Why Vinod Khosla Is Betting on Wajo Agent Trust
Wajo agent trust is the reason Vinod Khosla is backing former Google and DeepMind engineer Shivani Poddar’s startup. The venture capitalist believes people need a personal agent they can rely on, and that reliability will decide who wins the market.
“I think the most important thing in an agent, because it’s acting for you, is trust. You have to have trust in the agent, and I think compared to either Muse or Instinct, Wajo is the most trustworthy because it is architected to focus on trust and safety first, and some of the others are not,” Khosla said.
His concern about rivals is pointed. “I mean, who wants to give all their data to Facebook [Meta]? I don’t. And if I give my data to Facebook, I’m the product, not the product I am buying, because they are in the ad business. So trust is important, and most people don’t trust a large company like Facebook,” he added.
The personal-agent space has grown crowded in recent weeks. Meta’s Muse, OpenAI’s Dot, and Instinct have taken early leads, with new competitors launching regularly. Wajo is positioning itself differently, putting safety architecture at the center of its pitch.
How the Fo Agent Works
In broad strokes, Wajo’s Fo agent operates much like Muse or Instinct. It works across iMessage and WhatsApp, and offers a web interface with cards of potential tasks. Errands are sorted into categories such as “scheduling,” “gifting,” and “life admin.”
The agent can also call businesses or other people on your behalf, booking or canceling services as needed. In a few early tests, a reporter asked it to call an airline to check for upgrades, and it successfully did so. However, when asked to call the reporter’s partner and remind her to feed the cats, the call didn’t go smoothly, and disclosures were less clear.
As rivals like Instinct and Muse also roll out calling ability slowly, more discussions are likely around how an AI calling on someone’s behalf should disclose itself. One unique feature of Wajo’s tool is that it can hire a human to complete a task when needed.
Payments, Email, and Blocked Sites
Beyond calls, Fo can create a virtual credit card and pay on your behalf without disclosing your details. The agent has its own email address and can converse with people and businesses.
When websites or services block AI agents, Fo can inform the user to take action or create a group with the user and the business for verification.
Founder Story: From Google to Wajo
Before founding Wajo, Poddar worked in various engineering roles at Meta, Google, and DeepMind, and was involved in making the first Facebook assistant. She said she wanted to build products that were useful to people.
“The whole journey of bringing Gemini to the world and building safety for it made me realize the technological depth that you need to do this. Google is so good in technology that sometimes it can be left behind in product. I thought I needed to do something that is both technology and product at the same time. It has to be something different, which is very grounded in what the user needs,” Poddar said.
The former Google engineering lead echoed Khosla’s thinking on trust, emphasizing it as one of Wajo’s core principles.
“Trust is something you have to build from the get-go because one of the technological things that has not been solved yet is teaching agents to unlearn. If they get access to your personal data on day zero, they will always have it for the future. I think trust needs to be built from day zero, not only in your architecture, but in product choices,” she said.
Trust and Safety Features
Wajo is working on several fronts related to trust and safety. It has applied for a patent for its virtual card system that hides users’ information from sites.
For calls, the company said it will include a “trusted contact” list for users whose agents can call them. When you get a call, you can also tell the agent not to call you again, and Wajo records that preference.
The startup’s challenge is to avoid the privacy concerns facing other agents, especially as it markets safety as a core value. It also claims that despite tools like Muse being blocked by Amazon, its architecture follows the e-commerce service’s terms of service.
In the coming months, Wajo said it will explore how its Fo agent works in social settings across multiple users, with the core idea of keeping privacy intact.
Funding and Growth
The startup has secured backing from Jeff Dean and Gokul Rajaram, but didn’t specify the money raised. Wajo didn’t provide user numbers but said the agent is being used in 107 countries and has grown 10x since its launch in late September.
What to Watch
Wajo agent trust is the startup’s central bet. It will be tested as the agent expands into social settings and faces the same scrutiny applied to Muse, Dot, and Instinct. The company’s ability to keep privacy intact while scaling across 107 countries will determine whether Khosla’s confidence holds up.
