Smashing, an AI-driven news curation app founded by Goodreads’ Otis Chandler, is shutting down after struggling to achieve rapid growth. Launched in June 2024, the app aimed to aggregate news and social media content for users but failed to become a sustainable product. The company announced its closure via email, citing insufficient scaling as the primary reason. Despite raising $3.4 million from several investors, including True Ventures, Smashing could not compete in a crowded market. The news comes on the heels of similar failures in the sector, highlighting ongoing challenges in AI-powered news aggregation.