A Tough Break for Smashing

In the ever-evolving tech landscape, creating a successful app aimed at aggregating news and social media content is no easy feat. Unfortunately, Smashing, the ambitious AI-powered app founded by Goodreads' creator, Otis Chandler, is shutting its doors, unable to achieve the rapid growth necessary for survival.

The Dream That Didn't Take Flight

Launched just last June, Smashing sought to revolutionize how users consume news by allowing them to curate content from a myriad of sources including articles, blog posts, and social media. The app encouraged community engagement with features like interest following, content submission, and user-voting on relevance, combined with AI-driven summaries and an intelligent bot for queries.

Lessons Learned from Closure

In an email to its users, the company candidly admitted, "We simply didn’t grow fast enough to keep going. We weren’t able to scale it into a sustainable product." With a small team of just seven employees and backing of $3.4 million from noteworthy investors, including True Ventures and several angel investors, the aspirations for Smashing were high.

The Future of News Aggregation

Despite the setback, hope exists in the form of other burgeoning startups committed to tackling the same challenge. Innovative players like Bulletin and Particle offer AI-powered news reading experiences, while feed aggregator apps like Feeeed, Tapestry, and Reeder are evolving to meet the demands of a diverse audience.

A Cautionary Tale

Smashing's closure serves as a reminder of the intense competition and challenges facing new tech solutions in the crowded news and information space. As the appetite for curated content grows, only the most agile and well-backed platforms are likely to thrive.