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Is a recession looming? If only we could get experts to agree on a definitive answer. What we do know, however, is that consumers and businesses are buying less due to high inflation. This also has ramifications for big tech companies, like Meta’s struggle with declining revenue.

What does that mean for most people? For one, it might mean that we’ll be looking at cutting down on non-essential purchases and trying to be more conscious about what we spend hard-earned cash on. If being more financially aware has been on your adulting bucket list for a while, this turn of events might be a good opportunity to achieve that. We’ve curated a few recently launched products that can help you.

Monse connects all of your accounts to automatically categorize all of your expenses. It also sends you a summary of all your transactions, either in a daily, weekly, or monthly email.

Cashews acts as your smart personal accountant. It connects with 12K+ banks and shows you precisely how much you can spend to take the stress out of your cost of living. We wrote more about it here.

Uprise looks at your whole financial picture and gives recommendations on how to optimize it – what accounts to use, tax strategies, how to use your employee benefits, and more. You can read more about its founding story here and how the team wants to help add $1.5M to your lifetime net worth.

Habitual Money uses a smart-rule engine (similar to Gmail filters) to auto-categorize purchases, track your true take-home income and savings, and integrate with your Venmo and Amazon accounts.

If you’re the type of person who doesn’t like to have cash lying around and prefers to invest, there are tools you can use to make sure you’re making data-backed decisions and minimizing risk.

Claritus’ ​​personal wealth management platform lets you view all of their assets and investments in one place, providing personalized monthly and weekly digest reports.

Gainy helps you ​​discover unique investment ideas based on your interests and risk/reward profile.

How are you preparing for a downturn? Join the conversation.

We’re all influencers. No, really. It might not be on the same scale as others, but whenever someone asks you “where did you get those” in the comments of the picture you just posted wearing your new kicks, you’re influencing them to get a pair.

TikTok’s been the darling of the Internet these past few weeks, even more so than usual. We, too, recently discussed the TikTokifying of Instagram and how that seems to be affecting people’s sentiment towards the app once known for photo sharing. It's not surprising to see makers bet on the future of influencers and TikTok while Meta is struggling with ad demand and declining revenue for the first time in history since IPO.

But what if non-influencers could get paid for casually showcasing their purchases? That’s the idea behind Swaypay. You search through participating brands on the app and post a TikTok video sporting your purchase. You then earn based on post performance and cash out via Venmo or Paypal. No follower count required.

The reason this may work is because much of TikTok’s recipe for success stems from its ability to make regular people famous easily. Think of the overwhelming number of creators who quit their regular jobs to become influencers. TikTok's algorithm doesn’t recommend content based solely on existing follower counts. Instead, it takes into account a multitude of factors like interests, how users similar to you engaged with a video, and how long you’ve watched similar videos for. So if a video you make for Swaypay is engaging enough, you could make money regardless of how well-known you are.

“Brands prefer rewarding their real shoppers for TikToking stuff they genuinely bought and love, regardless of how many followers they have,” the makers share as their unique insight. Investors in Swaypay include makers you might already know, like Not Boring’s Packy M and Deel’s Bouaziz, among many others.

The best part about this launch? The team sings their landing page and it’s pretty catchy.

“Dropped out of school, now we dumb rich.” - Drake, circa 2016.

A college degree was once the pathway to financial freedom for many, but it looks like things have changed.

Students nowadays are plagued with mounds of student loan debt, with the ROI sometimes never “PEMDASing” it. With an economy changed by a global pandemic and now, the looming threat of a recession, it’s no wonder that people are seeking alternatives to higher education. Digging yourself into thousands of dollars of student loan debt only to find out that the job market is full of underpaying jobs that require years of experience isn’t exactly fulfilling.

Makers Tarlon Khoubyari and Naomi Thomas picked up on a “mass exodus” from higher education and created their own solution—Infinity Careers (∞edu). From self-paced certifications to bootcamps, there’s a whole new world of possibilities that don’t require a college degree. ∞edu taps into that world, and seeks to answer the burning question many have—”how do I get into tech?”

