#66 Snacks
Quick hits.
Heyyyyyyyyy. Remember me? Yeah, me neither. A few reasons for my absence:
Every now and then I get overwhelmed with the task at hand, like:
I was invited to participate in a few exciting projects that left me with zero bandwidth to think about my own. My bad! I’ll keep you updated when everything comes out. My DMs are open if you want to invite me to speak in public btw:
Speaking of projects, my Italian house renovation is taking up time and energy, surprise surprise! More about that below.
I thought I’d reenter the Substack game with a collection of things I have on my mind before I deliver my SS26 update on health & longevity. Enjoy. xoxo Esther 💋
Misc.
First of all, please give a warm welcome to a new brainchild of mine, Beyond Dolce! As mentioned above, my Sicilian house project1 is top of mind right now, and the more I dig into the complexities of promoting Eurosummer, the more I want to add ~nuance to the discourse.
This is best done via another avenue than Oblique Forecasting. My first post is out already, and another one is queued up for later today, so hit that subscribe button baby!
My last post about the rise of a new kind of discovery app was perhaps a little pessimistic in tone. As it so happens, only days later my friend’s husband launched his own app! Dora—only available for iPhone for now—allows you, you guessed it, to explore. I would describe it as the city-wide version of those bulky audioguides you get in museums. You can hear stories as you roam New York, Amsterdam, Paris, Milan, Barcelona and Palermo. If you’re interested in more, email Volele should you want to see Dora in your city.
Remember when I cast doubt on Phoebe Gates’ (yes, Bill Gates’ daughter) affiliate company Phia? Following that massive round of investment? First, Bloomberg released an incendiary investigation, confirming that I’m right as always. But I would suggest reading this:
Before that, I had praised the branding of 4am skin on the heels of their $4M investment. Loved getting the inside track on that investment from the founder herself—tl;dr: can you present yourself as a founder instead of a female founder?
A few of you keep sending me updates from the dating app trenches, and I’ll accept my mission! I’ll keep reporting on the dirty subject:
Bumble Launches Bee AI to Personalize Dating Matches and Conversations (Mezha)
The founder of Hinge raised $18M to build a new AI dating service, Overtone (TechCrunch)
My stance on both of these unwanted AI updates from dating app veterans has not changed since this post, from almost a year ago (!).
We2 are funding the wrong people—millennial founders who have been in the dating app game too long—to create the wrong product—AI-assisted dating.
If you’ve made it this far, consider adding a like, a comment or sharing the post.
I mean VC funds actually
Le capital dérive vers ce qui est lisible plutôt que vers ce qui est bon, et on finance les mêmes personnes pour refaire la même chose avec une nouvelle interface. Chouette de te relire !