el producto #332 🚀
el producto #332 🚀
How Klarna grows, Apple's voice cloning feature, ChatGPT official app, Instagram's text-based app to take on Twitter, The 10-step PM cycle of Amazon, & more
Hey team,
Happy weekend and welcome to a new edition of el producto!
🎰 The week in figures
$2B: Shein, the Singapore-based fast-fashion retailer, raised $2B, cutting its valuation by 1/3 to ~$66B; Shein generated ~$23B in revenue and ~$800M in net profit last year
$750M: Klaviyo, an email marketing company, confidentially filed for an IPO in New York, aiming to raise at least $750M; the firm was valued at $9.5B in 2021 and currently has 100K+ customers in 80+ countries
$100M: Zip, a startup that helps businesses manage spend, raised a $100M Series C at a $1.5B valuation, led by Y Combinator; Zip's customers include Snowflake, Coinbase, and Canva
$60M: Meta spun out its CRM product Kustomer, which it acquired for $1B last year, with a new valuation of $250M; Kustomer raised $60M in the spin-out and will continue operations independently, with Meta retaining a minority stake
937k: Netflix boasted 937,616 U.S. customers for its ad-supported streaming service
📰 What’s going on
UberEats rolled out new features, including group grocery orders and shared shopping cart functionality; groups of users will be able to place recurring grocery orders, split bills, and set deadlines for adding products; Uber will also enable parents and caretakers of 13- to 17-year-olds to supervise what their children order and how much they spend
Apple plans to introduce an AI-powered voice cloning feature for iPhones, iPads, and Macs; the upcoming "Personal Voice" tool generates synthetic versions of a user's voice for phone and FaceTime calls; it works with Apple's new AI Live Speech text-to-speech feature, allowing users to type and have the words spoken out loud
Apple has restricted internal use of ChatGPT, GitHub's Copilot, and other AI products due to data privacy concerns; the company is also developing similar AI tools internally
OpenAI has released a free ChatGPT iPhone app in the U.S., with an Android version coming soon; the first official mobile app for the language model competes with other third-party apps that use OpenAI software; in addition to text inputs, the mobile app recognizes and responds to voice commands, though it can only generate text-based answers
Google is using its PaLM 2 AI model to automate ad features and enhance YouTube creator tools; it's also developing an image-creation tool similar to OpenAI's DALL-E
Grammarly is launching Grammarly Business, a generative AI tool that can summarize emails and compose responses; it will integrate with apps like Slack and Gmail
Zoom is partnering with Anthropic to enhance its AI capabilities, starting with customer support improvements, and has invested in Anthropic via Zoom Ventures
Instagram is planning to launch a text-based app to compete with Twitter as early as June; the app, which resembles a mixture of Instagram and Twitter, would let users sign in using their Instagram credentials, with their followers, handle, bio, and verification transferring over:
The decentralized app, referred to as "Instagram's new text-based app for conversations," would have a central feed for text posts of up to 500 characters along with links, photos, and videos
The platform codenamed P92 or Barcelona, is currently being tested among influencers and creators
Users will be able to set who's allowed to reply to them and mention their account, according to a shared leaked slide
The slide also says that users of compatible apps, such as Mastodon, would have the ability to search for, follow, and engage with profiles and content on the Instagram app
Twitter Blue's newest update enables subscribers to upload videos up to 2 hours in length or 8GB in size with a max resolution of 1080p
Montana has become the first U.S. state to ban TikTok downloads due to security concerns, which has sparked criticism over potential infringement of free speech rights
Amazon introduced its latest entry-level Alexa-powered smart speaker as part of its new Echo lineup; the $40 Echo Pop features a new semi-sphere form factor and a front-facing speaker optimized for smaller spaces, like an apartment or dorm room
Amazon plans to add a ChatGPT-like search feature to its online store; new job postings reveal Amazon's plans to reinvent its search function through the use of large language models
📚 Good reads
Effort vs. value curves. John Cutler explains that teams often leave out the expected value curve of the work in prioritization conversations. Considering effort curves clarifies statements like “quick wins,” and can help to think about the roadmap as a portfolio of bets
A hands-on guide to autonomous agents with GPT. A comprehensive guide to autonomous agents like AutoGPT, BabyAGI, and AgentGPT, which use advanced AI like GPT-4 to autonomously achieve user-defined goals. These intelligent agents can transform industries and change how we interact with technology The piece also offers a hands-on tutorial for building autonomous agents
Tech debt: an investment, not a burden, by Leah Tharin. Tech debt is an investment that can unlock your product team's velocity in the long term. Look beyond your short-term planning and focus on outcomes and customer success
How Klarna grows, by Aakash Gupta. Klarna has evolved into a full-fledged retail platform that controls demand through their consumer network, and has changed how people shop and pay for products online by becoming a shopping destination that has vertically integrated the shopping experience into one convenient app. With this, they’ve unlocked tremendous network effects, flywheels, moats, and data advantages that have made Klarna the #1 contender for what may well be a winner-take-most market
3 steps to run valuable customer interviews. David Pereira shares the key aspects behind successful customer interviews (including before / after), and some useful templates
Be the champion for Continuous Discovery, by Teresa Torres. You picked up a copy of Continuous Discovery Habits and loved it (I you haven’t, I recommend it!). You want to start working this way. But how do you convince your teammates, your stakeholders, and your leaders? Teresa has the answers
The 10-step Product Management cycle of Amazon, by Ryan Lysne. A high-level blueprint, including mechanisms to facilitate each step. The Amazon way. Not everyone’s way
Creative routines. Not really Product stuff, but a really cool infographic showing how notable creatives in different fields spent their days. Find a deeper analysis in this article by Visual Capitalist
That’s all for today! Let me know what you think by replying back to this email or commenting on Substack
Angel
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