Newsletter #24: Shopify news, AI augmented humans and Hip Hop Symphonique

Hi there,

I hope you're feeling amazing.

We have officially entered the last month of 2023. It’s time for me to start reflecting on the year.

How was it professionally? Personally? Did I achieve the goals I set for myself? Most importantly, do I feel happy?

One thing I can say: 2023 was a rollercoaster!

It’s the year I sold my shares in my first Shopify app, launched a second one (with a great friend who also turned out to be a great business partner), ran workshops for Shopify France, launched this weekly newsletter, joined a team, reached milestones of 3K followers on Twitter and… 1M+ impressions on LinkedIn!

The most important thing is that I’ve learnt a lot this year.

I will soon publish an article summarizing my journey through 2023: successes, failures, deviations from plans, lessons learned and how I’m approaching 2024.

In today's edition, we're discussing Shopify news, AI augmented humans and Hip Hop Symphonique.

Let's dive in.

Work

Let’s shake up the Work section a bit. Today I’ll cover several topics, for a change.

I spotted a few things happening in the Shopify ecosystem lately and I’d like to share them all with you.

• Karl Meisterheim (founder of the Liquid Weekly newsletter) and Taylor Page (Freelance Shopify Expert) have launched the Liquid Weekly podcast.

In the 9th episode, Karl and Taylor discussed with Jan Frey about the importance of building a personal brand.

Learn more by watching the episode on YouTube.

• Liam Griffin, Senior Developer Advocate at Shopify, sponsored 5 developers who are actively sharing their expertise and resources with their peers

These 5 developers are Jeffrey Guenther, Harshdeep Singh Hura, Panoply, Kirill Platonov and Gil Greenberg.

You can (re)discover their work in Liam’s thread here.

These sponsorships are Liam’s personal actions and are 100% independent of his role at Shopify.

I wonder if Shopify will follow his lead on this and sponsor developers as well. What do you think? Should they?

• The French entrepreneur Shanty Baehrel just sold her company Shanty Biscuits

Shanty began baking biscuits in her kitchen for her friends. On her birthday, she was offered a little tool to add words to her biscuits. That marked the inception of Shanty Biscuits, a brand founded in 2013 and renowned for its amusing personalized biscuits.

Shanty is particularly famous for her marketing on social media, always having a nice word to bring a smile. She is also an inspirational figure for women and girls aspiring to create their own company.

I discovered Shanty in 2018 on the French podcast Generation XX hosted by Siham Jibril, and I have been following her journey ever since.

The sale of Shanty Biscuits raises interesting questions. How does it feel to sell the company you’ve worked on for 10 years? Shanty was the face and the name of the brand. Which techniques can the new owner implement to ensure the brand still thrives without her?

Lastly, when do you know it’s the right time to sell?

In her LinkedIn post announcing the news, Shanty wrote: “I had the feeling of reaching the end of what I had to bring to Shanty Biscuits, having ticked all the boxes, no longer having the strength, not being the right person anymore, going around in circles, and having other things to do with my life and offer to the world.”

It seems evident that it was the right time for Shanty. I wish her all the best!

Inspire

In the season 1 of the brilliant British anthology TV show “Black Mirror”, which aired in 2011, my favorite episode was the third one. It stayed with me for years.

This episode’s title was “The Entire History of You”. It was set in a future where an under-the-skin technology recorded people’s audiovisual senses, allowing them to re-watch their memories.

This future is now a reality today.

One example of this is an app called Rewind.

Rewind is described as a “personalized AI powered by everything you’ve seen, said, or heard”.

Once installed on your Mac, it runs in the background to capture your screen and audio. It compresses, transcribes, encrypts and stores your data locally. You can then ask Rewind anything: “What did this person tell me last week?” or “What was the most important thing in that video?” and so on.

Rewind effectively becomes your second brain, ensuring no memory is ever forgotten.

Even more concerning: this type of technology allows for the imitation of someone’s way of talking. We could realistically imagine conversing with an AI that impersonates a loved one who has passed away. Some companies have already built prototypes of such services. Again, “Black Mirror” had an episode around this specific use case: “Be Right Back” (Season 2 Episode 1).

But is it really something we want?

In his latest video, the French YouTuber Léo Duff (500K+ subscribers) presented excellent insights:

What are your thoughts on this?

Learn more by discovering Rewind’s website, watching Léo Duff’s video on YouTube and “Black Mirror” on Netflix.

Explore

Last weekend, I went to Nantes to see some good friends.

We played pool, bowling, ate truffle pasta and watched music videos on a TV bigger than me. A perfect weekend!

One of these videos was from the 4th edition of a concerts series called “Hip Hop Symphonique”.

The concept is to have a rapper sing with a symphony orchestra.

How wonderful!

I particulary enjoyed the one where the French rapper Ninho sang “La vie qu’on mène”, the famous song from his album “Destin” released in 2019.

Enjoy.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for reading this edition until the end.

I'll talk to you soon.

Take good care of yourself.

Coralie