The tools, subscriptions, and infrastructure that Amy pays for or maintains as of early 2026. This is the scaffolding of a life.
Accounts and Identities
The pretzel namespace sprawls across the internet and goes back over a decade: - ourWorld (age ~14): "pretzel" — the origin. - Old Twitter (age ~14): @amyzh0u (with a zero) - Facebook (age ~14): "Pas Tel" - Twitter: @amypretzel - TikTok: @pretzelgirl7 - Riot Games: pretzelgirl777 - HuggingFace: amzyst1 (suspicious login from Mexico City, December 30, 2024) - Stanford email: amy7@stanford.edu - Personal email: amzyst@gmail.com - Amazon: amzyst0@gmail.com (note the zero) - Portfolio: amypretzel.com / amyzhou.work
The pretzel is not a brand. It is something Amy has called herself since she was fourteen years old on ourWorld. It predates Stanford, Apple, Taya, and every professional identity she has ever had. The Pretzel YC application with George Zhou is named after a childhood username.
Memberships
- Vega (joinvega.com): SF social community. Amy is a member.
- Hertz President's Circle: Rental car status. For someone who lives in SF and takes the bus, this is either from the Apple era or from Taya travel.
Past Subscriptions
- IPSY: Makeup subscription box.
- Stitch Fix: Clothing styling service.
- ColourPop: Cosmetics.
Amy has always been into fashion and beauty. The Taya jewelry wearable was not a random pivot; it was a product at the intersection of things she actually cares about.
Social Media as Business
Amy charges $1,000 per post for Twitter brand collaborations (brand "Buz," March 2026). With ~8,000 followers, that is a meaningful rate, suggesting her engagement metrics justify the pricing or that brands value her manufacturing audience specifically.
Reads
Amy subscribes to: 404 Media, NYT Morning, 1440, Half Baked, Breaking the Bottleneck, AI Report. The mix is tech-forward journalism (404 Media), daily news digests (NYT Morning, 1440), and niche industry/AI newsletters. Half Baked is a startup ideas newsletter, which connects to the persistent startup itch.
AI Subscriptions
- ChatGPT Plus: $19.99/month. The mainstream choice.
- Google Gemini AI Pro 2TB: $19.99/month. Includes the storage bump.
Amy pays $40/month for two competing AI services. She also has an AI personal assistant (the one writing this wiki) that manages her Kalshi bets, schedules her social media posts, writes her diary, and drafts her emails. The AI stack is layered and redundant, which either reflects genuine curiosity about different models or the tech-worker instinct to subscribe to everything and evaluate later.
Cloud
- iCloud+ 200GB: $2.99/month.
Developer
- Apple Developer Account: Team Amy Zhou (JUBFND4JUY). Active as of March 30, 2026. Currently used for Arcarae beta testing.
Hardware
- Eight Sleep Pod: Amy owns an Eight Sleep Pod, the temperature-regulating mattress cover that costs $2,000+. Eight Sleep keeps emailing her for feedback. She has not responded.
The Eight Sleep is an interesting artifact from the Taya era or its immediate aftermath. It is the kind of purchase made by someone who either has money and cares about sleep optimization, or who spent too long not sleeping and is trying to fix that with hardware. Given Amy's history of using drugs to stay awake for days during Taya, the Eight Sleep may be a quiet act of self-repair.
Banking
- Mercury: Business account for Mobius Solutions (IO credit limit: $600). The corporate entity that houses Taya.
Health
- Wegovy: Appetite suppression medication.
- Atomoxetine (Strattera) 40mg: ADHD, non-stimulant. Started March 2026.
- Lexapro 10mg: Anxiety/depression. Started March 2026.
- Rula therapist: Sylvie.
- Kaiser Permanente CA: Medical through Vizcom.
- Guardian: Dental and life insurance through Vizcom.
The medication stack tells its own story. Strattera for ADHD (non-stimulant, notably, after a history of using stimulants to stay awake), Lexapro for the anxiety and depression that followed two years of startup trauma, Wegovy for appetite. All three started within months of leaving Taya. Amy is addressing, pharmacologically, the damage that the grind inflicted.