Community | University 

Jan 20, 2026

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. One of the first alternative app stores in the EU is shutting down
   (Turns out ‘alternative’ still needs users.)

2. Netflix is rolling out a live voting feature
   (Netflix said: what if you ruined the plot?)

3. Well, there goes the metaverse!
   (RIP avatars, long live agents.)

The Growth joke of the day

Why did the sales rep love Netflix’s new live voting feature?
Because finally… the prospect had to pick an option.

What's New in Growth Hacking/Growth Marketing?

Strategies

• WordPress AI Team Head: SEO for AI Agents

  James LePage (Automattic) shares that AI agents depend on classic SEO: structured data, semantic density, interlinking; optimizing for AI is about organizing content for agentic consumption and represents the next growth opportunity for publishers.

• Meta’s Oversight Board takes up permanent bans in landmark case

  Meta’s Oversight Board is tackling a case focused on Meta’s ability to permanently disable user accounts. Permanent bans are a drastic action, locking people out of their profiles, memories, friend connections, and, in the case of creators and businesses, their ability to market and communicate with fans and customers.

• Meta Outlines How It’s Improved Reels Recommendations

  Meta has published a new overview of how it’s working to improve your Reels recommendations, by using user response surveys to better gauge which elements are driving interest and engagement.

• AI startup Humans& raises $480 million at $4.5 billion valuation in seed round
  AI startup Humans&, founded by former OpenAI, Alphabet ​and xAI researchers, has raised $480 million in a seed financing ‌round, which values the company at $4.48 billion. The outsized seed round highlights intense investor interest in next-generation AI labs founded by veteran researchers as companies race to build systems that ‌go beyond chatbots and agentic tools.

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People

• Google's John Mueller: Free subdomain hosting makes SEO & growth much harder

  John Mueller explains that free subdomain services attract spam, hurt SEO potential, and place legitimate sites in bad “neighborhoods,” challenging growth marketers starting new sites.

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What's New in Artificial Intelligence (AI) 

• Rogue agents and shadow AI: Why VCs are betting big on AI security

  VCs invest in AI security due to incidents with rogue AI agents in enterprises. Witness AI raises $58M as AI threats, agent risks, and "shadow AI" force companies to monitor, govern, and scale secure AI adoption.

• Scientists unveil crawling robot hand that can grasp multiple objects
  Scientists have developed a new detachable, crawling, and grasping robot hand. This compact innovation offers sophisticated motor abilities for various industrial and other applications.

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