Hey honeys and hustlers,

Today is Monday, and I have no energy. How are you? I’m about to hop on The Tech Jawn with Robb Dunnewood and company (I’ll share the link once it’s live!), and then prep for a long, wonderful Tuesday with friends (both IRL and URL). I’ll be hanging out with some podcast friends in Atlanta, some filmmakers in Columbus, and then joining Corey and Michelle on Substack Live at 8PM. I hope you’ll carve out some time to come say hello! Before we get into the creator economy tech tools I believe are readworthy, an announcement ICYMI…

By the end of CommunityOS, you will operate like a creator with a working community system – not just ideas. You will have a documented publishing cadence, a repurposing pipeline, a collaboration engine, an analytics dashboard that drives decisions, and a validated offer or sponsor path—so growth, engagement, and revenue become consistent and compounding instead of sporadic and reactive. It will go live on Monday, September 29th (aka a week from today!). If you buy the course during pre-sale, you’ll get the most benefits:

The whole kit and kaboodle, available now.

P.S. Bonuses scale with speed. Pre‑order for 3 bonuses + a discount code. 72 hours after launch, the number of bonuses drops to 2. First week after launch, the number of bonuses drops to 1. After that, none.

// Make with Notion returned to San Francisco. This is an in-person and livestreamed event featuring the Notion CEO and prominent enterprise users of Notion. Many Notion-sponsored creators often are invited to attend this event, but it is my understanding that almost anyone who registers is also able to attend in person if they so choose. The most notable Notion features they’ve announced since last year’s event are in the AI capabilities. AI meeting notes, enhanced AI tools for Notion Mail, and increased Notion AI functionality: web search functionality to rival Perplexity, pdf document uploading and implementation, and Notion AI integration with other apps natively (like Figma, Github, Claude, etc). Notion agents will also be available to everyone soon. I believe I have early access because I already pay for Notion AI. Why is this important? Notion AI can be your one-stop shop for AI usage, and you’ll get so much more. I've been using Notion AI to metaprompt in vibe coding tools. This new integration with Claude and Lovable will allow for more efficient prompting, and syncing app usage could significantly decrease environmental impact due to AI use, with better results in a faster amount of time.

// Orchids App. This is a new vibe coding tool that has popped up recently. The good: it’s learned from the mistakes of Bolt, Lovable, and Replit. It has native domain publishing (Netlify replacement), user authentication and management (Supabase replacement), cloud storage, easy copy and photo editing, website cloning, databases (Supabase replacement), and payments. The bad: it’s more expensive than all of the above (i.e. $25/mo for 2M tokens on Orchids vs. $25/mo for 10M tokens on Bolt), and it is offering free unlimited tokens IF you use grokAI. Yeah, grokAI, the responsible party for the folks in Memphis being victims of environmental injustice. ABSOLUTELY NOT. We need data centers that can be powered by renewable, clean energy as a policy mandate, YESTERDAY.

// Oakley Meta Vanguards. Athlete Intelligence has arrived in very stylish fashion. I really enjoy the look and features of these glasses. In fact, I like everything but the software behind them, Meta AI. The glasses can take photos and videos, display maps, show you’re running or cycling information, and make phone calls. They have a 9-hour battery, with a rechargeable case that gives you 2-3 extra uses. As someone who rides bikes, I deeply appreciate the combination of protective eyewear, connectivity to Strava, recording sections of my ride that are breathtaking, and the ability to make an SOS call in a pinch. Maybe even listen to a few tunes while I’m out on the trails. But I know for a fact that no phone call I ever made using these glasses would be safe. Meta is known for selling our data and information, and I don’t think their wearables will be exempt from this practice. Hopefully, some other companies will pop up to compete in the software division, but these are very promising.

// Medium TK. TK has long been shorthand for writers when they want to say, “to come.” Medium TK is an announcement for a new writing app by the company AND an announcement for said writing app. Very meta, very clever. This new AI-powered writing platform will be for "Friends of Medium tier only,” according to the CEO, so it will be a paid product. From what I can tell, this resembles the Coda by Grammarly writing app. Grammarly recently acquired Coda in a simultaneous deal where it acquired Superhuman. Assuming that some, if not most, Medium writers are already familiar with Grammarly, do you think they’ll switch to paying for Medium’s new platform? I’m not sure, but it’s an interesting value proposition for a platform that claims it isn’t aiming to be a writer’s full-time salary.

// Obsidian challenge to integrate Notion databases. Obsidian has been rolling out databases, an apparently popular feature request. As a Notion user, I’m intimately aware that databases are its strong suit. Obsidian seems to want to integrate with them, rather than compete with them, and leverage their small but mighty army of developers that build integrations for Obsidian to make it happen. It is refreshing to see a CEO who has reached profitability not be completely greedy and get into petty wars with other creator tech companies online.

// Kamala Harris is on Substack. Notable political figures like Jasmine Crockett, Stacey Abrams, and Pete Buttigieg have already joined, but this feels like a big deal. Just days ago, she made her first post, almost as a follow-up to her latest book, 107 Days. She is also set to be the next House Guest with Scott Evans. It feels like she’s taking advantage of the lack of access restrictions she now enjoys as a former elected official. She can speak to whoever she wants about whatever she wants, and she’s choosing more platforms that are relevant among pop culture rather than political pundits. I respect it. I’m curious to see what this will do for her profile and for democracy.

Sending this out a little late today. I hope you all enjoy the rest of your week!