The $100 screenless Tin Can phone has sold hundreds of thousands of units, raised $12M led by Greylock
aakashgupta · x · 2026-10-05
Tin Can, a $100 screenless WiFi phone for kids launched in April 2025, has sold out batch after batch and moved hundreds of thousands of units, with a $12M seed led by Greylock in December. The three founders came out of a shuttered Seattle real estate startup.
The growth loop: Tin Can-to-Tin Can calls are free; calling regular numbers runs $8/month per line, so every family recruits other families — a referral loop dressed as a toy. They seeded 300 families at one school: 1,500 calls and 75 hours of talk time in week one, with kids averaging 30 Tin Can contacts. A parent's quoted tweet calls it the best gift he's given his kids: kids get their own number, parents control all access via the app (family, grandparents, and 911 only).
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