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Last February, Sam Altman garnered much attention when he described a wager with fellow CEOs regarding the first year in which a company led by a single person would achieve a one billion dollar valuation:

One year later, TechCrunch’s Paul Sawers opines that thanks to the advent of cloud computing and distributed digital infrastructure, the one-person micro-enterprise is far from a novel concept.

He adds:

While AI agents will no doubt revolutionize productivity, judging by the current stable of AI workflow apps, we’re still at least four to five years away from having a one-person unicorn, a company valued at over $1 billion.

Most agentic solutions announced so far are optimized for mundane consumer applications, like making reservations or shopping:

But when one sees coding assistants, like Co.dev, in action, it makes one wonder why marketing technology applications do not work like Co.dev:

User: I want you to set up Google Analytics for my website and monitor it on a regular basis.

Chatbot: Please provide your login credentials, and I will set up Google Analytics.

User: Now, set up my email marketing to sign up visitors to my landing page and create a funnel that reconnects with them periodically.

Chatbot: I have set up an email list with a marketing automation funnel and used Google Tag Manager to set up tags for the landing page to track click interactions.

Let me know if you have seen such a solution. Only one of the 29,810 AI tools that exist today works this way:

Based on our daily monitoring of Product Hunt, it’s truly remarkable that none of the 14,106 martech products have pivoted in this direction. Until they do, the one-person, one-billion-dollar company is wishful thinking indeed.

Speaking of disruption, we all know the role the economy played in the recent U.S. presidential election. Like that Progressive insurance TV commercial humorously points out, the economy is “so many things.”

To that end, we have collected the ultimate repository of the many things that make up the economy, which ranks 24th in our Trendscape list of top trends on the internet world’s minds these days.

Now that the disruption the nation demanded is in full swing, it will be fascinating to see where all these changes will lead to, but initial indications are that Americans expect inflation to increase, which will only cause the current “Vibecession” to worsen.

Thanks for reading,

In every issue, we feature a trend chosen from our Trendscape 2024 list of top trends. We hope you enjoy this new resource.

Ed.: New inflation data released this week showed price pressures intensifying. The unexpected jump in January’s Consumer Price Index reflected in part seasonal quirks that tend to crop up at the beginning of the year, but the overall increase was large enough to fuel fresh concerns about the outlook. The economy ranks 24th on our Trendscape 2024 list.

24. Economy

As the dust from the COVID-19 pandemic settles, America finds itself at a crossroads. The economy is recovering strongly, with consumer spending rising, corporate earnings growing, and stock markets delivering record returns. Yet beneath all this positive news, an uneasy undercurrent of financial strain is emerging — one that threatens to erode the recovery and widen social divides.

The American economy presents a paradox of contrasting narratives. Traditional indicators, such as consumer spending, retail sales, GDP growth, robust corporate earnings, and a booming stock market, suggest a healthy and resilient economy. Yet, behind this rosy façade lurks a “Vibecession”:

Continue reading on Ubertrends…

The Jacobyte is Back! 😂 

Ed.: Meet The Jacobyte — an irreverent and sharp-tongued columnist who dominated the digital marketing industry’s gossip mill in the late ’90s and early aughts, delivering an unfiltered mix of innuendo, rumors, and biting satire. Back to shake things up, Jaco returns with his signature skewed perspective, exposing the absurdities, hypocrisies, and hidden truths of today’s digitally infested world. Brace yourself for the wit, the grit, and the muckraking you didn’t know you missed.

🙉 Jaco loves that Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai labeled DeepSeek “tremendous.” But don’t let that false honesty throw you off. In the same earnings call, Alphabet said it would boost capital expenditures a whopping 42% to $75 billion to try to kneecap its competition. Jaco thinks it will take much more work than fixing a cheeseburger emoji. 🍔

🙈 If you just got a weird-looking reply to a text message, you could be dealing with an iOS app called RPLY, which is designed for people like Jaco who are so annoyed by message “Delivered” statuses that don’t get answered. RPLY is said to use AI to identify missed texts and suggests responses to prevent users from unintentionally ghosting. Could be weirder than ghosting though, thinks Jaco.

🙊 Speaking of ghosting, what do you say to a pesky man-child who wants to buy your company? Dispensing with the formality of ChatGPT, Sam Altman had Jaco chuckling when he blurted out, “I think his whole life is from a position of insecurity. I don’t think he’s a happy person.” How many guesses do you need to find out who he was talking about? 😂

🕳 Speaking of insecure man-children, did you know that the world’s oldest anus is found in Florida? Jaco was disappointed to find out it belongs to the comb jelly, whose “butthole is one of the finest innovations in the past 540 million years,” according the journal Science. When Jaco thinks of assholes, innovation is the last thing that comes to mind. 😼

🍑 And speaking of orifices, a life-sized robot called “Aria” drew plenty of crowds at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. But the hordes of horny attendees were disappointed to find out that Aria, who resembles a sex doll, “does not have genitalia…and is not meant for sex.” Turns out the company behind Aria, Realbotix, is a sister company of Las Vegas-based Abyss Creations, the outfit behind RealDolls. As they’re fond of saying in business speak, “We’re leveraging a synergistic relationship to bring you an end-to-end solution.” 🤣

🫏 Switching the subject from orifices to Swiss cheese. What do you do if a web address you printed on a flyer contains a typo, and you mail that flyer to more than 100,000 households? Well, if you’re the Swiss canton of Basel-Stadt, you buy the domain that contains the typo, and create a redirect to the correct URL. Can you say “flexing your financial muscle,” little boys and girls?

👨 While Switzerland was finessing Swiss Francs, Fox was was fumbling the football. Turns out those gnarly score bugs Fox debuted during its Super Bowl broadcast reminded everyone of That ‘90s Show. Twitter user Tom Fornelli summed it up best:

But Jaco thinks that nine-year-old designer deserves an immediate promotion to Fox Entertainment’s worldwide design director, reporting directly to Head of Experiences and Design Diana Ruiz!

Can you say, “What’s wrong with this picture?” little boys and girls? 😵‍💫

😋 Remember, The Jacobyte devours rumors and scuttlebutt, especially when it doesn’t involve his butt! 😁

Send your rumors, tips and contributions to: [email protected].