Trends Podcast

Hosted by Trends.vc, Dru Riley

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Oct 2026

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Find your next business idea before it's obvious. Spot the markets growing right now, who's making money in them, how they got in and where the openings still are. We're your smart friends doing the homework for you. Get what matters without spending hours on research. You're in great company with 50,000+ founders finding new opportunities. Press play and let's see what's trending!

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33 recent

October 17, 2026Episode 334 min

What The Hell Is Jarvie? The $8.3M AI in Your Group Chat

ChatGPT can plan a trip in a group chat and forget it a month later. Jarvie raised $8.3 million to build the group chat AI that remembers. The opening for a small company is one kind of group that plans the same thing each week, like the parents on a youth sports team. Featuring: Jarvie, Shapes, Series, Continua, Instinct, Lightspeed Watch on YouTube Read the full report Brought to you by: Trends.vc : Discover new markets and opportunities. HeadsUp : Know when your competitors move. Before your customers do. Multi : Turn any content into a YouTube video. Chapters: (00:00) ChatGPT forgets the trip it planned (00:09) Jarvie raises $8.3M (00:43) What Jarvie is (01:31) Who else is betting on group chat AI (02:46) Build for one kind of group (03:47) Instinct is already in these chats (04:01) Pick your group Where to find Trends.vc: Get the free Trends.vc newsletter Find your next profitable market with Trends Pro Watch new markets broken down on YouTube Follow the Trends Podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify Subscribe to the Trends Podcast for a new market every week. Click here to view the episode transcript.

October 16, 2026Episode 324 min

The Biggest Lie You've Been Told About AI Agents

Testers cut the AI assistant Instinct off from their email and it kept summarizing their inbox anyway. The fastest-moving agents ask for less of you, and freelancers chasing late invoices are the buyer Paraglide skips. Featuring: Instinct, TechCrunch, Accenture, Wajo, Google, Meta, Stripe, Shop Pay, Ollie, Vellum, Paraglide, Invoice Ninja, FreshBooks, InvoiceWatchr, Upwork Watch on YouTube Read the full report Brought to you by: Trends.vc : Discover new markets and opportunities. HeadsUp : Know when your competitors move. Before your customers do. Multi : Turn any content into a YouTube video. Chapters: (00:00) Testers switched off Instinct's email access (00:17) The biggest lie about AI agents, and the 9% who'd trust one (01:06) Why agents ask for your inbox, card and login (01:31) Your email and your card: Fo, Gemini Spark and Meta's Muse (02:50) Your passwords: Ollie and Vellum (03:37) Freelancers chasing late invoices (04:33) The one-line pitch Where to find Trends.vc: Get the free Trends.vc newsletter Find your next profitable market with Trends Pro Watch new markets broken down on YouTube Follow the Trends Podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify Subscribe to the Trends Podcast for a new market every week. Click here to view the episode transcript.

October 14, 2026Episode 315 min

I Studied a $15M Run Rate AI Startup Built in 3 Months

Viktor, an AI coworker a team shares in its chat app, went from launch to a $15 million run rate in three months, and Slack has announced an agent of its own. Agencies that keep a separate chat with each client are the opening for a small company. Featuring: Viktor, AlphaSignal, Accel, Slack, Pylon, ClearFeed Watch on YouTube Read the full report Brought to you by: Trends.vc : Discover new markets and opportunities. HeadsUp : Know when your competitors move. Before your customers do. Multi : Turn any content into a YouTube video. Chapters: (00:00) $15M a year in three months (00:13) What Viktor is (00:37) How one quiet install spread across a team (02:01) Accel's $75M round and the run rate (02:23) Slack tried bots once, then built its own agent (03:05) The agency opportunity (05:00) How to start Where to find Trends.vc: Get the free Trends.vc newsletter Find your next profitable market with Trends Pro Watch new markets broken down on YouTube Follow the Trends Podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify Subscribe to the Trends Podcast for a new market every week. Click here to view the episode transcript.

