Startup Tome, founded in 2022 with an innovative AI display device, is undergoing a strategic shift to prioritize its paying clientele, specifically sales teams utilizing its solution to streamline the creation of customized presentations.
As part of this restructuring, approximately 20% of its 59 employees will be laid off, including product designers and members of the customer go-to-market team who previously catered to users accessing Tome products at no cost. Keith Peiris, the Co-founder and CEO renowned for his focus on business-to-business software, intends to replace them with a dedicated organization sales force targeting potential new customers and designers.
Peiris aims to identify and engage with the ten thousand sales and marketing executives already utilizing the product, offering them enhanced features to benefit their entire organization.
This transition underscores the evolution in business strategies between the Web 2 era and the current AI-driven landscape. While the earlier focus revolved around advertising and user engagement, Tome, boasting a team with roots in Meta, initially envisioned its product as a versatile tool appealing to both professionals and consumers. Despite amassing a user base of 20 million, mostly non-paying, who utilized “Tomes” for various purposes, Tome recognized the market demand for advanced features catered towards sales organizations. Consequently, Tome has been rolling out specialized capabilities tailored to the sales sector, encompassing advanced functionalities like research tools and personalized user content.
Tome is in the process of developing an AI tool that extracts vital data crucial for sales pitches from publicly available sources such as Securities and Exchange Commission filings. Moreover, it integrates with Salesforce data, enabling users to access archived sales call transcripts with previous clients.
Reid Hoffman, former PayPal executive and LinkedIn co-founder, advised Peiris on the strategic pivot towards a more focused approach, emphasizing the importance of generating revenue in the short term while keeping avenues open for broader expansion in the future. Peiris acknowledged the need for a shift in skill sets to adapt to the company’s new direction, moving away from consumer-centric product design towards a more data-driven and aesthetic-oriented approach.
In navigating this transformation, Peiris highlighted the necessity of assembling a team with a different expertise profile, emphasizing the shift towards a more analytical and visually appealing software development approach. This restructuring involves rebuilding the team from the ground up to align with the company’s revised strategic objectives.
