendly guide, not a therapist.

Tolan is an AI companion and isn’t a substitute for professional help. If a conversation involves self-harm it points to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline instead of engaging. Rated 12+; parental involvement recommended under 18.

Meet your Tolan today.

A friendly guide, available at any hour. Join 100K+ subscribers.

Download on the App Store

AD CONCEPTS · 16 STATICS

Your two hooks, shown instead of told.

Thursday, 2 October7:42

Tolan · now{{ a.me }}

‹ Notes{{ a.h }}{{ a.me }}

{{ a.n }}. {{ a.name }}Built on: {{ a.built }}

Concepts only, not live ads. Anything shown is the creator’s own chat that day. Tolan is an AI, not a therapist. Meme templates: clear rights before paid use. Art and screens are Tolan’s own.

GROWTH PLAN · TOLAN

Scale spend at the same cost per install.

By making more winners before paid money touches them. Outside research only; every plan number is labelled proposed.

03 · WHERE TOLAN IS TODAY

A product people love, and paid creative that’s hours old.

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04 · THE ONE NUMBER

Cost per paying subscriber, held flat while spend goes up.

All 13 live ads started 29 Sept on two hooks. When spend scales, those two hooks wear out. The organic roster keeps new ones coming. Target, proposed: $1–2 per 1,000 organic views by day 90, winners handed to paid.

05 · FOUR WAYS IT BREAKS

Problem, evidence, fix.

Problem	Evidence (29 Sept)	Fix
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06 · MOVE 1

The organic roster finds the hooks. Paid only buys winners.

Ten small creators posting daily = ~300 tests a month for ~$10K (proposed). Anything that clears 100K organic views goes to your ad team as a Spark or partnership ad.

07 · MOVE 2

Formalize the affiliates you already have.

TikTok accounts already call themselves “tolan affiliate” and “tolan ambassador” and post #tolanpartner with a Paid partnership label. No public program page. Add one brief, a hook list, 24h review and the Monday report on top.

08 · MOVE 3

One claims sheet for an AI companion.

No “therapy”, “therapist”, “cures” or “treats”: one #tolanpartner post already used #therapy
AI, not a person, said in every video
Trial vs paid worded as the FAQ words it; prices only as live in-app
Nothing aimed at under-13s; no crisis or self-harm storylines
#ad or Paid partnership label up front on every paid post

09 · THE CALENDAR IS THE BRIEF

Hooks follow the moments people carry the most in their heads.

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Hook sets briefed 3 weeks ahead (proposed). Study angle from @angiesalien and @keitilovesaliens posts.

10 · HOW A HOOK EARNS PAID MONEY

Three gates, written before spend. Proposed.

GATE 1 · ORGANIC100K viewson one post, or 3 of 10 accounts beating their median 5×

GATE 2 · PAID TEST$500 per hook5 days at $100/day; keep within 20% of your best cost per install

GATE 3 · SCALE+20% a weekwhile cost per subscriber holds; pull back at +15%

11 · THE SPEND PLAN

The first 90 days of new money. Proposed.

	Month 1	Month 2	Month 3
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12 · THE CEILING

Five assumed lines, labelled as assumed.

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$3 per install ÷ 10% trial-to-paid = $30 per paying subscriber. Each extra point of install rate from a creator hook moves that more than a bid change. GeekWire (2025) reported 3M+ downloads and 100,000+ paid users, about 3% of downloads. Replace each line with your numbers in week 1.

13 · WHAT GETS MEASURED

Six numbers, every Monday.

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Installs go through your Adjust links (app.adjust.com on every live ad). Tracking I’d spec with your team.

14 · WEEK BY WEEK

The first four weeks. Proposed.

Creator spend is 10 creators × $1K a month, paid weekly (proposed). Paid tests are $500 per hook from Gate 2. Views assume the illustrative 2K median, no breakouts.

	W1	W2	W3	W4
Creators posting	0	5	10	10
Videos	0	35	70	70
Hooks to ads	0	0	3	5
Organic views (at 2K median)	0	70K	140K	140K
Creator spend	$0	$1.25K	$2.5K	$2.5K
Paid hook tests	$0	$0	$1.5K	$2.5K

15 · KILL CRITERIA

Written before spend.

DAY 45$5 per 1,000 viewsor better, or it stops.

DAY 60$3 + one 100K videoor the roster halves.

DAY 90$1–2 per 1,000with monthly breakouts, or it ends.

