Thais Branco's Taste Labs emerges from stealth with $18.5 million to build data infrastructure that eliminates 'AI slop

VIEWS16.4KBOOKMARKS45LIKES117REPLIES2

Sholto Douglas@_sholtodouglas

Thais is a good friend and absolute killer - go help her end slop

Thais Castello Branco@thaiscbranco_

We’re excited to introduce Taste Labs.

Our mission is to end AI slop. We’re building the data and infrastructure layer to give AI models and agents taste.

And today we’re coming out of stealth, announcing our $18.5M seed funding, co-led by @CRV and @AmplifyPartners

AI has nailed objective domains and made it easy to generate anything. But it still feels off. Now, the challenge is judgement. What fits, what feels like you, what’s GREAT. This requires turning a fuzzy, subjective domain into something we can measure and codify. We’re starting with design.

There are two sides to cracking this, the foundation model layer and the agent layer:

- We’ve already been working with the top frontier labs to evaluate and improve their models, crafting the right post-training data and RL environments. - We’ve also been working with app-layer companies to build the context and verification tools for their agents to produce better, more on-brand, more creative outputs.

We want a future where AI feels right.

If you’re passionate about this mission, join us!

2h16.4K11745

RETWEETS15

Thais Castello Branco@thaiscbranco_

We’re excited to introduce Taste Labs.

Our mission is to end AI slop. We’re building the data and infrastructure layer to give AI models and agents taste.

And today we’re coming out of stealth, announcing our $18.5M seed funding, co-led by @CRV and @AmplifyPartners

AI has nailed objective domains and made it easy to generate anything. But it still feels off. Now, the challenge is judgement. What fits, what feels like you, what’s GREAT. This requires turning a fuzzy, subjective domain into something we can measure and codify. We’re starting with design.

There are two sides to cracking this, the foundation model layer and the agent layer:

- We’ve already been working with the top frontier labs to evaluate and improve their models, crafting the right post-training data and RL environments. - We’ve also been working with app-layer companies to build the context and verification tools for their agents to produce better, more on-brand, more creative outputs.

We want a future where AI feels right.

If you’re passionate about this mission, join us!

2h135.3K949549

Gokul Rajaram@gokulr

Ending AI slop is a big vision I can get behind, and Thais is an incredible founder who’s a force of nature. Excited to support @thaiscbranco_ and the Taste AI team!

Thais Castello Branco@thaiscbranco_

We’re excited to introduce Taste Labs.

Our mission is to end AI slop. We’re building the data and infrastructure layer to give AI models and agents taste.

And today we’re coming out of stealth, announcing our $18.5M seed funding, co-led by @CRV and @AmplifyPartners

AI has nailed objective domains and made it easy to generate anything. But it still feels off. Now, the challenge is judgement. What fits, what feels like you, what’s GREAT. This requires turning a fuzzy, subjective domain into something we can measure and codify. We’re starting with design.

There are two sides to cracking this, the foundation model layer and the agent layer:

- We’ve already been working with the top frontier labs to evaluate and improve their models, crafting the right post-training data and RL environments. - We’ve also been working with app-layer companies to build the context and verification tools for their agents to produce better, more on-brand, more creative outputs.

We want a future where AI feels right.

If you’re passionate about this mission, join us!

2h9.3K4127

ben hylak@benhylak

big fan of thais :)

Thais Castello Branco@thaiscbranco_

We’re excited to introduce Taste Labs.

Our mission is to end AI slop. We’re building the data and infrastructure layer to give AI models and agents taste.

And today we’re coming out of stealth, announcing our $18.5M seed funding, co-led by @CRV and @AmplifyPartners

AI has nailed objective domains and made it easy to generate anything. But it still feels off. Now, the challenge is judgement. What fits, what feels like you, what’s GREAT. This requires turning a fuzzy, subjective domain into something we can measure and codify. We’re starting with design.

There are two sides to cracking this, the foundation model layer and the agent layer:

- We’ve already been working with the top frontier labs to evaluate and improve their models, crafting the right post-training data and RL environments. - We’ve also been working with app-layer companies to build the context and verification tools for their agents to produce better, more on-brand, more creative outputs.

We want a future where AI feels right.

If you’re passionate about this mission, join us!

2h5.8K3418

Thais Castello Branco@thaiscbranco_

http://tastelabs.com

If you're mission-obsessed, join us. We’re hiring across research, ML, engineering, product, ops, and more

I’m biased, but the best part about this journey is the team.

A deeply obsessed, creative, innovative, collaborative group, that won't stop until they will this into existence. The traction is a consequence of the brilliance of these 18 people that joined us since October.

2h21061

Tim Shi@timshi_ai

taste becomes scarcity in the age of abundance

Thais Castello Branco@thaiscbranco_

We’re excited to introduce Taste Labs.

Our mission is to end AI slop. We’re building the data and infrastructure layer to give AI models and agents taste.

