A week in AI is like a year in other industries. I hope these issues become your weekly source of AI information, inspiration, and ideas. If we haven’t met before, I’m Amanda Smith. I write about AI and the fascinating folks who are building in this brave new world.
Good morning.
Over the past few weeks, we’ve shared some standout founder stories building in AI far away from the usual hype cycles. From restaurants and fertility clinics to HR tools and group chats, these builders are applying AI where it actually meets real life.
In case you missed any of them, here are the stories readers spent the most time with 👇
Subscribe | Past interviews | Let’s collaborate | Insane Media
Maria Zhang left a long career spanning Google, Meta, LinkedIn, and Tinder to build Palona, an AI agent designed for the chaos of real restaurants. Instead of dashboards and prompts, Palona listens, sees, and acts inside live operations to help restaurants increase revenue and catch issues in real time. It’s a reminder that execution in messy environments is where AI really earns its keep.
🤝 This edition is kindly brought to you by HubSpot
The Descript app for HubSpot connects AI-powered video editing with your customer platform. Edit videos through text-based transcripts, auto-generate variations for every distribution channel, and seamlessly sync to HubSpot's CRM. Track engagement by contact, attribute video to pipeline stages, and prove content ROI with unified reporting. Built for teams shipping product-led content at scale.
Melissa Teran is a biomedical engineer and former IVF patient building AI tools for one of healthcare’s most emotional and expensive processes. Alife now supports a meaningful share of U.S. IVF cycles by helping clinics make better decisions where it matters most.
After stepping away from startup life at 32, Naz Avo quietly built Feedback Pulse, a lightweight AI-powered employee feedback tool for small teams priced out of enterprise software.
Three award-winning Meta AI researchers came together to build Yutori, a set of agents that quietly handle everyday digital work in the background.
David Petrou left Google to build Continua, an AI agent that lives inside group chats and helps people coordinate real life without adding more apps.
How's the depth of today's edition?
If one of these stories stuck with you, I’d love to hear why.
And if you’re building something thoughtful with AI, reply and tell me about it.
Speak soon,
Amanda
P.S. If you want to get a founder feature about your own story, reply to this email. If you’d like to reach our newsletter audience (founders, creators, and marketers), click the button below.
If you’re new here, I’m over the moon you’ve joined us! To help me craft content that’s actually useful (and not just noise in your inbox), I’d love it if you took 1 minute to answer this quick survey below. Your insights help shape everything I write.
✨ Insane Media is more than one voice
Dive into our other newsletters - where psychology meets the creator economy, e-commerce marketing, and Human resources.
