no. 42: summer edition.
fundraising updates, magnesium electrolytes, and summer campaigns.
hi all! welcome back. hopefully, you are escaping this absolutely unbearable and atrocious heat. i am off next week and very excited to be by the water and far away from moody nyc temperature swings.
mini news round-up 🗞️
my hand-picked selection of news covering acquisitions, fundraising, product launches, and consumer trends currently on my mind.
daydream, ai search for shopping launched this week - let me know if you have tried it out.
the jenis ice cream founder launched a fiber bar brand - although it seems random, i think the fiber bar is the next protein bar craze. and jeni does no wrong.
jeni’s latest venture: fiber bars bumble is going to lay off 30% of their staff, while hinge stays winning - bumble plans to cut down on $40 million per year as a result of the workforce reduction, and reinvest it back into their product. it’s evident that hinge has taken the lead in the dating app arena but let’s see if bumble can make a comeback.
hard fork’s interview with sam altman - “I think that there is going to be some sort of change,” he said. “I think it’s inevitable. I think every time you get a platform shift, you get the changing job market."
blank street is doubling down on selling sugary matcha to teens - blank street is valued at 500 million according to the wall street journal, and they really aren’t messing around with releasing new matcha flavors every season including their summer drop of rocky road and cookies n cream matcha.
cookies and cream & rocky road, but matcha. (via @blankstreet) tiktok takes over cannes - tiktok paid to bring some of its most popular creators to cannes for the week.
the ai matchmaking app, sitch, just raised $5m - huge congrats to the team! you can read my interview with dini, sitch founder, here!
why are yemeni coffeehouses popping up everywhere? - there seems to be an incresing demand for late-night alcohol-free gathering spaces, and yemeni coffeehouses are the pick of the “third-space” trend right now
brand-storming 🧃
a list of brands i’m keeping tabs on and capturing my attention.
raazi tea - thank you for the goodies! raazi creates small batch teas inspired by eastern flavors steeped in brooklyn.
check them out! magna - magnesium-powered electrolytes are here, and they could be the winner. i have tried a bunch of electrolyte brands and can’t seem to find a favorite yet, so hopefully these will be the winner.
trends to watch 👀
occasional deep dives and signals that are catching my eye - trends and shifts worth talking about.
i am particularly enjoying summer brand campaigns from both rimowa and crown affair. rimowa's latest campaign highlights celebrity suitcases that aren’t in pristine condition. i particularly like this because it’s highlighting the product in close to true form rather than a clean and unused luggage which is highly unrealistic.
another one i liked was the crown affair’s summer post highlighting their travel-size set for the summer. i think summer is always a fun time for brands, and these two brands displayed how to seamlessly integrate your product into the day-to-day life of your consumer rather than talking about it.
i haven’t felt inclined lately to do a deep dive, but i will return with one soon when i feel strongly on a particular topic - let me know if there are any you’d want to see!
things you can do, if you want:
follow me along on tiktok as i post for 30 days. a side note is that the topics i didn’t expect to get views are getting some of the most views. will report back on that soon.
i am big on feedback, so drop a comment on what caught your eye this week or what you would want to see more of!
see you all soon & enjoy the summer!!
— zoya
I wait for your substack - I get all caught up with what I need to know!
the cookies & cream matcha freaks me out