the sparkher 5/27

Hey Besties, welcome back! happy memorial dayyyyy aka long weekend (bless)!

WHAT’S INSIDE

• AI – The Invisible Hand in Everything We Do

• ICYMI, brainfeed, and things to send to the group chat

• Upcoming events & deadlines

• Her hustle & coffee: Isabel DiGiovanni @ Slow Girl Run Club

LEVEL UP

I can confidently say that AI is now as omnipresent as the air we breathe. From your smartphone predicting your next word to Spotify’s new DJ feature serenading you with tunes tailored to your unique taste, AI is deeply woven into the fabric of our daily lives. Spotify’s DJ, for instance, not only curates your playlist but also chats about your favorite tracks, making it feel like you have a personal music guru in your pocket. This leap in personalization, powered by AI, begs the question: is life genuinely getting easier for the next generation, or are we merely raising the bar for what’s expected?

On one hand, AI certainly simplifies many tasks. Imagine having an AI assistant that optimizes your daily schedule, suggesting when to take breaks, and even handling mundane tasks like email sorting and meeting scheduling. This can give you those precious extra hours in a day—26 hours when everyone else is still stuck with 24. The possibilities for increased productivity and personal growth are immense. However, with these advancements comes a heightened expectation to perform. The next generation might find that they’re not just competing with their peers but also with the seamless efficiency of AI-enhanced capabilities. It’s a double-edged sword where convenience meets pressure.

Here are some practical ways you can harness free AI tools to make you better and squeeze a bit more out of every day:

1. Time Management: Use AI-powered apps like Todoist or Notion to organize your tasks and set smart reminders, ensuring nothing slips through the cracks.

2. Personal Chef: Apps like Yummly and Whisk use AI to suggest recipes based on what’s in your fridge, your dietary preferences, and what you’ve enjoyed before. Say goodbye to “what’s for dinner?” dilemmas.

3. Travel Planner: AI-powered platforms like Hopper and Skyscanner analyze vast amounts of data to predict the best times to book flights and hotels, saving you both time and money.

4. Smart Shopping: Use AI to your advantage with apps like Honey or Karma, which automatically find and apply the best coupons at checkout.

5. Fitness Coach: Apps like Freeletics and Nike Training Club act like personal trainers, adapting as you progress.

6. Virtual Stylist: Services like Stitch Fix use AI to curate clothing options based on your style preferences and feedback.

7. Home Automation: Devices like the Google Nest or Amazon Echo use AI to control everything from your thermostat to your lights, creating a smart home that runs on your schedule and preferences.

8. Creative Assistant: Tools like Canva and Adobe Spark harness AI to help you design stunning visuals with minimal effort, perfect for presentations, social media posts, or just unleashing your inner artist.

9. Mental Health Support: Apps like Woebot and Replika offer AI-driven mental health support, providing a non-judgmental space to talk and access coping strategies.

10. Financial Advisor: AI-powered services like Mint and PocketSmith analyze your spending habits, help you set budgets, and even offer tips on saving money more effectively.

11. Learning and Development: Platforms like Duolingo and Coursera leverage AI to personalize your learning experience, adapting to your pace and style.

12. Communication: Grammarly helps refine your writing by suggesting improvements, while apps like Otter.ai can transcribe your meetings and notes.

These tools don’t just make tasks easier; they enhance your capabilities, allowing you to focus on what truly matters. And who knows? Maybe with a bit of AI magic, you'll find yourself ahead of the game, feeling like you’ve got a few extra hours in your day—hours that you can use to explore new hobbies, connect with friends, or simply unwind. The future of AI isn’t just about doing more; it’s about doing more of what you love.

BRAINFEED & SHAREABLES

• ICYMI – Talking more about AI:
  Perplexity AI recently raised $62.7 million at a valuation of just over $1 billion, but it might soon secure an even larger $250 million round at up to three times that valuation. The buzz is fueled by Perplexity’s rapid growth, hitting around $20 million in annual recurring revenue. While these high valuations might seem excessive, they highlight the startup’s impressive momentum and investor confidence. This trend indicates that some AI startups are thriving enough to attract significant venture capital, challenging the dominance of Big Tech and potentially paving the way for new tech giants.

• ICYMI – Meta's Threads has outshined Elon Musk's X (formerly Twitter) in daily active users in the US since December 2023, with Threads now the third most downloaded free app on Apple's App Store. Meanwhile, X struggles with a declining user base and increased bot activity, dropping to 27 million daily users. Despite these challenges, X still holds more monthly users, but Mark Zuckerberg is confident in Threads' continued growth and positive community focus.

• If you’ve been living under a rock, you probably haven't seen this adorable conscious baby. Or the memes that follow.

• Social media / TikTok is actually crazy to me – you never know when something might blow up and how it might change your life. For example, the Girl on the Couch’s man in finance video is now being played by loud luxury.

• Recently, I’ve been obsessed with Sabrina Carpenter. Her music, her style, her hair, her makeup, her humor – litttterally everything. She’s a princess.

• Doing some shopping? Here’s a list of online shopping codes

• Female founders looking to apply for $: The Angels, Women Founders Network, Fearless Fund

• 🎧: Slow it down

• 📖: AAPI Brands to support

• What’s hot 🔥: the temp, 4-day weekends (can this be a norm?), brooklyn

  What’s not 🙅‍♀️: broken dishwashers, messy room

• 🔝High of the week: planning for thinkhers bootcamp #2 👀

MARK YOUR CALENDARS

• 🗽: May Tech Rooftop Event (5/29): Join us and hundreds of other NYC tech founders, operators, and investors for an evening of connection, conversation, and entertainment.

• 🗽: Founder Friends in NYC (6/3): ​​​Join the NYC founder community to connect with other founders and hear war stories from a founder who went through the wringer and came out the other side.

HER HUSTLE & COFFEE

I love finding new coffee shops and meeting other female founders, so I started a series to share stories of female entrepreneurs at coffee shops around New York City.

Isabel DiGiovanni, is the founder of Slow Girl Run Club, a pace inclusive run club in NYC.

Check out the full video interview here, or highlights from our conversation below.

Tell me about why you started this.
I was training for the NYC marathon, I was really looking for something pace-inclusive. I didn’t find anything, so I started it.

How did the run club blow up?
It actually happened very randomly. I told seven friends to come to the Westside Highway and I made a TikTok about it.

📍Seven Gramms (275 7th Ave): 6/10 – it’s always so busy so never any seats + loud, but their cookies are so good

We cannot become what we want without changing what we are.

xoxo,
Prasiddhi
thinkers, founder

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