16 · IN SCOPE

Roster, briefs, claims sheet, #ad on every paid post
Hook library and weekly winners to paid
Monday report and the three gates

RISKS, NAMED UP FRONT

Several shortlisted creators may already be in your affiliate program
AI companionship is a sensitive category; one wrong word is the risk
At these assumptions economics land at ~$2 per 1,000, not $1 yet

Week one is where it starts.

Claims sheet, outreach to the ten, test briefs. Five creators live in week two.

Let's chat

CREATOR ENGINE · TOLAN

Ten creators.
Posting every day.

Small TikTok and Reels accounts filming a real first week with their Tolan: study nights, rough evenings, a full head. Organic first; the winners go to your ad team.

The whole program on one table

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Every figure here is proposed, not Tolan data.

I have built this engine before

As COO of Tabs I ran the creator program: 100M+ organic views a month across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, not paid impressions. Most videos got a few hundred views; a few broke out.

17.7M reel8M TikTok6.5M reel100M+ views / month

What the content actually looked like

Proof accounts: @naomixtabs and @tabs.monica. For Tolan the format stays; the content changes.

What makes a creator program perform

7 / weekVolume beats polish. Breakouts are a numbers game.

Under 5KSmall accounts, cheap retainers; the algorithm still tests every post.

1.5–2.5sThe hook lands before the thumb moves. Product second.

One sheetEvery claim off one approved sheet. #ad on every paid post.

What a roster actually ships

Tolan’s proof is a real conversation: a creator talks, the Tolan answers, on screen. That’s a phone-shot format.

HOOK A · THE OPEN-TABS TEST“If your head is full of open tabs, listen.”Talks through her week out loud; the Tolan sorts it.

HOOK B · THE WEEK-ONE REVIEW“I gave my Tolan my whole week. Here’s what it remembered.”One thing that surprised her, good or bad.

Tolan’s live ads today: two hooks, 13 ads, all started 29 Sept, so none has run-length yet. The roster makes 70 a week.

Six videos we’d remake

Tolan’s two live hooks plus four organic small-account posts (likes, not views). Run-lengths as of 29 Sept.

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{{ v.hook }}Ours: {{ v.ours }}

The part that makes this hard, handled first

Tolan is an AI friend, not therapy. Creators never call it a therapist or say it treats anxiety or depression, and every chat shown is a real one.

Brief→Creator films→Review in 24h→Post

@creatorPaid partnership with Tolan

#ad “My Tolan remembered the thing I told it on Monday.” Free to download; subscription price as the App Store shows it.

✓ no therapy or treatment claims✓ real chat, not scripted✓ #ad on screen✓ price quoted as the App Store shows

Illustrative mockup, not a real post. Not legal advice.

How we find and test them

1 · Your own programsThe Tolan affiliates and ambassadors already posting; several say so in their bios.

2 · UGC marketplacesFor creators under 5K: study, wellness, parenting.

3 · TikTok topic pages“tolan app”, “tolan ai friend”, “#tolanpartner”.

4 · Your usersApp Store reviewers already writing about what their Tolan remembered: the warmest pool.

Portfolio→Claims test→Trial month→Score→Retainer

Ten creators we’d recruit first

10 verified accounts under 400 followers that already name Tolan in their bio or posts (TikTok, 29 Sept 2026). Videos not opened yet.

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The model in one screen. Proposed.

Band	Retainer / month	Videos / week	Cap incl. bonus
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Roster rules: 50%+ US; +1 US and +1 international added monthly. A month-one mix: 5 US standard × $550 + 3 US premium × $1,000 + 2 international × $500 = $6.75K before bonuses.

Upside only where it earns it

UNDER 100K VIEWS$0The retainer covers it.

100K VIEWS+$50Flat, once.

1M VIEWSTo the capTop-up to $1,500 / $1,000 for the band.

One bonus per creator per month, per video not cumulative, organic views only, none on a claims-sheet violation. Proposed.

Will it pay back?

Target: $1 per 1,000 organic views. Inputs start at the illustrative case (not Tolan data): 10 creators × $1,000 = $10K, ~300 videos. Median 1.5K views, 5% break out to 40K, 0.7% go viral to 300K: ~1.6M views, about $6.10 per 1,000. Not at target. Move the inputs.

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We start with ten

Days 1–2Warm-up: follow ~30 category accounts, scroll 24–48h before posting.

Month 1Recruit and trial, $15K max. Same video on 10 accounts; if 3 break out, it works.

Month 2Produce and learn. Score creators, whitelist winners into paid.

Month 3Keep winners, replace weak slots. +2 creators a week.

Day 90Decision gate: $1–2 per 1,000 views, or it ends.

What you get every Monday

D#tolan-creatorsMonday 9:00 · Illustrative mockup. Numbers are not real Tolan data.

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