🐼🤖 Issue #122: Safe AI Playmates For A Billion Kids
Claremont grad and Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree Xiaoyin Qu launched her new kids' AI educational startup, Heeyo, aiming to fill a major gap in the children’s tech market.
💬 Welcome to issue #122 of StoryHouse Review
Good morning & happy Thursday. August is shaping up to be another standout month of growth and opportunity for the Claremont startup community. Make sure to read on if you are looking to monetize your company’s extra SF or NYC office space, are looking for new interactive and educational tools for your children, want to hear about exciting new Claremont startups, or are looking for a founding engineering role.
This week, we spotlight the launch of serial entrepreneur Xiaoyin Qu’s new AI startup, Heeyo, and its recent seed round, highlighting how her company uniquely addresses a significant gap in the children’s tech market. It’s a Claremont world out there. 👇
~ Josh, Miles, Matthew, Pat
👤 Community Spotlight: Xiaoyin Qu & Heeyo
Claremont grad and serial entrepreneur Xiaoyin Qu (PO) is the founder and CEO of Heeyo, an AI playmate that helps kids interact and play creatively. Before Heeyo, Xiaoyin founded Run The World, a digital event and networking platform for organizations and communities. As the CEO and founder, she was awarded Inc's Top 100 Female Founder and Fast Company's Most Innovative Company in events. She previously raised $15M from a16z, Founders Fund, GGV, and Pear VC before the company was acquired by EventMobi last year. Xiaoyin also worked as a Senior Product Manager at Facebook, leading a 40-person cross-functional team that helped celebrities post content on Facebook and Instagram.
Xiaoyin’s new AI startup, Heeyo, recently launched with a $3.5M seed from institutions, including StoryHouse Ventures, OpenAI, Amazon Alexa Fund, Pear VC, and Charge Ventures. Heeyo offers children between the ages of three and eleven an AI chatbot and over 2,000 interactive games and activities, including books, trivia, and role-playing adventures.
Heeyo built an AI chatbot to be a billion kids’ interactive tutor and friend
When Xiaoyin Qu was growing up in China, she was obsessed with learning how to build paper airplanes that could do flips in the air. Her parents, though, didn’t have the aerodynamic expertise to support her newfound passion, and her teachers were too overwhelmed to give her dedicated attention.
“That’s why I wanted to build an AI that can help provide every single kid with their own dedicated coach and playmate that can chat with them and help the kids learn,” Qu told TechCrunch.
Qu is the founder of Heeyo, a startup that offers children between the ages of three and 11 an AI chatbot and over 2,000 interactive games and activities, including books, trivia and role-playing adventures. Heeyo also lets parents and kids design their own AI and create new learning games tailored to family values and kids’ interests — something for kids to do instead of playing Minecraft and Roblox and watching endless YouTube videos.
Heeyo came out of stealth on Thursday with a $3.5 million seed round from OpenAI Startup Fund, Alexa Fund, StoryHouse VC, Pear VC and other investors, TechCrunch has exclusively learned. Its app is now available on Android and iOS tablets and smartphones globally.
I know what you’re thinking. AI for kids sounds creepy — dangerous even. What precautions is Heeyo taking to ensure kids’ safety? How is it protecting children’s data? How will talking to an AI chatbot affect a child’s mental health?
Qu says safety is at the core of Heeyo’s product, from the way it handles data to how its chatbot engages with kids on sensitive issues to parental controls. And while the tech is still new, it does appear that Heeyo is taking the proper steps to make its app a healthy learning experience for kids and families. Based on my experience, the chatbot — which kids can play on their own or with siblings and parents — is supportive of emotional issues and always prompts kids with fun and interactive learning games.
Going after the children’s market in a safe and engaging way also allows Heeyo to carve out a niche for itself that other companies might not want to touch….
Check out the article from TechCrunch for the full review of Heeyo’s interactive AI tutor and smart friends.👇
🚨Claremonster Call-Out: Tandem & Startups in SF & NYC
Claremont alum Brendan Suh (CMC ‘19) is the co-founder of Tandem, a marketplace that helps companies share office space. Tandem started in SF and NYC earlier this year, and they just recently launched on Y Combinator. Their online marketplace uses AI to make the office leasing process less tedious. Whereas a typical office search takes 3-6 months, Tandem’s platform gets it done in less than two weeks. Tandem has helped match nearly 100 companies and has seen double-digit month-over-month growth. If your company office is based in SF or NYC, keep reading.
If your company has extra desks in its SF or NYC office, it could be generating you over $100K annually.
