How Instoried sold an AI pitch and then vanished

The seven-year-old startup quietly shut shop and founder Sharmin Ali stopped answering questions, leaving the investors high and dry.

An actor turned entrepreneur sold the story of an up-and-coming artificial intelligence startup to investors and employees. If her words were to be believed, her company would have led the AI wave, competing against big names like Grammarly and Textio. The investors—smack-dab in the middle of the bull market exuberance—fell hook, line and sinker.

Today, they are wondering where she is and what happened to the company.

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Sharmin Ali is upset with her investors. The founder of Instoried, a seven-year-old AI startup, is threatening a defamation lawsuit. Her reason: Inappropriate language and tonality of certain investors who belong to …

Author

Anuj Suvarna

Anuj covered all things startups and venture capital at The Morning Context. Previously, he worked at VCCircle, where he covered healthcare and private equity. Anuj studied mass communication at the Manipal Institute of Communication and before journalism, he operated a bar in Udupi.

Writer

anuj@mailtmc.com

Bengaluru