Startup that went viral for odd personal AI ‘friend’ necklace spent $1.8m on a URL

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

In our era of smartphones, AI, and social media, how much does a URL even matter any more?

To the start-up Friend, which is creating an AI-powered digital companion mounted on a necklace, apparently quite a lot.

Avi Schiffmann, founder of Friend, told tech news site 404 Media he spent $1.8m of the company’s roughly $2.5m funding buying friend.com to serve as the wearable’s website.

“Premium domains are expensive, but it’s worth it,” Schiffman told the site of the $99 device, which is expected to retail next year.

"People just don’t get consumer, I view this as saving money,” he added. “Much less money needs to be spent on marketing, it’s a one time thing.”

It’s not the only thing attracting interest in the company.

A promotional video for Friend quickly went viral on sites like X, wracking up millions of views in a matter of hours.

In the trailer, a variety of young people doing activities ranging from hiking to gaming, to going on a date on a rooftop, interact with their Friend.

Friend, a coin-size pendant, is worn like a necklace, and listens to what wearers and others are saying, then sends text messages to its owner in response.

“Speak your mind or gossip about what your friend overheard,” the company’s site describes.

“Your friend will think for a moment and come up with something good to say. Check your phone to see what your friend said.”

“It’s very supportive, very validating, it’ll encourage your ideas,” Schiffmann recently told The Verge of the product. “It’s also super intelligent, it’s a great brainstorming buddy. You can talk to it about relationships, things like that.”

Schiffmann, a Harvard drop-out, first rose to public prominence for creating a free Covid case tracking website.