Partnering with Sesame: A New Era for Voice

Sequoia says the next major shift in computing is starting with voice, and it is putting money behind Sesame to bet on that idea. The firm frames Sesame less as a utility and more as a “thought partner,” built around conversation, memory, and personality rather than plain commands.

The company was founded by Brendan Iribe, who co-founded and led Oculus, and Ankit Kumar, formerly CTO of Ubiquity6. Sequoia says Sesame is trying to make a voice experience people actually want to spend time with. That means attention to the awkward parts of speech that software usually ignores: cadence, accent, breathing, tone. If a voice sounds off, people notice fast. If it sounds right, they relax into it.

Sesame first showed its work in February with a demo centered on two characters, Maya and Miles. Sequoia says more than one million people tried it in the first few weeks, and they spent more than five million minutes talking to it. That gave the firm enough confidence to co-lead Sesame’s Series B. The pitch here is simple: models are getting smarter, but the real leap comes from how they are presented to users.

What stood out to Sequoia was that the system did not feel like text being piped through speakers. It was described as generating speech directly, with rhythm, emotion, and a more human kind of expressiveness. The result, at least in the company’s telling, was not just useful but entertaining. People came back because they wanted to, not because they had to.

Sesame’s bigger plan goes beyond an app. It wants an ambient interface that stays aware of context, and for that it is building lightweight AI-enabled glasses meant to be worn all day. Sequoia also points to Nate Mitchell, another Oculus co-founder, joining as chief product officer. The bet is that hardware, style, and product craft matter just as much as the model itself. They usually do, which is why so many AI products sound impressive and still feel like software wearing a fake mustache.