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Dating and chat apps are always on-trend.

Recently we’ve noticed makers are expanding our virtual options to meet the needs of different personalities, interests, and goals.

Hyper Online hits the spot for gamers and anime fans — or anyone who enjoys a ComiCon dress-up. Choose your animoji and then record, join rooms, and meet people. You earn coins when you do, which you can spend to upgrade your emoji persona. Other features include a draw tool and games so you can have fun and relax.

Hyper Online is a recent Y Combinator alumn. Its makers noted: “Animojis allow people to feel "present" through facial expression as they meet online– while still maintaining an element of identity, fantasy, and privacy.”

Graze, on the other hand, feels virtually the opposite.

It’s a new video-based social networking app (it has dating and friends-mode) that’s designed to make sure there’s an instant connection. After matching with someone, you’ll have a 5-minute live video chat (no avatars here) as your first encounter. The app gives you quick, personalized talking topics right before you connect, so you’re not left completely hanging.

Maker Heather Hopkins on Graze: “I very much take the no BS approach to dating… it’s nearly impossible to determine relationship chemistry through messaging... Our solution? We take the video-first approach.”

To leave you feeling like Goldilocks, we’ve got a third option in the middle. Blindlee users have a 3-minute blurred video chat with a random user, matched based on your criteria. You’ll get ice-breakers for this one, too.

Maker Sacha Naason noted: “We grew tired of the sometimes fake and superficial aspect of the online dating world, so [we] decided to found Blindlee to make the process more transparent and safer but also fun 🎉.”

So which one is just right? We can’t choose for you but maybe start by browsing...

Today’s Daily Digest was crafted by us and sponsored by our friends at JotForm.

JotForm has been in the form game for fifteen years now. What started as a WYSIWYG form builder, turned into a friendly UI with the power to build, customize, collaborate, and integrate forms with tools like Stripe and Salesforce. JotForm was even the first to give us a full-featured form builder on mobile four years ago.

That’s why we were surprised yet excited to hear about their latest pivot. 😉

Jotform has announced that they’ve taken a step back from online forms and data management tools to focus on a new, and noticeably tangible, product: JotForm Tables.

JotForm Tables are state-of-the-art workspaces. The company’s founder Aytekin told us that since JotForm is all about ways to boost productivity no matter where you work, tables are not really a big departure from the company’s mission. He believes the right work table can make all the difference.

JotForm Tables are the first in an upcoming line of cutting-edge products designed to supercharge your productivity.

What does JotForm bring to the Table?

📱 Bluetooth compatibility
💦 Waterproof finish to take on the unexpected
🧳 Mobile capabilities for maximum productivity anywhere
🦵Industry-leading 38.5 inches of leg clearance
🔥 Temperature-controlled top panel
🔩 Screws made of indestructible reinforced titanium
👨‍💻 A solid foundation for your workspace
🛏️ A place to lay your head when you get duped

JotForm is taking pre-orders and expects to sell out quickly.

Last June, Andreessen Horowitz introduced an accelerator program called the Talent x Opportunity Initiative (TxO) to serve consumer startups built on top of cultural tailwinds.

We caught up with Nait Jones, a partner at the VC firm, to talk about the recent launch of products from the first TxO cohort. He explained why consumer startups, particularly those outside of Silicon Valley, are worth investing in:

“Time and time again, we’ve seen culture applied to an existing category, recreating that category entirely. Culture is just that strong. Sadly, the inventors of culture-forward ideas who manifest these huge shifts too often lack strong resources and networks.”

Nait also noted the importance of TxO launching to our community.

“Most companies in the TxO cohort... need to acquire users and buyers. That’s why launching on Product Hunt is so cool, because Product Hunt itself is a cultural phenomenon and has become the world’s foremost community of early adopters.”

Take a look at all those Alpha TxO launches:

📺 FUTURESTREAM - A ticked live streaming platform
💃🏽 Autumn Adeigbo - Made-to-order, ethically-produced, small-batch fashion
🎤 Breakr - Platform for artists to break into new audiences
🪒 Oui the People - A bodycare brand (expanded from its Oui Shave launch)
👓 Coco and Breezy - Design-driven eyewear brand
🍩 The Elite Donut - Low-sugar, protein-packed donuts
💅 Pamper Nail Gallery - Made-to-order, reusable nail art

We hope to see initiatives like TxO help underrepresented groups find funding and support. One study from 2019 found that just 1% of VC-backed founders were black and 1.8% were Latino. There’s a lot to be done.

