Memos by Brian Swichkow

Private Label
A private label is a product sold by a store or online business under its own name but made by another company, according to the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. The term names both the product...
Biometric Authentication
Biometric authentication is the use of a measured biological or behavioral characteristic, such as a fingerprint or face, to verify a person's claimed identity, which NIST's digital identity...
Facetime
FaceTime is Apple's app for video and audio calls. Apple Support says that with FaceTime, people can make and answer calls, translate different languages, share a screen and watch movies together,...
The LADWP Bill-Dispute Playbook: How to Cut Your Bill and Claw Back Overcharges
TL;DR The single biggest lever is a formal meter-read/billing-error dispute, because that is the only path that produces retroactive credits. Remote "smart" meters can still fall back to estimated...
Framer
Framer is an ai-powered website builder for creating, publishing and growing sites on one canvas. A design agent builds layouts, sections and components from a description, and every change stays...
Replit
Replit is an ai-powered platform from Replit, Inc. for turning ideas into working software. Users describe what they want in natural language, and Replit builds and publishes the project, a practice...
SPIN
SPIN is a music magazine and media brand that launched in 1985. Its website describes its subject as "music, pop culture and the world that surrounds it," and publishes music news, album reviews,...
Fansly
References
New Media Expo
New Media Expo (NMX), originally called BlogWorld & New Media Expo, was a conference, tradeshow and media event for new media that the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) said in 2014 was born...
AE Studio
AE Studio is an applied Artificial Intelligence (AI) studio and alignment research company founded in 2016. Its website describes it as bootstrapped since founding, with no outside investors and...
Tribal Markers
Tribal Markers is a body art company that makes hand-filled paint markers and brings its artists to festivals, private parties and ceremonies, including weddings and mitzvahs. Its site describes body...
Malibu, CA
Malibu, CA is a coastal city in northwest Los Angeles County, California, incorporated on March 28, 1991, and covering 19.83 square miles with 21 miles of coastline along the Pacific Ocean. According...
Profitable Good Group
Profitable Good Group (PGG) is an advisory firm founded in 2015 to help CEOs identify and use a profitable Shared Values strategy, pairing a sustainable model for revenue growth with social impact....
Brandwatch
Brandwatch is a consumer intelligence and social media software company that describes itself on its website as "a Cision company." Its suite covers consumer intelligence, search intelligence, social...
Seek Discomfort
Seek Discomfort is a clothing brand from Yes Theory, launched in May 2018. Its online store sells tees, fleece, jewelry, accessories and homeware built around the belief, in the brand's words, that...
Golden State Cider
Golden State Cider is a cider maker that produces dry ciders from 100% fresh-pressed apples in Sonoma County, California. The company was founded in 2012 on Devoto Orchards in Sebastopol, where...
LA GenAI Meetup
LA GenAI Meetup is a casual evening meetup on generative AI in Pasadena, California, presented by AI LA Events and hosted by AI LA, with editions listed on Luma for March, July and August 2025. Its...
Cluster C
Cluster C is one of three clusters of personality disorders described by the DSM system; NHS Highland labels it "Anxious/avoidant" and places obsessive-compulsive (anakastic), avoidant (anxious) and...
Zinque
Zinqué is an all-day restaurant brand serving French-inspired dishes, small plates, craft cocktails and a curated wine selection, with locations in Venice, West Hollywood, downtown Los Angeles,...
Cluster A
Cluster A is one of three clusters of personality disorders described by the DSM system; NHS Highland labels it "Odd/eccentric" and places schizoid, paranoid and schizotypal personality disorders...