Smashing

Smashing, operating under the legal entity Daily Reader Labs Inc., was a content curation platform designed to address content overload and social media burnout. The company was founded in 2021 by a team with a strong background in technology and media: Otis Chandler, the co-founder and CEO of Goodreads (acquired by Amazon); Greg Veen, who co-founded Typekit (acquired by Adobe) and MeasureMap (acquired by Google); Michael Mraz, with experience at Condé Nast and Hearst; and Dan Barrett, a software architect. The platform's goal was to deliver a personalized daily compilation of articles, podcasts, and other content.

Smashing's core functionality revolved around a two-pronged approach to content discovery. It utilized a community of human curators to upvote content, generating a "Worthwhile Score." This human-powered curation was then combined with a personalized AI relevancy score to tailor the feed to each user's specific interests. The initial invite-only public beta focused on topics such as AI, startups, climate, health and wellness, parenting, investing, and crypto. The service was accessible through an iOS mobile app.

The San Francisco-based company raised $3.4 million in a seed funding round in June 2024. The round was led by True Ventures, Offline Ventures, Blockchange, and Advancit Capital, with participation from several angel investors. Despite this financial backing, Smashing ceased operations in April 2025 due to challenges in scaling the platform and achieving the necessary growth to sustain its operations.

Keywords: content curation, news aggregation, personalized news, AI-powered content, community-driven content, content discovery, digital media, Otis Chandler, Goodreads founder, Daily Reader Labs, content overload, social media burnout, article curation, podcast curation, personalized feed, human curation, AI relevancy, seed funding, venture capital, startup closure