RIP the attention economy. Trust is the new moat.
⊹ A spark of Genius ⊹ Circe's spell book of ideas, people, and opportunities, curated to enchant your week
⊹ THE CIRCE BRIEF ⊹
The attention economy is dead; make way for the future of marketing: The connection economy.
Listen, every founder and their mom is creating content today. If you’re not, you’re behind. (Sorry to add something to your to-do list bestie, but we both know it’s true.)
But in the era of AI, making content is easier than ever. Anyone can have a week’s worth of posts ready in a few hours. And we see it in our feeds. AI slop is everywhere.
One thing we’re confident about: Slop is noise. It doesn’t lead to real behavior change or real user action. (My personal theory behind why OpenAI said goodbye to Sora: there’s nothing to gain and everything to lose, “everything” being human productivity.)
Our hypothesis: Trust is the new moat.
And here’s how we’re seeing the smartest content creators build trust, not just content:
TRULY creative thinking and good design. People stop scrolling when they see something genuinely beautiful, interesting, or creative. That takes a human brain.
Adding real value. If your content isn’t teaching someone something, solving a problem, or truly interesting/entertaining, it’s getting drowned out in the ocean of slop.
Credibility. Walk the walk, don’t just talk the talk. This is why so many founders are doing those “building something new every day for a month” series. Proof of work beats polished claims.
Borrowed credibility (aka partnerships). Tap into people your audience already believes in. Partnerships with influencers and community leaders whose word actually carries weight.
Community and curation (duh!). If you can make your audience feel like they belong, like they relate to you, like they have a place in your circle, you win.
We’re so curious what this means for paid ads. An ad might open the door for someone to discover you, but if you’re not adding value, your content is slop, or they don’t relate to you… they’ll bounce.
The old algorithm rewarded volume. Flood the feed, win the game. The new algorithm rewards quality. Stand out in the feed or get tuned out.
Your budget can still buy attention. But only trust buys belief. And belief is what drives action.
We think about this a lot at Circe (it’s basically why we exist.) And we would love for you to join us (it’s free)❣️
— Isa & Anna⊹
⊹ CIRCE DEALFLOW
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REPORSENT [Healthtech ]
Raising: Pre-Seed
REPOROSENT is an oncology startup building infastructure capturing what cancer patients are experiencing in between their clinical visits- daily symptoms, side effects, and tolerability data that typically goes unrecorded. They use a 1-2 minute daily check in to turn patients daily experiences into signals for their care. They have now secured a multi-national agreement with a national oncology research network and are now raising to scale.
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GenWell [Women’s Health Tech]
Raising: Pre-Seed
GenWell is a health discovery and social commerce startup designed as a curated, high-credibility, short-form video platform specifically for women's health. It aims to combat misinformation by offering expert-vetted, "TikTok-style" content.
⊹ TALENT MOVES
⊹ CIRCE MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
Facilitator & Coach, Berkeley MBA '26
Previously at Calm, Elena is facilitator and coach who helps founders and professionals make clear, grounded decisions by getting underneath the emotions that make them feel hard. She creates spaces where people can stop performing and reconnect with what they already know.
Raised in rural Indiana by Syrian and Palestinian immigrants, Elena’s work is deeply shaped by questions of identity, belonging, and truth. She works at the intersection of mental health, leadership, and the body, with a focus on helping people stop outsourcing their inner authority.
⟡ EVENTS
Yoga & Meditation | MAY 14 | Hosted by Circe
Join Circe at Vuori on Union Street for an intimate evening of movement, breathwork, and reflection designed specifically for the women founders, investors, and operators building the future. Attendees get 20% off the entire store!
Female Founders & Funders Gathering @ SF Climate Week | APRIL 22
See our entire Calendar of events here.
.⊹ OFFICE HOURS ⊹
Anna Gurney
Circe, Berkeley MBA/MPH, Chief of Staff @ Aura Finance
Topics: Early stage investing, Women’s Health, HealthTech, VC ecosystem, and building founder networks.
⊹ BOOK TIME
Isa D’Elia
Circe, Berkeley MBA, Bizdev and GTM @ Kenley (YC ‘24)
Topics: Applied AI, HR Tech, 0→1 product strategy, and building systems that help teams move faster.
⊹ BOOK TIME
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We know you’re juggling a million things and life moves far too fast. But in the middle of it all, we want to take a moment and recognize how awesome you are and make sure you’re always in the loop!
We are so excited about allll the things we’ve got going on and coming up. We hope you’ll be the biggest part of it!
Thank you for joining us in this journey of creation and empowerment.