Tandem was recently backed by Y Combinator, and they've been overflowed by teams looking for space, which means they need more excellent (Claremont) hosts. If you have extra office space you'd be interested in monetizing, reach out to Brendan directly. 👇
💼 Who’s Hiring?: Parakeet Health & Marble Health
Jung Park (HMC ‘89) is the CEO and co-founder of Parakeet Health, an AI voice answering service for healthcare practices that automates repetitive phone tasks like appointment scheduling, billing, and general inquiries using GenAI. Parakeet’s founding team includes seasoned healthcare industry veterans (One Medical IPO, Doximity IPO, Epocrates IPO) and skilled technology leaders (Microsoft, Twitter, Rippling, PrimerAI). They are backed by top-tier VCs, including StoryHouse, Canvas Ventures, and CoFound Partners. Parakeet is looking for a Founding Software Engineer to join their growing team.
Daniel Ross (PO ‘11) and Jake Sussman, the previous founders of mental health unicorn Headway, are the co-founders of the new mental health startup Marble Health. Having emerged from stealth and with their recent $5M seed round, Marble is on a mission to massively increase access to timely, preventative care for all kids early in their mental health journey. They are backed by top investors, such as StoryHouse, Khosla Ventures, and Town Hall Ventures. Dan and Jake are looking for early employees to join their founding team:
Check out the other ~5,000 open jobs at 400+ Claremont-affiliated companies here on our Storyboard. Plus, create a profile and enter your preferences to get alerted to new job postings relevant to you, be they the 1,000+ remote jobs, 100+ internships, or 40+ part-time positions available. We’ve published research that shows that Claremont-founded companies that disproportionately hire Claremont talent outperform — so pay attention, Claremonsters!
If any of these roles catch your eye 👀 , apply and mention StoryHouse Review. Or, if you are an employer looking to hire tip-top Claremont talent, fill out this form to have your jobs featured.
🗣️ Conversations on the Interwebz:
This week’s top read 🔥
A recent BBC News article delved into the challenges of the concert ticketing industry, from sky-high resale prices to rampant counterfeit tickets. StoryHouse portfolio company Tixologi, founded by Claremont grad and CEO Asher Weiss (CMC ‘18), was highlighted as a key player using AI and blockchain technology to combat scalping and prevent ticket duplication. Tixologi's AI detects unusual purchasing behavior to block scalpers, while its blockchain-based system ensures each ticket is unique and nearly impossible to counterfeit.
This week’s must-watch 📺
Claremont grad and Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree Varun Puri (CMC ‘16) was recently interviewed and featured in ARC Seattle’s Major Moves segment, which spotlights millennial and Gen Z entrepreneurs. He shared the founding story of his startup and demonstrated how its AI platform helped people improve their public speaking skills. Varun is the Co-founder of Yoodli, an AI-powered speech coaching platform.
This week’s Claremont financing 💸
Wincast recently raised a $5M seed round from StoryHouse Ventures, Coinfund, A100x Ventures, Cypher Capital, and others. Founded by Claremont grad and CEO Noah Diskin Kline (PI), Wincast enables sports organizations and sponsors to create real-time interactive media experiences for fans. The company has raised over $8M in capital since 2021.
Congratulations to Claremont entrepreneur Gil Gonzales (PI ‘03) and Subcity on their successful exit to Engineered Tax Services. In his recent LinkedIn post, Gil talked about how less than 1% of start-ups raise venture capital investment, and less than 16% get acquired. Gil is the co-founder of Subcity, a comprehensive cash flow management and planning system that democratizes access to capital for small businesses and manufacturers. Since its inception in 2021, the company has helped manufacturing clients secure tens of millions of dollars in financial awards.
Everything else you need to know💡
Serial founders and Claremont alumni Jon Miller Schwartz (HMC ‘13), Oliver Ortlieb (HMC ‘12), and Max Friefeld (HMC ‘13) recently announced the launch of their new robotics startup Ultra. The company is building robots to package the billions of e-commerce orders in American warehouses, which is still done manually. Jon, Oliver, and Max are also the previous co-founders of the robotic 3D printing factory Voodoo Manufacturing (acq. by 3D Tech) and online 3D product marketplace Layer By Layer (acq. by MakerBot). StoryHouse is proud to have invested in Ultra, alongside Y Combinator and Pioneer Fund.
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🍽️ BTL Snacks:
⚡ Google’s Sales Training Powered By Claremont….. Claremont alum Varun Puri (CMC ‘16) recently shared their case study with Google Cloud. Earlier this year, Google Cloud used Yoodli to roll out a first-of-its-kind AI-powered sales training to over 15,000 employees and received a 92% CSAT score. The article discusses the problem faced by the Google Cloud GTM team, how they created a bespoke pitch certification program using Yoodli, and the outcome of the training program, which was higher than the average Google Cloud pieces of training.
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