New models for success appear to be emerging every few months. Rapidly changing technology - ranging from tablet and smartphone apps to increased processing power - is busily reshaping the $100 billion U.S. “There are very few people I’ve met who have that.” ToyTalk has raised nearly $16 million in funding so far from backers like Greylock Partners, Charles River Ventures, Path CEO Dave Morin, and entrepreneur Scott Bannister. “As an entrepreneur, Oren has that very rare combination of technology skills and storytelling chops from being CTO of Pixar,” explains David Sze, senior managing partner at Greylock. Their backgrounds and vision for an app that neither touts itself as a social network nor a commerce engine have generated wide interest in Silicon Valley. MORE: Sony’s PS4 is a win – with reservations Founder and CEO Oren Jacob worked at Pixar (DIS) for 20 years and served as the studio’s chief technology officer Bobby Podesta, ToyTalk’s chief creative officer, was the supervising animator on Toy Story 3 and, Martin Reddy, the venture’s CTO, spent five years at SRI International’s Artificial Intelligence Center, the organization responsible for Siri. The young company has assembled an impressive group: If you’ve watched any of the computer-animated Toy Story films, you’ve seen their work. ToyTalk, an 18-person startup nestled in San Francisco’s SOMA neighborhood, hopes to be the first to market a kid-friendly iPad app that does just that.
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