October 13, 2026Episode 305 min

AI Is Replacing Accountability Partners (How I'd Build One)

Tomo signed tens of thousands of people paying about $20 a month for an AI that texts them before they skip. With Photon and the open-source Hermes agent, one person could build a coach like it for one goal, starting with marathon training. Featuring: Tomo, Bain Capital Ventures, Instinct, OpenAI, Poppy, Photon, Hermes, Iris, TechCrunch, Apple, Meta, Martin Watch on YouTube Read the full report Brought to you by: Trends.vc : Discover new markets and opportunities. HeadsUp : Know when your competitors move. Before your customers do. Multi : Turn any content into a YouTube video. Chapters: (00:00) The 7am text that checks in before you skip (00:41) Tens of thousands pay Tomo $19.99 a month (01:43) Texting first has failed before: Pulse and Poppy (02:16) A marathon runner and an unopened spreadsheet (02:54) Photon and Hermes make it cheap to build (03:28) How I'd build one in five steps (04:16) Own the email, meter the texts Where to find Trends.vc: Get the free Trends.vc newsletter Find your next profitable market with Trends Pro Watch new markets broken down on YouTube Follow the Trends Podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify Subscribe to the Trends Podcast for a new market every week. Click here to view the episode transcript.

October 12, 2026Episode 295 min

The 23-Year-Old Building a $10 Billion AI You Text

Noah Shinn's free assistant, Instinct, texts you before you ask, and investors valued it at $10 billion 33 days after a $2.5 billion round. Real-estate agents who earn from past clients are a buyer a small team could sell a version of it to now. Featuring: Noah Shinn, Instinct, Sequoia, Benchmark, OpenAI, Meta, Sierra, Structurely, Compass, Martin Tobias Watch on YouTube Read the full report Brought to you by: Trends.vc : Discover new markets and opportunities. HeadsUp : Know when your competitors move. Before your customers do. Multi : Turn any content into a YouTube video. Chapters: (00:00) A free AI worth $10 billion at 23 (00:59) ChatGPT waits. Instinct texts first. (02:32) What testers found in their email (02:58) About $1 billion in purchases a year (03:29) Who pays for this help today (04:26) The morning text a small team could sell (05:14) What Instinct's investors are betting on Where to find Trends.vc: Get the free Trends.vc newsletter Find your next profitable market with Trends Pro Watch new markets broken down on YouTube Follow the Trends Podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify Subscribe to the Trends Podcast for a new market every week. Click here to view the episode transcript.

October 7, 2026Episode 287 min

The Opportunity I See in Amazon Blocking Meta’s AI Agent

Amazon locked Meta's new shopping agent, Muse, out of its store twelve days after launch, and Shopify opened about a million stores to it the next day. The brands those agents skip are the opening. Featuring: Meta, Amazon, Shopify, ReFiBuy, Azoma, Mark Zuckerberg, Tobi Lütke, Ben Thompson Watch on YouTube Read the full report Brought to you by: Trends.vc : Discover new markets and opportunities. HeadsUp : Know when your competitors move. Before your customers do. Multi : Turn any content into a YouTube video. Chapters: (00:00) Amazon locks out Meta's agent (00:50) Muse at checkout, on camera (01:44) Why Amazon blocked it (03:20) Shopify opens a million stores (04:09) Why an agent skips a product (04:54) Who pays to get picked today (05:42) The opportunity for small brands Where to find Trends.vc: Get the free Trends.vc newsletter Find your next profitable market with Trends Pro Watch new markets broken down on YouTube Follow the Trends Podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify Subscribe to the Trends Podcast for a new market every week. Click here to view the episode transcript.

October 2, 2026Episode 272 min

The $1,000,000,000 Puzzle Game

A game where pigs ride a conveyor belt made its 20-person Istanbul studio worth more than $1 billion. How Pixel Flow went from a paper-and-pen test to more than a million dollars a day, and why Scopely bought in. Featuring: Kübra Gündoğan, Emre Çelik, Loom Games, Pixel Flow, Scopely Watch on YouTube Read the full report Brought to you by: Trends.vc : Discover new markets and opportunities. HeadsUp : Know when your competitors move. Before your customers do. Multi : Turn any content into a YouTube video. Chapters: (00:00) Pigs on a conveyor belt and a $1B deal (00:26) Loom Games and its founders (00:39) Tested on paper first (00:54) How Pixel Flow makes money (01:05) Going all in (01:24) A million dollars a day (01:54) Copies and a new beginning Where to find Trends.vc: Get the free Trends.vc newsletter Find your next profitable market with Trends Pro Watch new markets broken down on YouTube Follow the Trends Podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify Subscribe to the Trends Podcast for a new market every week. Click here to view the episode transcript.

