Generative AI startup Tome, which started off only two years ago making AI presentation tools, is now laying off employees as it struggles to make money. Tome has become an early leader among AI startups and it is now restructuring its business to focus more on its paying customers, which are comprised of sales teams that use its tools to create presentations within minutes.
Tome has fired 12 of its 59 employees, which translates to about 20% of its total workforce. The laid-off workers included the consumer go-to-market team and product developers who had been focusing on customers who used Tome’s free products. In their place, the company plans to hire an enterprise sales team and developers who specialize in business-to-business software solutions. Tome’s Co-founder and CEO, Keith Peiris, shared these details exclusively with Semafor during an interview.
Peiris said that he thinks “the real business is identifying those couple thousand sales and marketing leaders using the product and then selling them something really sophisticated for their whole company.”
The evolution in business strategies from the Web 2.0 era to today’s AI boom is stark. Previously, the focus was largely on garnering user attention and maximizing ad revenue. However, companies like Tome are charting a different course. Founded by ex-Meta employees, Tome was conceived as a versatile platform appealing to both consumers and professionals.
Despite amassing 20 million users, the majority access the platform for free, using it to create “Tomes” for a myriad of activities. These range from organizing dinner parties and providing post-surgical guidance to crafting pitches for startups.
Recently, Tome has observed a growing willingness among sales organizations to invest in enhanced features. In response, the company has shifted its focus, rolling out new tools tailored specifically for the sales sector. These enhancements extend beyond mere visual improvements, delving into the substance of sales pitches. New features now support activities such as in-depth research and the personalization of customer interactions.
Currently, Tome is working on a new AI tool that is able to extract useful data from U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings, aiming to enrich sales pitches to public companies.
