Liz Snower
Hi, I’m Liz.
I’m an astrologer and a second-time startup founder, having spent the last decade building AI applications.
If that’s surprising, maybe you think of magazine horoscopes when you hear “astrology”—which is, by definition, the ancient algorithmic practice of mapping planetary movements to earthly events, and the impetus for astronomy and math itself.
I bet you’d agree astrology is useful if you could see the resonance with which it speaks to your own life. But getting there would probably require regular consults with a quality practitioner—the best of whom are prohibitively expensive, if they’re even available.
The lucky few keep an astrologer on retainer for practical guidance, which emerges through conversation. Apps and digital services have yet to replicate such dialogues, but my team and I are working to change that.
What follows is the story of how this all came about.
The early days
los angeles, 2013I spent three years at a newspaper before seizing the opportunity to join Dermstore, then a startup, in 2010. There, I made some lifelong friends—and took a critical leap out of my comfort zone: along with managing the site’s editorial content, I learned the ropes of product management, data science, and performance marketing. I also appeared in the company’s magazine ads in Vogue and Allure.
Landing in tech
NEW YORK, 2015After Dermstore sold to Target in 2013, I was recruited by Kik, then a white hot messaging app used by 1 in 4 American teens.
As a solutions lead at Kik, I built product specs, managed development sprints, conceived marketing stunts, and managed partnerships with blue chip brands. My team and I built chatbots that were covered by Harvard Business Review and Women’s Wear Daily.
BECOMING A FOUNDER
NEW YORK, 2017By 2017, chatbots were all the rage, and the time was right to start Convrg. We raised outside capital, closed a few deals with major brands, and built the technology behind Reddit’s most engaged ad campaign of all time as of 2019, when we were acquired.
BECOMING A FOUNDER AGAIN
Austin, 2019Subsequent to Convrg’s exit–and my time working for the acquirer–I returned to my roots in product management, taking a leadership role at Techstyle, the company behind a handful of direct-to-consumer fashion brands.
Then Lauren Kunze, the CEO of Pandorabots and a personal friend since our companies partnered years prior, asked me to join her at ICONIQ, her new company. She was working on a 3D avatar that would enable Kuki (then the world’s best open-domain conversational AI) to move and speak autonomously in real time.
Lauren’s grand vision—an AI It Girl—was gloriously weird and futuristic. I felt uniquely aligned with the premise that conversations with AI would soon be a regular part of life. Although it meant abandoning the stability of a corporate job (something I thought I wanted after running my own company) I simply had to take part.
Making an AI It Girl
Vogue Italy, 2021Kuki’s It Girl status materialized via a feature in Vogue, a viral Roblox game, and an H&M campaign—plus hundreds of millions of text messages with fans in more than 200 countries. But when large language models commoditized AI companions in 2023, we faced an important question: what’s next for Kuki?
I had an idea.
Finding my calling
BARCELONA, 2023A then-closeted astrologer, I had long envisioned an AI that could give astrology readings like a human practitioner. Until recently, such a thing would have taken years, if not decades to develop. But had the requisite technical advancements come to pass before I’d cut my teeth as a founder, I would not have been prepared for the task at hand.
Said another way: the universe has perfect timing.
AI GuideS
ICONIQ’s team of Harvard- and UC Berkeley-trained engineers boasts decades of collective experience building and deploying conversational AI applications. Once we explored the potential of an AI Astrologer, we decided to build it as a separate product, distinct from Kuki (who will continue “working” with brands and texting with her loyal fans).
As for us? We are working hard to launch AI Guides.
COMING SOON