The Facebook v2

During our weekly Community Hours, makers often ask us about what they can do to keep up the pace post-launch day. One option? Momentum campaigns. Check out how VEED.IO drove upwards of 3K new trials and a 15% increase in traffic by partnering with Product Hunt. 🚀

Onto today’s Digest:

• Capture, edit, and share your screen
• An open-source tool for debugging
• An extension for detecting AI text

Fizz, a new social network for college students that requires a .edu address (is this… The Facebook?) is joining the legion of teen and Gen Z-focused apps generating big buzz and getting mad funding.

Like other youth-targeted apps such as Saturn, SLAY, and Gas (acquired by Discord), Fizz is attracting notable investment, including — according to a source for TechCrunch —  a recent injection of $25 million in Series B funding (at a valuation Fizz CEO Rakesh Mathur has declined to make public).

Why are investors so keen on social networks for teens and students, despite the lack of early revenue, or challenges like regulation, content moderation, and child safety?

Virality drives cheaper growth: “For every social app I’ve ever built, [the] number of invitations sent per user drops 20% for every additional year of age—from 13 years old to 18,” says Nikita Bier, the founder of Gas and advisor to the team at Saturn. “So if you build for adults, expect to pay to acquire every user with ads.”

Anonymity puts content over authorship: Sunny Xun Liu, Associate Director of Stanford’s Social Media Lab, believes a lot of Fizz’s appeal is owed to its Reddit-esque anonymous posting format, which “permits open discussions on a wide range of topics, from ‘sex to drinks to drugs to which classes to come to’ on campus.”

Localization for IRL experiences: Co-founded by Stanford dropouts Teddy Solomon and Ashton Cofer, Fizz was originally only available to Stanford students. Today, it’s on 80 campuses across the US and “aims to expand to 250 schools by year’s end.” Liu reckons Fizz’s sustained connection to the activities taking place IRL on physical campuses also adds to its allure.

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• TraceGPT AI Detector is a Chrome extension that checks text for AI parameters and plagiarism.
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• Blend Icons offers 136,000 free icons including 1,300+ collections in 7 different styles.
• Requestly Session Replays is an open-source tool for capturing, reporting, and troubleshooting bugs in web apps.
• UserFeedback launches contextually focused surveys, polls, and feedback forms on WordPress sites.