October 1, 2026Episode 264 min

Roblox Just Copied the AI Game Startups I Mapped

A Roblox game about stealing eggs from pets hit six billion visits in nine weeks, three days before Roblox let players type a game into its phone app. Why the startups that sold that prompt box first now sell playable ads to online shops instead. Featuring: Roblox, Steal An Egg, Astrocade, AppLovin, Adam Foroughi, Playables AI, Rosebud Watch on YouTube Read the full report Brought to you by: Trends.vc : Discover new markets and opportunities. HeadsUp : Know when your competitors move. Before your customers do. Multi : Turn any content into a YouTube video. Chapters: (00:00) A kid types a game into Roblox Build (00:38) Who can make and play Build games (00:52) Steal An Egg and Roblox's discovery system (01:50) Crab Game and the browser link (02:37) Shops that want an ad people can play (03:09) Playable ads and who builds them (03:37) The opportunity: playable ads for shops Where to find Trends.vc: Get the free Trends.vc newsletter Find your next profitable market with Trends Pro Watch new markets broken down on YouTube Follow the Trends Podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify Subscribe to the Trends Podcast for a new market every week. Click here to view the episode transcript.

September 29, 2026Episode 254 min

The $100 Game: The AI App That Pays You to Make Games

A Squid Game knockoff typed into a prompt box hit 3.5 million plays in four weeks on Astrocade, an app that pays makers $100 when it picks their game and then pays on plays. What that feed pays, what it said about a $10 million creator fund and what can take the money away. Featuring: Astrocade, Roblox, Rec Room, Sequoia, David Cahn, Lovable, Bolt, Unity Watch on YouTube Read the full report Brought to you by: Trends.vc : Discover new markets and opportunities. HeadsUp : Know when your competitors move. Before your customers do. Multi : Turn any content into a YouTube video. Chapters: (00:00) Crab Game and its seven trials (00:47) The $100 rule and the feed (01:23) From paying for engines to getting paid (02:05) Crab Game against the payout bar (02:34) Copies, Squid Game and changing pay (03:16) Rec Room and why feeds pay makers (04:09) Where to start Where to find Trends.vc: Get the free Trends.vc newsletter Find your next profitable market with Trends Pro Watch new markets broken down on YouTube Follow the Trends Podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify Subscribe to the Trends Podcast for a new market every week. Click here to view the episode transcript.

September 22, 2026Episode 245 min

I Investigated the AI Astrology Business

Faladdin sells a million coffee-cup readings a day out of Istanbul at about 90% margin. The buyer rates the reading on how they felt when it ended, so a model that never met them can do the job. The business that survives the regulators is the one that says on the page what the reading is. Featuring: Faladdin, AstroSage, Nebula, Astrotalk, Co-Star, FTC Watch on YouTube Read the full report Brought to you by: Trends.vc : Discover new markets and opportunities. HeadsUp : Know when your competitors move. Before your customers do. Multi : Turn any content into a YouTube video. Chapters: (00:00) Sertaç Taşdelen learns to read coffee cups from his mother (01:44) A million readings a day, ahead of Tinder in Turkey (02:09) AstroSage rates its AI above its 700,000 human astrologers (02:40) Turkish police, a 1925 statute and the seized accounts (03:17) The FTC freezes Nebula over a $45 renewal (03:38) Why the category grades itself on stars (04:14) What the version that survives says on the page Where to find Trends.vc: Get the free Trends.vc newsletter Find your next profitable market with Trends Pro Watch new markets broken down on YouTube Follow the Trends Podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify Subscribe to the Trends Podcast for a new market every week.