AI-curated daily news brief for smart, busy people
Hackathon MVP at CMU, now a live product with zero unsubscribes.
AI reads the news overnight. You get one role-specific brief at 7 AM.
Context
Built solo at Prodhacks, a week-long CMU hackathon. Still shipping.
The Problem
Feeds optimize for clicks, not clarity.
6
sources checked weekly
2+ hrs
daily on social feeds
US adults · industry research
The full system, solo: Product, pipeline, brand.
Nightly pipeline: 90+ RSS feeds, 29 topics Role-specific "For You" insights per reader Four depths: Quick Scan, Tactical, Strategic, Deep Reading Timezone-aware 7 AM delivery
Product Approach
→Pull, not push.
→Clarity over clicks. Signal over volume.
→One brief replaces 5 to 6 newsletters.
Outcomes
357
opens, week one
114
link click-throughs
0
unsubscribes
$0
marketing spend
Bulletyn · email analytics · week 1 · 13 subscribers · 100% delivery
Live at readbulletyn.com.
Research & Validation
The gap in the market
The pain isn't reading. The pain is filtering.
Every interview landed in the same place: People need signal, not more content.
What We Heard
Bulletyn · discovery interviews · Prodhacks 2026
→Users want their news, not the news.
User Journey
The broken loop before Bulletyn
Intent
Wants to stay informed.
Hunt
Jumps across apps and aggregators.
Fatigue
Filters noise by hand. Gives up.
Hunt, filter, repeat, every day.
→One structured delivery, every morning.
System Architecture
Three stages, each an internal gate
1. Ingest & Cache
Nightly cron scans 90+ feeds. Quality filters keep only high-signal articles.
2. Enrich & Personalize
Role-specific "For You" insights per subscriber. Pre-rendered, zero AI calls at send time.
3. Deliver at 7 AM
Checks every 10 minutes for local 7 AM. Pre-built briefs ship via email.
Tech Stack
Market Context
Adjacent innovation in a proven market
NYT and Substack proved people pay for curation. Bulletyn makes existing subscriptions worth having.
Type of Innovation
Adjacent innovation
Trusted journalism stays. AI solves integration, not content.
vs. the Competition
Morning Brew
General businessSame content for everyone.
TLDR
Tech-focusedWhat happened, not why it matters to you.
Google News / Social Feeds
Algorithm-drivenMore articles, not better ones. Engagement-optimized.
Bulletyn
Role-specificPer-reader, per-topic AI insight, at multiple depths, every morning.
Go-to-Market
Concentric circles, starting where feedback density is highest.
Community First
Build with users who synthesize information daily.
Peer-Driven Growth
Colleague recommendations beat paid channels.
Enterprise Layer
Per-seat B2B turns a personal brief into a team productivity tool.
Business Model
Capital-efficient with SaaS-grade margins
Free Tier
Core brief, limited topics.
Premium
Full customization, deeper analysis, every reading format.
Enterprise
Briefs scoped to company and team context.
Pre-rendering separates AI compute from delivery. Margins improve with scale.
Personalization is the product.
The moat is knowing what a story means for this reader, in this role, right now.