AI agents are becoming coworkers, not just tools. They write code, conduct research, resolve tickets, and take on real work across a company.
That changes what teams need from the tools they communicate in. When agents are doing the work alongside people, they need to be part of the conversation instead of routed around it: knowing when to jump in, when to stay quiet, and how to build on what came before.
Most communication platforms were never built with that in mind. Slack turned messaging into the operating layer of the company, the place where decisions get made and work begins, but every part of that design assumes the participants are human.
Sara Du, founder and CEO of Ando, saw that gap early. She didn't try to bolt agents onto a tool built for humans. She started over. In Ando, humans and agents are both members of the workspace from the first day. Agents follow the conversation, build context over time, and jump in when they have something useful to add. And because they were there when the decision got made, the work that comes out of that decision goes straight to the right person or the right agent.
A founder built for this fight
When we met Eric Yuan, founder and CEO of Zoom, we called customers back in 2014 and what we heard was consistent: people loved Zoom. When we talk to the teams using Ando, we hear the same kind of thing we heard in 2014. They don't want a chat tool with an AI feature. They want the place where their company runs to already know their agents are part of the team.
Eric closed the gap between what WebEx offered and what customers wanted. What I learned from him is that the market is never the full bet. The person is. Taking on a product as entrenched as Slack requires a founder with a strong point of view. Sara brings that, along with solid product instincts, a deep appreciation for design, and the conviction to rethink a category most people would consider settled.
That's the conviction behind Ando, and it's why we're backing their $20 million seed round alongside Accel and Index Ventures. Thank you, Sara, for inviting us to be part of the story from the beginning.
