Iterate Weekly - Issue 28
Plainsight reinvents networking, CreativeLive is acquired by Fiverr, Firemaps hopes to save your home from fire, Find your next date through music, and it's football season with Friday Night Lights.
Welcome to issue 28 of Iterate Weekly!
Just a reminder that you can always reply to this email or leave a comment on the web version. I do read all of them and I appreciate the feedback, questions, and insights from all of you.
Let’s jump into this week’s stories.
🤖Tech
Plainsight turns anywhere into a co-working space
With many employees never planning to return to an office, there has been an increase in ways to connect with like-minded people if you’re working in isolation.
Plainsight aims to recreate some of the in-person networking that has been lost in the age of the pandemic. While co-working spaces are starting to make a return to relevance, plenty of people find themselves working at coffee shops, parks, or anywhere that feels safe and has decent wi-fi.
By joining the Plainsight app, you can see who else may be working in your vicinity and what type of work they may be doing. This opens up opportunities for brainstorming, business partnerships, or just more focused small talk with the person sitting at the table next to you.
This is a useful tool for individuals who are lacking a sense of connection in their day-to-day work. But I’m more intrigued by what it can offer to shop owners and event producers. By listing your space on Plainsight, you can start to create your own hub of like-minded workers while potentially increasing traffic and buzz around your event. It’s a win-win for everyone.
🎓Education
CreativeLive acquired by Fiverr
This story is really close to my heart. EdTech startup CreatliveLive has been acquired by freelance marketplace Fiverr.
I worked at CreativeLive (in the old days it was strangely written as creativeLIVE) for nearly five years. I saw the launch of the San Francisco studio, produced hundreds of educational live-streamed courses, and worked with tons of amazing writers, artists, and entrepreneurs. I moved on in 2018, but I’ve been following the company closely since then.
Just recently, I’d been helping CreativeLive with its influencer marketing efforts as they drive people to sign up for their all-you-can-stream subscription pass. They have a huge library of content in a variety of different disciplines and there really is no better place to learn the skills needed to be a self-sufficient creative professional.
I’m thrilled that the company will take on a new life with Fiverr. Chase Jarvis will remain as CEO and it looks like the company will mostly continue to operate independently. But the exciting part is connecting with Fiverr’s huge database of freelancers. I can imagine a not-too-distant future where you watch a CreativeLive course on logo design and are presented with a list of designers you can instantly hire to help you bring your idea to life.
And on the flip side, the available freelancers on Fiverr will be even more skilled after watching all of the amazing content that CreativeLive has to offer. It seems like a natural pairing that should benefit both sides. Best of luck to Chase and the entire CreativeLive crew as they enter this new chapter.
🩺Health
Firemaps may save your home from wildfire
Thankfully, we are approaching the end (hopefully) of wildfire season here in the western United States.
The Bay Area hasn’t been as smoke-filled as it was last year during this time. But wildfire season has become a way of life for many westerners. Personally, I’ve been thinking about which areas of California are most at risk for wildfires. Where does it make sense to live and where is the risk too high to justify?
Firemaps is aiming to be a solution to properly assess wildfire risk for your home. It comes from an ex-Uber Director named Jahan Khanna. The goal is to analyze your home to see where it is most susceptible to fire. Within 20 minutes, they use drones to put together a 3D composite of your home so you can see exactly where you need to beef up your fire defenses. They’ve already been well-funded by some big-name investors in the space including Andreesen Horowitz and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.
They then connect you to local contractors that can help make the improvements to your home while ensuring reliable, cost-effective service. While it’s impossible to make your home impervious to fire, Firemaps is an amazing resource for anyone who is living in a high-risk fire area.
🛍Grab Bag
The power of music
How has this not existed before?
To me, it seems like a no-brainer to have a dating app that’s all about matching you with someone with similar music taste.
Power of Music is the name of the app and it’s hoping to play matchmaker in the extremely crowded niche dating app industry. Can shared music interest be enough to carry a relationship through the first few dates?
The app is available for iOS and Android and it connects to your Spotify or Apple Music account (sadly no love for all of the other fledgling streaming platforms) to tap into your musical streaming history. It then uses its vague algorithms to connect you to someone they think you’ll be compatible with.
I’m certainly rooting for everyone out there to find love, but consider me skeptical of this. It seems like a great way to discover new people to go to shows with, but I’m curious to see the long-term data of how many relationships last after meeting on Power of Music. I think it’s important for partners to have some musical overlap in their listening libraries, but I don’t think the likelihood of success goes up when you have more bands in common.
💬Quote of the Week
“Do not judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant” - Robert Louis Stevenson
📺Content Recommendation
Friday Night Lights
I read the original Friday Night Lights book in high school. But I somehow managed to miss the TV show during its initial run.
Like most of my TV viewing, my wife recommended we watch the series from the start. As we wrap up Season 1, I highly recommend it. It’s also a great show to watch during Autumn when it really feels like football season.
My high school never had a football team (and even if it did, it was in New York, not Texas) so much of the plot is very outside of my own experience. But it’s really a compelling watch even if you’re not a football fan. Of all the great young actors in this show, is it safe to say that Jesse Plemons has become the most popular? Who would have guessed?
Thanks for reading, I’ll see you next week!