“The real tea,” as Tarlon puts it, is that you can have a lucrative career without going to college. In partnership with LinkedIn Learning, Skillshare, and Coursera, ∞edu “hand selects” the best courses for you to break into the tech world.

The course creators take a brand approach to the curriculum, dissecting job descriptions from top startups to learn what you’d need in order to land a role there. Want to become a Video & Animation Producer at Spotify? ∞edu matches you with courses that may help you achieve that.

Alternatives to higher education may not be the right fit for everyone, but products like ∞edu are likely not going anywhere. We’ve seen other types of products in a similar space— from networking tools based on skills to indie hacker guides — the options grow with the desire for a tech career.

What do you think—is it easier to drop out of school and become dumb rich these days?

Is Instagram’s new update just a test? That’s the billion dollar question as the social media app soft-launches a new user interface, continuing its Tik-Tokification that started with Reels.

Many users already received the update and the response has been full of uproar and dismay. Critics feel the new UI makes it difficult for users to see pictures shared by friends and family. Instead, it focuses on full-screen videos that prioritize discovery (and even ads) from accounts you don’t follow.

On Monday, Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian shared a “Make Instagram Instagram again” post to their stories. The plea, which garnered over 1.1 million likes, calls for Instagram to ditch the new UI. Many are reporting it as a red herring. When Kylie Jenner told the public she no longer uses Snapchat, Snap’s shares plummeted, costing the company $1.3 billion. A nail in the coffin? Maybe not.

It doesn’t look like the pressure will make Instagram crack. Adam Mosserri (Head of Instagram) and his team addressed user feedback in a video Tuesday morning, noting that the update is “not yet good.” Mosseri claims that the full-screen UI is a test for a “few percent” of users. And if you’re most upset by Instagram’s prioritization of videos — we’ve got bad news. While photos will continue to be supported, Mosseri said that the team won’t stop leaning into data indicating videos are the future of the platform.

For those of you who are “evolving” with Mosseri, here are 5 tools to help you lean into video:

• FineCam enhances your iPhone and Windows cameras with unlimited filters, effects, and backgrounds.
• Canva Video Suite has seamless editing tools and customizable video templates.
• Make your videos more accessible with an Auto Subtitle Generator tool.
• Turn long videos into optimized short-form content with Snackable AI.
• This Caption Generator helps brainstorm cool captions for your Instagram posts.

If you’re not feeling Instagram’s video transformation, Glass is an interesting new member-supported photography platform and community.

If Product Hunt ever made a game, it would likely be something like Stray.

The third-person indie adventure game that took the Internet by storm last week follows the story of a homeless cat roaming a robot-filled cyber-punk world. If this isn’t enough to whisk you away, the cat is cute (but equally ferocious) and ginger.

Without giving away too much, it seems like some of the game’s popularity stems from it catering to both hardcore gamers and those of us who can only think of The Sims when we hear video games. The endearing story has players exploring a post-apocalyptic city, as well as completing missions and tasks. Still, you don’t feel the same sense of impending doom as you do with most adventure games. You also get an unlimited number of lives, which leaves you time to take in the enthralling visuals.

Stray was developed by BlueTwelve Studio, an indie game team from the south of France, who spent six years perfecting the storyline, graphics, and meows. Reviewers are raving about it on Metacritic. So are critics. Alyse Stanley, Editor at Washington Post’s Launcher shares that “‘Stray’ is an enrapturing experience, the kind of game that doesn’t leave your brain after the credits roll.“

Maybe one of the best things to come out of Stray’s launch is the number of feline pictures we’ve seen on Twitter. The cat puns, too. Knowing the Internet, seeing an account dedicated to real-life cats being mesmerized by Stray wasn’t that much of a surprise.

Have you played it yet? What did you think? Let us know.

