While the tech world buzzes about complex, “agentic” AI systems that require terminal commands and software dependencies, a Palo Alto startup called The Interaction Company of California is taking a different route. Their flagship product, Poke, brings the power of a personal assistant directly to the apps you already use: iMessage, SMS, and Telegram.
Personal Superintelligence via SMS
Poke is designed to bridge the gap between simple chatbots and highly technical AI agents. Instead of downloading a new app or managing a complex dashboard, users interact with Poke as if they are texting a friend.
The tool evolved from an earlier AI email assistant. The founders, Marvin von Hagen and Felix Schlegel, noticed that beta testers were treating their email bot like a general-purpose companion—asking it for weather alerts, medication reminders, and sports scores. This realization led to the pivot toward a “superintelligence” that handles daily logistics through a familiar text interface.
What Can Poke Actually Do?
The platform uses “recipes”—pre-configured automations that connect to your digital life. These allow Poke to:
- Manage Productivity: Sync with Google Calendar, Notion, and Gmail.
- Track Health: Pull data from Strava, Oura, and Fitbit.
- Control the Home: Adjust Philips Hue lights or Sonos speakers.
- Support Developers: Integrate with GitHub, Vercel, and Sentry.
A Model-Agnostic Approach
Unlike AI tools built by Big Tech, Poke isn’t locked into a single ecosystem. It leverages Linq to live inside messaging apps and dynamically chooses the best AI model for the task at hand. Whether the job requires a heavyweight model from OpenAI or a lightweight open-source alternative, Poke selects the most efficient tool for the job.
Growth and Security
With a recent $10 million infusion of capital, Poke’s total funding has reached $25 million, bringing the company to a $300 million post-money valuation. The startup is backed by heavyweights like Spark Capital and General Catalyst, along with angel investors like the founders of Stripe and Cognition.
Despite its deep integrations, the team emphasizes a multi-layered security model. Permissions are limited by default, and the team cannot access user data tokens unless a user manually opts in for troubleshooting or analytics.
Getting Started
Poke is currently free to start, with a flexible pricing model that scales based on real-time data usage. Because there is no app to download, users can begin by simply entering their phone number at Poke.com. As the platform grows, it plans to introduce a marketplace where creators can earn money by sharing their own custom “recipes” with the community.
