When Monk Pamika laid the foundation of AI Voice Startup Toma in the early 2024, it did not expect sweat in the Bible Belt Car Dealeship in the summer months. When he and the dealer knocked, he and co -founder Anthony Crownos were still focused on banking and health care users.
“They just called us and said,” We are drowning in phone calls. ”
Seeing the opportunity to lose a lesser organized place than banking or health care, Pamacha and Crevonos established an exam: They decided that their vice agent must call every car dealership in the country several times. Within a few weeks, they found that these calls were only 45 % of the time.
The co -founders pack their bags. And like any modern interpretation of the film Tommy Boy, they went out to visit a dozen car dealerships in Oklahoma and Mississippi to get a better understanding of these businesses. They dirty their hands symbolic and literally. Pamacha said that when he returned home, his wife was surprised by the grease stains on his clothes.
Payment of this commitment is over. Not only did they win the consumers, but they were subjected to the focus of the dealers. He said that the founders shared the cooked food from the house-sometimes strange but the issue of technical was given to Pamacha’s vegetarian, and they were invited to visit the Corey Museum. At least one dealer asked the founders of Toma to tag with the shooting limit.
A16z partner Sima Ambal, who has led $ 17 million to date, said the couple “is living effectively on these dealerships, going to the family’s family barbecue, really understanding how they work.”
“We invest in many next generation of vertical AI companies, many of the best founders have just lived with these customers and breathed so that to understand what is going on below the hood,” he told Tech Crunch. “There is no intention of pin.”
With the vision of this trip, Pamika and Crevonos helped accelerate the Toma Voice Agent in a device that is already in use in more than 100 dealerships nationwide. AI helps consumers schedule service appointments, handling part orders, answering sales questions and more.
Along with the A16Z, Pamacha and Crevonos, the Y Combantinator (created a Toma in the YC in January 2024), Scale Angeles Fund, and the Auto Industry Impact UC Levy, also known as car dealership cows, attracted investment.
Levy told Tech Crunch that dealership partially struggles with phone calls because the volume is difficult to predict.
Levy said, “It works and flows. Sometimes you are overwhelmed by demand. The second time you do not demand enough, and the staff is united and properly trained that it is not an easy task for the staff to have a permanent experience.” The AI ​​”has given dealers a really opportunity to standardize this process, and has provided a better customer experience that is permanent.”
Pamacha said the process of operating on Toma’s ship involves training for dealers’ customer calls, which can provide some context to the AI ​​for a week or two. This is important because although dealerships do the same thing on a large scale, the details can be greatly changed. For example, some dealers can serve more diesel engines. Dealerships also run many customs promotions for both sales and services.
After this early burst of training, Toma starts to get AI calls, and when it is stumped, it is handed over to human employees. These hand -off -calls are also analyzed, so that the AI ​​model can be strengthened to better support this particular dealership. On the business side, the Toma operates a subscription model. Since AI agent can handle more parts of dealership operations, these dealers will have to pay these extra capabilities.
According to Pamacha, the series A Toma “comes at a great time”. Startup has only hired his first real sales employee in the past few weeks. Earlier, it was still a massive Pamcha and Crevonos as they did last summer across the country.
Without this trip, though, Pamcha said he was not convinced that Toma had arrived at this point.
He said, “This has been the best experience of my life.” I feel like we have all become friends, and I think it all comes from such a place, feel their pain. I think they see that we also feel pain. ”