Marissa Mayer’s Sunshine Launches AI-Powered Contacts App to Simplify Networking
Former Yahoo CEO and Google veteran Marissa Mayer has officially unveiled Sunshine Contacts, the first product from her rebranded startup Sunshine (formerly Lumi Labs). The app leverages artificial intelligence to revolutionize how users organize, update, and share contact information—addressing a long-standing pain point in personal and professional networking.
From Lumi Labs to Sunshine: A Vision for Smarter Everyday Apps
Founded in 2018 by Mayer and Enrique Muñoz Torres (also ex-Yahoo and Google), Sunshine aims to modernize mundane tasks through AI. As Mayer explains:
“If technology can drive a car, why can’t it organize contacts or simplify scheduling? Our goal is to make everyday apps frictionless.”
The company previously tested the waters with Holiday Helper, a desktop app for managing holiday mailing lists. Now, Sunshine Contacts marks its first full-fledged product, signaling a broader ambition to build a suite of consumer tools for organization, scheduling, and family sharing.
How Sunshine Contacts Works: AI Meets Practicality
The app integrates with iPhone Contacts and Google Contacts, then enhances profiles by:
- Auto-completing missing details (job titles, addresses, LinkedIn profiles)
- Labeling phone numbers (e.g., work vs. mobile)
- Deduplicating entries with advanced merging
- Scanning Gmail signatures (with permission) to fill gaps
Unlike basic contact managers, Sunshine Contacts acts like a personal CRM, surfacing recent interactions and contextual data. For example, it can suggest connections based on frequent in-person meetings—using location data (opt-in only) to infer relationships.
Privacy at the Core
Acknowledging growing skepticism around data privacy, Sunshine pledges:
- No selling user data (aggregated or individual)
- No advertising in the app
- Granular permissions (users choose which features to enable)
“Your data is solely for improving your experience,” emphasizes Torres.
The Competitive Landscape: Can Sunshine Stand Out?
The market for contact management apps is crowded, with past attempts like Brewster, Cardhop, and FullContact offering similar features. Sunshine’s differentiator? AI-driven precision, claims Mayer:
“Others might merge two ‘Adam Smiths’ without checking if they’re different people. Our AI uses confidence intervals and evidence-based analysis for higher accuracy.”
What’s Next?
- Freemium model: The app is free initially, with paid tiers planned for future products in the Sunshine suite.
- iOS-first launch: Available invite-only in the U.S. (iOS 11+). Web and international versions will follow.
- $20M seed funding: Backed by Felicis Ventures, Unusual Ventures, and angel investors.
By combining AI smarts with a privacy-first approach, Sunshine Contacts could redefine how we manage professional relationships—if it can win over users in a skeptical market.
Image Credits: Sunshine
