Friendly reminder: It took 12 years, 72 countries, and 7.6 billion trips before Uber could finally declare itself profitable. Keep going, makers. 💪

In today’s Daily Digest:

• Create and consume podcasts in community
• Fix your friend’s face in your favorite photo
• Make music from text with Meta

Let's look at some podcast data collected this July:

🎧 Over 460 million people worldwide listen to podcasts.

✋ One in five internet users are podcast listeners.

🎙️ There are approximately 4 million unique podcasts.

👂 The average American tunes into 8 podcasts per week.

📻 Half of U.S. youth (12-34 years old) regularly listen to podcasts.

Despite these significant numbers, many popular podcast platforms struggle to provide adequate monetization for creators and engagement for communities.

Cüneyt Göktürk, co-founder of Poddy, a new podcast app, believes “podcasts' potential is far from fully realized,” and Poddy aims to fill these gaps in the market.

To address monetization: Poddy is betting on three creator-focused revenue models. First, a donation feature called 'Clap' that's tied to a unique subscription system. Second, a model based on the number of users and engagement brought in by creators. Lastly, a revenue-sharing plan based on the number of listens and sponsored content.

To grow communities: Traditionally, listening to podcasts has been a one-way interaction. Poddy aims to change the game with features allowing listeners to interact with their favorite creators, create their own audio excerpts or ‘podcaps,’ and use ‘Vomojis’ (voice emoji) to add a humorous touch to content shared on the app.

To start conversations: Using Poddy, creators can prompt their listeners with questions, and listeners can respond with comments or 60-second audio clips, to which creators can then reply — all within the app.

“Simply listening from afar is a thing of the past,” says Poddy maker and podcaster Sevilay Sayilan. “The time has come to be a part of a community.”

• HeyPhoto tunes selfies, group photos, and Midjourney artwork with AI.
• Holoframe frames individual NFTs or collections in augmented reality.
• Peaks helps users understand their circadian rhythm for better sleep and productivity.
• AudioCraft is Meta's framework for generating audio and music from text.

• Figr 2.0 provides editable interfaces for popular apps in Figma.
• Personal Assistant is a browser-based AI sidekick for research and automation.
• Describely offers AI-enabled product content management for ecommerce.