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This Week’s Idea: The Glorious Upgrade to Nursing Homes, How Your Grandma Just Replaced You, Tech that Actually Hugs you Back 🥰

Yes, I Personally Cried a Little Writing This

Author

Danny Garces
April 22, 2025 • Reading Time: 7 minutes

Did you know One of the first subscription boxes wasn’t for makeup or snacks. It was for chairs. Dang, autocorrect back at it again. Sorry, it was for razors.

Back in 2012, my friend named Michael Dubin walked into a studio with $4,500 and shot a video that changed the internet forever.

“This blade is F***ing great,” he said, casually selling razors while pushing a cart, dancing with employees, and even tossing in a machete. That brand? Dollar Shave Club. 💸 💸 🪒 🪒

You guessed it, the video went viral overnight. Millions of views. The site crashed.

“Sir, have you tried rebooting your site?”

Within 48 hours, the site had 12,000 new customers.

By 2016, Unilever bought the company for $1 billion.

All from a funny 90-second video and a $1/month product most people never thought twice about.

Here’s the real lesson: You don’t need revolutionary tech.

You just need a boring industry, a better experience, and a brand that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

NOTE: For 10 years of bad luck, don’t share this with your friends. Share with your friends, gain 100 years of good luck.

Every Tuesday at exactly 10 AM MST, we SHAVE you a few ideas that seem strange today… but could be the next Dollar Shave Club tomorrow.

Upgrade now, steal a future billion-dollar idea tomorrow: www.butterideas.com/upgrade

— Daniel

In today’s email:

  • 🧨 Startups raising this week 💸

  • 🆒 Cool, you’re costing AI millions 😎

  • 🍕 Your grandma just replaced you

🚀 STARTUPS RAISING THIS WEEK 💸

Job interviews…Sales calls…Exams…Bar exams?

Cluely says: “Don’t worry, we’ve got an AI tab for that.”

Co-founded by a 21-year-old who literally got suspended from Columbia for building a job interview cheating tool—this startup is now backed by $5.3M from Abstract Ventures and Susa Ventures.

The tech? A very sneaky invisible browser window that feeds you real-time answers without the other person knowing. Think: ChatGPT whispering in your ear… while you pretend to know stuff about how dogs communicate, over overpriced wine.

My friends are calling it the calculator of communication.

Us at Butter Ideas call it: The future of research… but make it venture backed.

Bold. Controversial. You know, we’ll be keeping an AI ON THIS ONE, pun not intended. 👀

🆒 COOL, YOU’RE COSTING AI MILLIONS 😎

“Billy, when someone gives you something you say thank you.”

“Billy, when you ask for something, you say please.”

Who knew, politeness is expensive, apparently…

Team —we all know who and what ChatGPT is. But now, Sam Altman just confirmed that OpenAI’s electricity bill is tens of millions higher… because people can’t stop saying “please” and “thank you” to ChatGPT.

Some food for thought:

  • It takes 10x more energy to CGPT something than to Google it.

  • A 100 word email = 3 water bottles worth of cooling.

  • ChatGPT’s electricity bill: $139M a year.

We all know our manners, so it’s okay for you to be polite to Chat.

  • 67% of Americans are polite to AI.

  • 18% are polite just in case the AI uprising comes.

Friendly reminder: Please be nice to me and share this with your friends.

♻️ YOUR GRANDMA JUST REPLACED YOU

Don’t worry, your grandma has a friend…

Friends, I have some really bad news for you.

I hope you don’t hate me for it, but I care about you.

So I am going to give you the sad news now.

But you have to promise me you won’t get mad.

Ready?

Your grandma Susie just replaced you with her AI friend.

👻 Check this out: An Epidemic of Loneliness

The sad reality is that you just put your grandma into a center, where 40% of seniors in retirement homes report regular feelings of loneliness.

How dare you. 😭

The science behind this is quite interesting. Per science, loneliness increases the risk of dementia, depression, heart disease and it could be linked with a shortened life expectancy.

Even though staff would love to talk to everyone, they just don’t have the time. They are stretched thin, families can’t visit daily, and friends are often difficult to make.

🆕 New Idea, AI Voice Companions, 24/7?

Oh boy, this one is interesting. We already interact with AI on our day to day functions. AI is there, whenever and wherever.

Here is what we need to do. We need to deploy AI voice chatbots (Think ChatGPT with a cute voice and a personality) to be digital companions.

This would be in the form of an app on Susie’s phone.

Susie’s friend would be listening 24/7, available anytime, anywhere. Best part, is that we can make Susie’s friend, to be programmed the same year, learn about Susie’s history, and play music from the 60’s golden age of music.

No, we are not advertising replacing the human connection, but just filling in the gaps.

🤔 Imagine This…

“Hey Susie, tell me about the first time you when dancing.”

Susie’s AI friend listens, learns, and understands. So next time, they can have memory induced conversations from the past.

What is super cool about this, is that the companion can learn personal preferences like music tastes, favorite movies, or stories about your uncles.

Or, we can use the AI friend to remind Susie to take her medication or guide her through light mental exercises.

Quick Snack: We use Susie’s Ai friend to write a biography about grandma. Who is in?

The sky is the limit. Sorry, can’t take Susie out dancing just yet.

💰 Shame on You, You just Skipped the Story for the Money

Today, everything works off of monthly recurring revenue, so yes. Families using this product would pay a subscription for peace of mind.

Retirement homes would accept this in a heart beat, would overall enhance the resident’s experience and reduce burnout for the staff.

You guys aren’t ready for this, but the cost of loneliness (healthcare, emergency calls, etc..) is massive. Software is a mere fraction of the cost.

Who is launching this?

💰 Oh, You Wanted a Billion-Dollar Idea?

Come on now team, it’s not always about the billion dollar idea or new tech.

Today, our focus is on using tech to bring more humanity into aging and AI.

Susie deserves to feel seen, heard, and remembered. Even if it is by a machine with a gentle, friendly voice

butter ideas Pro Tip:

Share with your friends, family, parents, and or enemies. But please share.

They might just think you are the most innovative person in the room, but they won’t know your secret. I got you.

P.S: Welcome friends, we are hiring. Our community is growing, so looking for help! We love you, see you next week!

wanna butter along?

If you wanna support us, the #1 thing you can do is share butterideas.com. If you know anyone who’s a business minded person or into this kind of thing, please share this page with them!

After that, enter your email in any of the forms on the site. We send a once-a-week email that features one epic idea.

— Danny

P.S: Send this to 10 friends and win a limited gift.