Here’s a meme for you. Little miss started off selling books online and ships your medicine now too.

Amazon's decision to buy One Medical for $3.9B might not come as big of a surprise to those following its strategy. Notorious for reinvesting its revenue in fast-growing areas, it took Amazon seven years to become profitable after its inception. While the company’s interest in the healthcare sector started back in 2018 with PillPack’s acquisition and the launch of Amazon Pharmacy, the One Medical deal will be its third largest, behind Whole Foods and MGM.

If you’re not familiar with One Medical, the primary care provider offers both in-person and 24/7 virtual care that can be covered by your insurance. We saw telehealth’s drastic growth moment when the pandemic first hit. While that seems to have settled now, interesting takes on improving and monitoring your wellbeing from home (or your mobile device) continue to spring up.

Yesterday iollo launched. The FDA-registered kit uses a blood sample to measure 500+ molecules and design a dietary and behavioral plan to help you live healthier. The plan tells you things like how many steps a day your metabolism needs, what types of vegetables you should eat, and what supplements to take based on your deficiencies.

Makers include a Computational Biology research fellow at Stanford, a Cornell University Professor in Computational Biomedicine, and the former co-founder of YC-backed Circle Medical, an in-person and virtual primary care clinic.

One of the biggest concerns with Amazon’s medical products and products like iollo is how your data is shared. Maker Brent LaRue assured that the company doesn't share your data — “Your information, results, and recommendations will never be shared with employers or insurance companies.”

As for Amazon, One Medical will still be required to comply with HIPAA and other applicable laws, but if it still feels sus that little miss has all of your info, you’re not alone.

BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) has been a topic of contention. The service is aka point-of-sale loans, which you can find all over eCommerce sites these days thanks to providers like Affirm, Afterpay, and Klarna. Even a $17.30 pair of jeans at Forever21 can be split up into four payments of $5.77.

BNPL has its benefits (it funds this writer’s Peloton without interest). The problem is it’s a little too convenient and younger generations are paying the price — over and over again with little payments that add up to big debt. BNPL constituted 91% of consumer loans in California in 2020. Gen Z is “spending 925% more now through point-of-sale services than in January 2020.”

The controversy we’ve seen over BNPL has been appropriately focused on the consumer space. Credit companies have always been subject to regulation to protect consumers, but point-of-sale, tech-supported loans are so new that many governments are only now tackling its downsides.

But what about BNPL for business? tranch’s launch in this space caught our eye earlier this week. At a basic level, the model seems much less problematic for companies — decision-makers are more experienced with defined budgets.

tranch offers an embedded BNPL solution for SaaS companies. This means businesses can get paid upfront and offer their customers flexibility for larger payments.

tranch got its start after co-founder Philip Kelvin realized while working as a CFO that payment options were lacking — “all offline, all painful.” In addition to enabling online payments that you can spread out, tranch lets businesses use their account to fund other large invoices with suppliers.

The community had their interest piqued by the concept, many noting its potential for SaaS companies and agencies who work with startups and SMBs. The makers at tranch closed a pre-seed earlier this year and joined YC’s Summer 2022 cohort, so things are starting to heat up.

What do you think of BNPL for business?

You’d think taking on a giant like Google in the quest for a better search engine is crazy. Yet, plenty of ambitious start-ups are doing it anyway. Neeva and DuckDuckGo, for instance, tackle the issue of privacy, while Ecosia donates 80% of its profits to planting trees.

What’s more interesting is how search has evolved over time. Ten years ago you’d get most of your answers from Google or Bing. Given the insane amounts of content being produced now, we’re not surprised to see people resort to TikTok and other creator platforms to get their questions answered. According to Insider and Google’s Knowledge & Information team, “nearly half of Gen Z is using TikTok and Instagram for search instead of Google” when looking for a spot to eat. Mark Zuckerberg also announced today Instagram is introducing a searchable map to make it easier to find popular locations.

