I play with different products every day — some for investment research, some just for fun. Here are my current favorites:

Meetings: Google Meet. So much better than Zoom!

No software needed and instant boot-up means I’m never late for a call. I also love that it has the time on the screen so I can always see it, even in fullscreen mode.

YC founders are early adopters and Google Meet has a nearly 100% market share there, if my meetings are any indication. That should tell us something.

LLM: Grok 3. Best LLM I’ve used so far.

The DeepSearch is incredibly powerful. It scraped 91 websites in less than a minute for some investment research I was doing yesterday. It even found nonpublic sections of a startup’s website, which gave me some very useful info.

Browser — Brave. I like Brave for the same reason I like Google Meet — clean design and strong performance. Everything moves faster in Brave.

When you save a fraction of a second over and over, perhaps hundreds of times a day, it really adds up. Brave also does a great job of protecting your privacy.

Notetaker: Fathom. I’ve tried just about all of them, and Fathom is the best.

It doesn’t just take notes on your meetings. It records the entire thing so you can re-watch it!

I just used that yesterday as part of some investment research I was doing. It’s incredibly helpful.

It also creates a full transcript and helpful summaries. It even tells me how much I’m talking and if I went on any monologues.

Best of all, there’s even a free tier that lets you record as many meetings as you like. I strongly suggest trying it!

Laptop: Macbook Air. Absolutely bulletproof. I doubt I could break this thing if I tried.

The one I’m typing on right now is 12 years old!

I recently used a brand new one at Best Buy. Other than it being a different color, I couldn’t tell any difference. That’s how well these hold up.

It also gets great battery life, looks pretty, and weighs next to nothing. It costs a bit more than a Windows or Chrome machine, but you’ll make it back in durability.

Desktop: Mac Mini. Just got one of these to replace my long-suffering Linux box. Like the Macbook Air, it’s incredibly sturdy and reliable. It also looks nice, which doesn’t hurt!

Messaging App: Signal. It’s encrypted and open source, so you know there’s no backdoor built into it.

WhatsApp and iMessage are not open source. And in the case of WhatsApp, I really don’t trust Facebook with my data.

Signal also has a ton of cool features. I can edit or delete a text if I made a typo. And I get a ton of use out of the “note to self” function.

Wrap-Up

When we have the right tools, we’re happy and productive.

All of these tools are reliable, cleanly designed, and easy to use. That’s what every product designer should aim for, whether you’re at Apple or a tiny startup.

What are your favorite tools these days?

Have a great weekend, everyone!

More on tech:

Using Grok 3 to Manage My Stock Portfolio

The Coolest Startups from YC W25: Part 2

Is Biotech Having its ChatGPT Moment?

Save Money on Stuff I Use:

Fundrise

This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 with great returns.

More on Fundrise in this post.

If you decide to invest in Fundrise, you can use this link to get $100 in free bonus shares!

Misfits Market

I’ve used Misfits for years, and it never disappoints! Every fruit and vegetable is organic, super fresh, and packed with flavor!

I wrote a detailed review of Misfits here.

Use this link to sign up and you’ll save $15 on your first order.