Category: Personal finances

Now that so many professional interactions happen over video from home, there’s demand for home decor that’s more interesting than a blank white wall, but not distracting or tacky. Pampas grass is affordable, minimalist, and big enough to be visible on a small screen. With consumers stuck inside, reminders of the outdoors are at a…

SMM panels, tools for buying fake social media engagement, are on the rise for surprising reasons. To be clear, the direct economic value of this activity is negligible—since the followers are fake and don’t spend money. It turns out that it’s not brands who are buying these services most, but the freelancers they hire. As…

Reedsy is a marketplace specifically for publishing talent, including editors, designers, and ghostwriters. In addition to its specialized freelance marketplace, Reedsy also has a handful of publishing tools. As of this writing, the site has over 2,800 contractors. Since the launch in 2014, over 15,000 books have been launched using Reedsy talent. While Reedsy doesn’t…

Teamflow is a video-based workplace collaboration software designed to simulate the office environment virtually. Each team member has their own “video bubble” on a virtual office floor plan. And can “move around” to hear what others are saying around that bubble. Besides a Zoom-like video communication tool, Teamflow also has team collaboration features, like screen-sharing,…

As lights get cheaper and more widespread (LED prices dropped nearly 98% over the past decade alone), darkness is turning into a luxury: 99% of the population experiences a noticeable level of light pollution, and it’s rising at around 2% per year. Already, one-third of the global population cannot see the Milky Way. Abundant screens…

Word-of-mouth and social media are powerful drivers of product adoption, but what about products that people don’t want to talk or post about? Menstrual cups have been rising in popularity compared to tampons and pads. On the one hand, reusable cups aren’t the ongoing moneymakers that disposable products like tampons and pads are; on the…

While it may seem like the rise of Tattoo Numbing cream would be driven by consumers, businesses are creatively using the product to cut costs and increase profits in surprising ways. Tattoo numbing cream reduces the pain barrier to getting tattoos, expanding the market size. And since customers often ask their tattoo artist to take…

Lemon is a platform for finding software developers to work on specific projects. Formerly known as “Coding Ninjas”, the site claims to match startups to a suitable developer in 24 hours or less. There are more than 350 vetted on-demand developers on the platform. And the top freelancers make roughly $6K per month. Devs are…

Searches for cocktail smokers have more than doubled since we first covered them in March. And demand looks set to overtake the previous winter peak later this year. A cocktail smoker is a device for injecting smoke into cocktail drinks. Specifically, the device burns wood chips, which pipes smoke through to a glass box. This…

In the 1880s, people used wheeled shacks called “bathing machines” to give themselves a private enclosure at the beach. Now there’s a more compact option: the changing robe, also known as the surf poncho. As the latter name makes clear, these were originally pioneered by surfers. A pain point often faced by surfers is getting…