You can read Nait’s full blog here.👇

This month we found out that Robinhood and eToro are on paths to IPO. Both trading platforms have been helping to lead the democratization of stock and cryptocurrency trading, thanks in part to fractions.

We’ve watched as fractional ownership has lowered the barrier to entry for investing in stocks, cryptocurrency, NFTs, and real estate, but we’ve learned we’re just at the beginning. Fintech startups continue expanding on ways to invest for the love of fractions.

Pacaso is taking fractional ownership to second homes, essentially innovating on the old timeshare model. The platform brings together homebuyers, enabling you to split ownership 8 ways, i.e. they’ve cut out the middleman and you’d have fewer people to share with.

Fractional investments have become a way to reward shoppers too. Just-launched Bits of Stock lets you earn fractional shares from your favorite brands, like Uber Eats and Netflix, as you spend.

Developers: You can check out the launch of Alpaca’s Fractional Trading API, a follow-up to their trading API launched two years ago. It’s designed for makers to build investing applications and algorithmic trading strategies, enabling fractional share trading for as little as $1. At least one developer was ready for it:

“I love this product! I've been waiting for the fractional trading API ever since I discovered Alpaca. A couple weeks ago I wrote about how to use this new API + Cloudflare Workers to create a really simple DCA trading bot” - Tyler van der Hoeven

Another term for investing in portions of assets is micro-investing. However you think of it, it feels like micro-investing or fractional innovation is on an upword trajectory for shaking up FinTech and beyond.

Last week, a new launch was the talk of tech-Twitter: Bitclout.

Bitclout is a decentralized social network built on a blockchain. The concept seems noble: an open-sourced platform that rewards creators, not a company, for contributions through creator coins. Initial excitement was matched with early skepticism:

“I was waiting for something like this! This is amazing 🤩” - Asad Ali

“Is this a black hole for bitcoin?” - Derrick Guanzon

Many online were put off by Bitclout scraping Twitter profiles of prominent members, baiting them with pre-created accounts (@elonmusk’s coin is over $86K but he has yet to officially join). Others are frustrated that the project is absent from Github and the like. The unknown makers, who go by the pseudonym Diamondhands, have said the code will be open-sourced after an audit is concluded within the next few weeks.

Investors are also cautioning others to be careful with their investments. Right now you can put Bitcoin in to buy more $Bitclout, but you can’t withdraw it.

However, early adopters point to Bitclout’s list of backers, like Sequoia and a16z, to support the whole concept. They also point out that letting people withdraw too early could cause users to invest and bail too quickly.

Are you getting into Bitclout early or in the wait-and-see camp? Share what you think on the launch page.

It’s been a buzzy week for Slack.

On Wednesday, the company dropped Slack Connect Direct Messages, giving anyone the ability to DM anybody else on Slack, outside of company borders.

Engineer Manager Derek Hollis noted in their Product Hunt launch:

“This is new technology that relegates email to the fringes of business communication.”

Some users were excited about the potential, while others on Twitter showed concern that DMs could be misused by bad actors. Slack leadership was quick to respond making some immediate changes, like removing the ability to customize the invitation that’s sent when starting a DM with someone new.

We look forward to seeing more updates to Slack Connect. In the meantime, Slack’s CEO Stewart Butterfield talked about Slack’s future plans for audio in a recent Clubhouse with Josh Constine. Stewart shared plans for new features including ephemeral video (i.e. Stories) and audio messages for quick voice notes — something similar to what users of Yac have been doing for a while now.

He also revealed that Slack would soon have a feature akin to Clubhouse where users can drop into rooms for conversations without needing to schedule a meeting or initial call. We’re interested in how this can match up with the DM feature — can Slack take a piece of corporate Clubhouse?

Have any more questions for the engineering team on Slack Connect while you wait for audio and Stories? Ask the makers on their launch page.

Your personal data, that is. It's precious.

Despite the implementation of GDPR in 2018 and new US privacy regulations since, Pew Research from 2019 shows 81% of Americans feel they have very little/no control of the data collected from companies.

Rita launched to the community yesterday and wants to make it easier for everyone, including non-technical people, to get their data back. The app collects your data from platforms (right now Google and Facebook), shows you how it’s used, and helps you request its removal or manage ads you don’t want to see.

Rita made a great first impression on launch day.

