About Us
Why We Founded Toothily
Because those moments in the mirror are the most important parts of your day
Impact of Confidence
I’m Anthony, and I grew up in Ohio in a family where sports were a big part of life. Playing sports gave me some of my earliest lessons about confidence. I learned early that what you expect can shape how you show up. Coaches taught us to picture the play going right, run through the winning scenario in our heads, and lie in bed the night before a game visualizing ourselves succeeding. You trained your mind alongside your body.
Those experiences made me curious about what was actually happening underneath confidence, motivation, and performance. Why could two people with similar talent prepare just as hard, yet show up so differently when it mattered?
At Princeton, I studied anthropological psychology and kept coming back to a bigger question: why do people with similar intelligence and potential end up living such different lives? Is it biology, environment, habits, confidence - or something deeper about what we come to believe about ourselves and what is possible for us?
College Sports
I played football at Princeton too, which had its own way of testing those questions. Everyone had been the standout somewhere else. Suddenly, being good was just the baseline, and it became very easy to lose confidence. I learned that confidence is not something you simply have or do not have. You build it, lose it, and rebuild it. Sometimes other people have to remind you who you are until you can remember it yourself.
My own confidence and motivation have always come and gone in waves. But over time, I noticed something: when I changed the way I talked to myself, I changed the way I showed up. Not because positive thinking magically changes reality, but because it changes how you interpret reality. It affects what you notice, what you believe is possible, how quickly you recover, and whether you move toward something or pull away from it.
What eventually clicked for me is this: the voice you hear most in life is your own, and over time, it shapes the life you believe you’re capable of living.
The idea
Why not put something worth reading on a toothbrush?
I had always written little notes to myself and left them around my apartment. Reminders, quotes, things I needed to hear that week.
Then one evening, sitting on my couch with a cup of tea, the Toothily idea clicked.
Everyone uses a toothbrush. Almost everyone stands in front of a mirror to use it. It happens right after you wake up and again before you go to bed.
I pitched the idea to a friend over a drink the next day. He smiled, nodded through the whole thing and finally said, “Out of all the things you’ve pitched me, Anthony, this is my favorite.”
I started building it that week.
Launching Toothily
At the end of 2025, Toothily had been extremely hands-on. I contacted dozens of manufacturers around the world and tested different bristles, handles, shapes, colors and configurations. I even ordered thousands of an early toothbrush version before deciding I did not like the handle enough to keep selling it.
I still have plenty of those brushes, many of which I hand out to friends and family or donate to local businesses.
The message library
The message library has gone through just as much trial and error. I started with a few thousand quotes, ideas and lines that had meant something to me or my friends. Then, when friends would come over, I would have them go through the list and delete any quotes that would leave them disappointed or wanting more.
I ran that exercise multiple times with different people, narrowed the list to roughly a hundred messages, and reviewed the final set with clinical psychologists to make sure the messages were appropriate for the way people would actually encounter them.
The list is still evolving. Whenever I hear something that really lands, I add it.
Why the message is a surprise
I do not have one favorite quote. Different words mean more during different seasons of life. Something that doesn’t resonate with you today might be exactly what you need six months from now. That is part of why Toothily messages are a surprise and why we put more than one brush in a box. If one does not speak to you right now, hopefully another one does.
Launch, and restart
That restart was not fun.
Toothily originally launched out of my bedroom. I inspected the brushes, packed the boxes and shipped every order myself. We sold through our initial inventory and did not recover in time, then had to change manufacturers and rebuild the product operation from scratch.
Every week spent searching was more time, money and uncertainty.
Toothily Today
Today, we have achieved the second evolution of Toothily.
I do not believe one sentence on a toothbrush is going to magically change someone’s life.
That is not the point.
Maybe it interrupts a bad thought. Maybe it gives someone a little extra confidence or motivation. Maybe it reminds them to slow down. Maybe it gives them a different perspective. Or maybe it is simply a kind sentence on a morning when they happen to need one.
Small impacts over time compound into larger impacts.
Where I hope this goes
Anywhere someone could use a little extra boost.
My hope is that Toothily eventually becomes the go-to toothbrush for hospitals, hotels, Airbnbs, gift shops, families with kids, athletes, entrepreneurs, care packages, and anywhere else someone could use a little extra boost.
An exhausted parent
A kid before school
Someone spending the night in a hospital
An athlete before a competition
A founder before a pitch
Wildly different people, but the same basic need: sometimes we all could use a little encouragement, motivation, confidence, perspective, or simply a few kind words.
Your mind is the place you spend your entire life. I think it is worth making it somewhere decent to be.
That is what I am trying to build Toothily around.
Anthony
Founder, Toothily
Thanks for reading
We hope the right words find you at the right time.
The thoughts you repeat become a memory you tell yourself. Let's make sure we are inputting the right thoughts.
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