And today we’re coming out of stealth, announcing our $18.5M seed funding, co-led by @CRV and @AmplifyPartners

AI has nailed objective domains and made it easy to generate anything. But it still feels off. Now, the challenge is judgement. What fits, what feels like you, what’s GREAT. This requires turning a fuzzy, subjective domain into something we can measure and codify. We’re starting with design.

There are two sides to cracking this, the foundation model layer and the agent layer:

- We’ve already been working with the top frontier labs to evaluate and improve their models, crafting the right post-training data and RL environments. - We’ve also been working with app-layer companies to build the context and verification tools for their agents to produce better, more on-brand, more creative outputs.

We want a future where AI feels right.

If you’re passionate about this mission, join us!

1h62971

Ishan Goswami@TheIshanGoswami

@thaiscbranco_ @CRV @AmplifyPartners INSANE

i worked with thais for more than a year, and can vouch that she is a killer, and this is gonna be big!!!

1h4441

Nazneen Rajani@nazneenrajani

I am excited that more folks are working on this problem.

The reason our customers scale with us and keep coming back for more is because our data has "taste" built into it.

You can read more on why we care about taste in our blog in the comments 👇

Thais Castello Branco@thaiscbranco_

We’re excited to introduce Taste Labs.

Our mission is to end AI slop. We’re building the data and infrastructure layer to give AI models and agents taste.

And today we’re coming out of stealth, announcing our $18.5M seed funding, co-led by @CRV and @AmplifyPartners

AI has nailed objective domains and made it easy to generate anything. But it still feels off. Now, the challenge is judgement. What fits, what feels like you, what’s GREAT. This requires turning a fuzzy, subjective domain into something we can measure and codify. We’re starting with design.

There are two sides to cracking this, the foundation model layer and the agent layer:

- We’ve already been working with the top frontier labs to evaluate and improve their models, crafting the right post-training data and RL environments. - We’ve also been working with app-layer companies to build the context and verification tools for their agents to produce better, more on-brand, more creative outputs.

We want a future where AI feels right.

If you’re passionate about this mission, join us!

1h36850

Shalev@Shalev_lif

@thaiscbranco_ @CRV @AmplifyPartners Epic launch video!! Congrats!

1h2611

Thais Castello Branco@thaiscbranco_

Special shoutout to our TasteMaker community - the curated group of experts that help us define what "great" means.

Without them, none of this would be possible. We’ll be sharing more stories on this soon.

If you’re an amazing designer or front-end engineer, apply to join!

2h1874

Logan Kilpatrick@OfficialLoganK

@thaiscbranco_ @CRV @AmplifyPartners huge congrats :)

2h2677

Thais Castello Branco@thaiscbranco_

We’ve been lucky to also partner with other amazing folks on our funding, including @BoxGroup, @bantervc, @latitudlatam, @gokulr, @OfficialLoganK , @tobyshooters, @barrald, @akothari, @KyberKnightVC , @nicole_ripka and other incredible angels!

2h1167

Hamidah Oderinwale@didaoh

@thaiscbranco_ @CRV @AmplifyPartners best dressed founder in the bay 🔥

49m711

andrew pignanelli@ndrewpignanelli

@thaiscbranco_ @CRV @AmplifyPartners hey! Get us in the partners list, we're high taste agent builders with a design department :)

1h402

Thais Castello Branco@thaiscbranco_

@sarahcat21 @taste_ai_ Since our first chat I knew we had to work together. You just get it! Thank you for the conviction 🚀 lfg

1h1201

Thais Castello Branco@thaiscbranco_

@nwabuakwu @CRV @AmplifyPartners Thank you!!

11m631

Sarah Catanzaro@sarahcat21

I wrote more about why building taste into models in subjective domains is so difficult, and why @thaiscbranco_ is the perfect person to do it:

https://www.amplifypartners.com/blog-posts/kill-the-slop-announcing-our-investment-in-taste

Sarah Catanzaro@sarahcat21

Gen AI has made creation cheap. What it has not made cheap is judgment. And when judgment is scarce, slop fills the void.

This is why I'm excited to announce our investment in @thaiscbranco_ , @taste_ai_, and their mission to build taste into AI in subjective domains.

2h44430

Jyotsna Venkatesh@jyotsnavenk

@thaiscbranco_ @CRV @AmplifyPartners this is huge!

51m411

Joe Jordan@joejordanishere

@thaiscbranco_ @CRV @AmplifyPartners Genuinely rooting for you. But good f’in luck

1h351

Ben Aguilera@ben_aguilera

@thaiscbranco_ @alexisgauba @CRV @AmplifyPartners congrats Thais!! let’s go!!

1h301

Thais Branco's Taste Labs emerges from stealth with $18.5 million to build data infrastructure that eliminates 'AI slop

Story Overview

Where the work actually begins

Backers see taste as core infrastructure