“Just tested the App… The “manage ads'' feature is incredible!!! ...This changes everything! 🙏🙏🙏" - Emile Brussels

“Nice and smooth UI, I was shocked about the high number of companies my data is shared with🤭.” - Luca Campo

There are other fast-growing products already in this space. Mine, a 2020 Golden Kitty Winner, lets you discover your digital footprint and remove data from services you no longer use. Jumbo, another privacy assistant, launched an update last year adding data breach monitoring and an ad tracker blocker from following your steps online.

If you’re already using one of these privacy assistants, maker John Arts explained where Rita comes in:

“The difference simplified: Jumbo restricts ongoing tracking. Rita does that + restricting: companies and data that was collected in the past.”

While privacy advocates may implore you to seek out alternatives to certain platforms altogether, companies like Rita and Jumbo play a role in helping the public partake in big tech activity without compromising personal power.

It’s that time of the year again for many. No, not tax season, the other one: performance reviews.

Five years ago, maker Jack Altman introduced Lattice to our community after a few months of beta testing. As explained in the launch, Lattice’s goal is to turn the daunting beast of review writing into a manageable process that won’t scare off employees.

“Maintaining goals in a spreadsheet isn't enough; we wanted to make a tool where they are connected, engaging, and can evolve over time.”

The community responded largely with optimism and a bit of uncertainty from those who saw too much crossover with the project management tools they were already using.

Now Lattice has reached a $1B valuation after their latest funding round taking it to unicorn status. It appears that initial community optimism was well-founded.

Take a look at Jack’s profile and you’ll get a glimpse of Lattice’s growth into an integrated people management platform. In its initial launch, Lattice was a handy but bare board of tracked goals. Five months later, the team launched an iteration with Lattice Reviews, a key function of Lattice’s suite today. This was followed by Lattice Feedback, Lattice Engagement, Lattice Pulse, and recently Lattice Grow, an integrated tool to help managers and employees accelerate their careers.

Lattice is joining SaaS startups that boomed in tune with the “new normal,” like Notion which quadrupled its user base from 2019. Jack told Bloomberg that Lattice doubled in size over the pandemic as teams moved to remote.

Looks like silver linings attract unicorns. We’re watching to see who joins the club next.

Need a breather from NFTs? Let’s talk about the newest capital of FinTech — Latin America.

The financial landscape has been heating up in Latin America over the last several years with 1,166 fintech ventures at last count in 2018 by the Inter-American Development Bank. The reasons are plentiful but for starters, 50% of the population lacks a bank account. Traditional financial institutions hadn’t given the area a lot of attention. FinTech startups have changed all that.

Last week’s launch of Z1 showed us how much is on the table.

Z1 is a digital bank for teenagers and part of the Winter 2021 batch of Y Combinator startups. With their parents’ permission, teens can create an account with Z1. Once approved, they’ll be issued a Mastercard and can manage their accounts online, make P2P transfers to friends, and more.

Z1 isn’t just a bank, it’s about setting up the next generation of adults for financial independence. This is what co-founder Thiago Achatz said on launch day:

“Many Gen Z’ers want to learn not only how to spend their money, but also how to earn money of their own and become autonomous from their parents from an early age. Z1’s product is the first in Brazil to give them this autonomy and set them on the road to financial independence.”

Z1’s goal is to become the go-to bank for Gen Z in LatAm. For now, the company is starting in Brazil.

The U.S. and Europe are looking at Gen Z's potential for spending too. Venmo and Revolut are working on debit cards for teens and Step recently introduced their banking solution for teens and families.

We're wishing Gen Z record-breaking financial growth to match their voter turnout.

Some people have such a great blend of right and left brain that they made themselves a career in graphic design. The rest of us have Canva.

Even so, our mockups and landing pages often need a touch more to tell a story — illustrations with diverse characters, 3D images, and even just blobs.

We’ve seen a huge number of resources recently to help with quick design solutions, whether you’re a marketer, a designer saving time, or a bootstrapping maker crafting a pitch.

This list is about to save you some design time.

Blobs 2.0 - Simple blob generator

Presentations by Pitch - 50+ templates for your Pitch

Float - Tool to transform your static artwork into moving creations

Amigos - Hand-drawn illustrations of characters that are remixable

Haikei - Tool to generate unique SVG shapes, backgrounds, and patterns

MagicPattern Toolbox - Toolkit of patterns, gradients, and, yup, more blobs

Studyum 3D Icons - 28 customizable 3D icons

THINGS - 3D customizable device mockups

Removal.ai - AI-powered background removal

Sensa Emoji - Free, vector, and open-source emoji set

And once you’ve made it through the list, take a break with this game to identify fonts.