VC firm a16z’s Future adds an interesting point into the mix, arguing that “the opportunity in search is not to attack Google head-on with a massive, one-size-fits-all horizontal aggregator, but instead to build boutique search engines that index, curate, and organize things in new ways.”

That’s what the You.com team is doing with YouCode. Founded by two former AI scientists at Salesforce, this new launch is a spin-off from its core search engine. YouCode is aimed at developers and makes it easier to discover, copy, generate code snippets, and answer coding questions.

Naturally, there’s an AI element to it, too. YouCode can generate code with Code Complete, an AI-powered coding tool that writes code using a neural network language model – think Smart Compose in Gmail.

What’s your take? Is Google fine as is or does search need disruption?

If you were on the Internet in the early-2000s, you know the grip that LimeWire had on music listeners across the globe. What started out as a file-sharing software ended up being a god-send for those looking to download music and movies without paying a cent (aka, illegally). LimeWire was the it girl, up until several lawsuits forced the owners to shut down. The demise of LimeWire was met with lots of dismay, but now it's back. Meet the new LimeWire: a music NFT marketplace.

LimeWire’s return comes during a time of uncertainty for the future of NFTs. The market has seen several downturns this past year, but that hasn’t put a damper on new owners Julian and Paul Zehetmayr’s goals. They purchased LimeWire’s intellectual property a year ago, and have been crafting the company’s comeback ever since. Just as the OG LimeWire served as a place to easily access music, the new LimeWire looks to make the world of NFTs accessible to music enthusiasts, and empower artists and creators. Unlike many NFT marketplaces, LimeWire users can use a credit card to purchase NFTs.

“We want to bring the NFT world to the mainstream and to people who aren’t into that right now,” said Ivis Buric, Chief Communications Officer at LimeWire. “NFTs aren’t just another buzzword—they can bring benefits to people’s lives.”

The folks at LimeWire are tapping into two markets that are often confusing and filled with barriers to access—the music industry and the crypto/NFT space. For musicians dealing with income limitations due to pesky record deals, LimeWire presents an opportunity for artists to add another revenue stream to their roster. For the average music fan, LimeWire hopes to clear the path for NFT ownership.

As Buric puts it, the new LimeWire is about “giving more power to people, especially artists and creators. It’s about getting paid, creating new projects, and having ownership of your work.” LimeWire will outcompete Spotify in terms of artist compensation, offering much more revenue to artists than the streaming platform does.

And don’t worry, this time, LimeWire is partnering with record labels like Universal Music Group to propel its efforts and hopefully, avoid another legal showdown.

Will you channel your early-2000s nostalgia and use the new LimeWire?

We’re a little more than halfway through the year and have already seen tons of cool developments in the world of AI. It might seem like many of these are the result of the metaverse craze the social media giant ignited at the end of last year. In reality, a lot of the bigger projects like OpenAI’s DALL-E 2, Codex, Google’s Imagen, or Meta’s latest No Language Left Behind have likely been years in the making.

The topic of AI is a hot one already. Recent claims from one Google engineer arguing that the AI he was working on became sentient aren’t putting minds at ease either. While most of us can’t get our hands on these (somewhat) dystopian programs, makers have found day-to-day use cases for AI that remove some of the manual work and let you focus on the high-impact things instead.

ICYMI, Copilot by Github x OpenAI is now available for all developers to suggest code and entire functions in real-time.

Slogan Generator creates a catchy one-liner for your business from a short description you input.

Typeform launched Relayed, a tool that captures real conversations (via async talking or a meeting import) and summarizes them to help your team stay up to date.

Code Language Converter uses AI to convert code snippets from one programing language to another. Similarly, AutoRegex uses OpenAI's GPT-3 to produce regular expressions from plain English.

Also using OpenAI, this tool suggests namings for your GitHub repositories.

Octie.ai is a free marketing assistant that writes emails, product descriptions, social media captions, and subject lines for you.

What did we miss?