According to TechCrunch, former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has shut down her previous startup, Sunshine, to launch a new AI personal assistant company called Dazzle. The new venture has raised an $8 million seed round at a $35 million valuation, led by Forerunner Ventures’ Kirsten Green. Other investors include Kleiner Perkins, Greycroft, and Offline Ventures. Mayer, who was employee #20 at Google, admitted to investing her own money but emphasized Green’s lead role. The Sunshine team began prototyping Dazzle last summer, and the product is expected to come out of stealth early next year.
A stamp of credibility
Here’s the thing: landing Kirsten Green as your lead investor is a massive deal in the consumer tech world. Her track record with brands like Warby Parker and Dollar Shave Club is legendary. For Mayer, this is a crucial vote of confidence, especially after Sunshine. Let’s be honest, Sunshine was a flop. It raised $20 million but never found its footing, bouncing from a creepy contact manager to a clunky photo app. So this investment from Green isn’t just about the money. It’s a signal that someone with a killer nose for consumer hits believes Mayer can actually pull this off. It resets the narrative.
Learning from the Sunshine mistake
Mayer was surprisingly candid about why Sunshine failed. She called the problems it tackled “mundane” and said it never reached the polish she wanted. That’s a big admission. Now, she’s swinging for the fences with Dazzle, talking about wanting to build something with the impact of Google Search or Yahoo in its prime. That’s… ambitious. The pivot suggests the Dazzle prototype was so compelling it made them abandon their old work completely. But it also raises the stakes enormously. Can a personal assistant really be that revolutionary? We’ve seen so many try and fail. The pressure is on to deliver something that isn’t just another slightly smarter chatbot.
The consumer AI wave
Green’s investment is also a bet on timing. She’s gone on record saying consumer AI is a “late bloomer” ready for its breakout moment. Enterprise AI got all the early hype and money, but the real, messy, daily-use applications for normal people are still being figured out. Dazzle is aiming squarely at that gap. The question is, what does a “next generation AI personal assistant” actually do? Manage your calendar? Book trips? Argue with Comcast customer service for you? The space is crowded, from startups to Apple’s upcoming Apple Intelligence. Mayer’s experience at Google and Yahoo gives her a unique perspective on mass-market products, but that’s no guarantee of success in the AI era.
A high-profile second act
This is a fascinating second act for Mayer. She’s using her own capital, she’s brought her old Sunshine investors along (they got 10% of Dazzle), and she’s got a top-tier VC leading the charge. The structure shows she’s all-in. But the shadow of Sunshine is long. Tech has a short memory for glory and a long memory for failure. Building a resilient business, as she says she wants to do, means overcoming that history. The website, dazzle.ai, is behind a password wall for now. Early next year, we’ll see if Dazzle lives up to its name, or if it’s just another shiny object in the crowded AI landscape.
