Community | University 

Sept 18, 2025

Hello, GrowthHackers! 

Welcome to your daily unfair advantage.

Every morning, we cut through the noise to bring you sharp insights, fast news, and fresh sparks to light up your brain and fuel your hustle. From scrappy hacks to big tech moves, AI shifts to culture flips—this is your intel to stay ahead, move fast, and break boring.

Think of it as your growth-fueled espresso shot.
Short. Smart. Addictive.

Let’s dive in.👇

Quick Hits

1. Turning AI Designs into Branded Elements
   (AI can draft, but brand makes it land.)

2. YouTube Launches AI Stickers for Shorts, Polls for Live
   (Engagement is the new currency XD )

3. LinkedIn Expands Access to Company Page Verification
   (Trust is now a growth channel.)

The Growth joke of the day

Ran out of ad budget on Thursday…
So now my Friday strategy is called organic growth. 🌱

What's New in Growth Hacking/Growth Marketing?

Strategies

• Google Discover Adds Social Media Posts & Follow Buttons

  Google enhances Discover feed by allowing direct follows and embedding content from Instagram, X, and YouTube Shorts. This presents a big opportunity for organic social visibility in web discovery key for digital marketing strategies.

• LLM Rankings: The New Battleground
  Once upon a time, backlinks ruled the kingdom. An army of SEO agencies was busy buying, swapping, and manufacturing links (they still are). Google rewarded them handsomely.

• Airbuds is the music social network Apple and Spotify wish they had built

  Airbuds drives viral growth with widget-based passive music sharing. Innovative invite-based feature unlocking and Gen Z-focused social features like “ghost mode” and emoji reactions signal smart growth hacking design strategies.

• Google Discover Tests Showing X Posts From Just Your Followers?

  Google Discover may be showing X posts (formerly Twitter tweets) from accounts you follow and not from other accounts that you do not follow. Discover has shown X/Twitter posts for a while now, on occasion, but I didn't know Google could show X posts from only accounts you follow.

• AI models know when they're being tested  and change their behavior, research shows.
  New joint safety testing from UK-based nonprofit Apollo Research and OpenAI set out to reduce secretive behaviors like scheming in AI models. What researchers found could complicate promising approaches to solving that problem.

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People

• Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank Defends Micromanagement and
  80-20 Rule
  Kevin Plank, Under Armour's returning CEO, defends micromanagement as an underestimated tool for cutting pretense and speeding decisions amid declining sales and competition from Nike and Adidas.

3-Minute News Bulletin with
Growth Hackers

This week's 🙌 News Bulletin explores:
AI Innovations Reshape Business, Marketing, and Digital Platforms

🚀 This Week in Growth: AI Innovations Reshape Business, Marketing, and Digital Platforms

AI is rewriting the growth playbook across platforms, marketing, and business strategy. This week, GrowthRocks officially launched GrowthOS, our proprietary growth platform that integrates AI agents, APIs, and analytics into one frictionless loop for marketers.

In Silicon Valley, reinforcement learning labs are shaping the next generation of real-world AI agents, while OpenAI introduces new safeguards for minors using ChatGPT. Impulse Space is taking disruption orbital with same-day satellite delivery, and D-ID’s acquisition of Simpleshow signals a surge in enterprise AI video.

On the creator side, YouTube rolls out global tools for content ideation, dubbing, and identity protection, while Meta evolves WhatsApp ads into conversation-first funnels. Meanwhile, Google updates its Search Quality Rater Guidelines, putting the spotlight on quality over quantity no matter if content is human or AI-generated.

What's New in Artificial Intelligence (AI) 

• Meta unveils new smart glasses with a display and wristband controller
  Meta on Wednesday unveiled a new pair of Ray-Ban branded smart glasses with a built-in display for apps, alerts, and directions on the right lens. The smart glasses are controlled by a wristband that picks up on subtle hand gestures, called Meta Neural Band, the same one it unveiled at last year’s Connect as part of its Orion demo.

• Meet Macroscope: an AI tool for understanding your code base, fixing bugs
  The founders who previously sold their livestreaming video startup Periscope to Twitter are back with a new startup  and no surprise, it’s an AI-focused company this time around.

These Are The Skills That Could Actually Build You Wealth

“Almost no one in the history of the Forbes list has gotten there with a salary. You get rich by owning things.” – Sam Altman

The future he’s building won’t reward budgeting hacks… It’ll reward ownership.

That’s why we created Main Street Millionaire Live, a 3-day virtual event designed to teach the “ownership stack”:

• Sept. 19th: Deal Sourcing

• Sept. 20th: Financing & Negotiation

• Sept. 21st: Ownership & Scaling

Whether you’re in a W-2, looking to buy your first business, or already own one, this event gives you the tools, tactics, and network to accelerate your path (at a very low cost). Plus, you’ll get $1k+ worth of digital products, just for showing up.

Most people coast into the end of the year. Owners play offense. The only question is: how will you spend yours?

Grab Your Ticket Here