el producto #337 🚀
Spotify's new higher tier, WhatsApp VR, TikTok shopping, Monetization lessons, Strategies for effective research, Shipping slow and better, Apple XR dev tools & more
Hey team,
Happy weekend and welcome to a new edition of el producto!
🎰 The week in figures
$100M: AWS committed $100M to a center focused on generative AI, currently the firm is collaborating with companies such as RyanAir and Twilio to build AI products
$95M: Robinhood is planning to acquire credit card startup X1 for $95M; X1 issues income-based credit cards with rewards and single-use credit cards
1k: Grab, the Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery company, will cut 1K jobs (~11% of its employees)
1k: Byju's, India's most valuable startup, is going to cut up to 1,000 jobs; the company eliminated 3,000 jobs last year
95%: IRL, a social messaging app startup, will shut down after an internal board investigation found that 95% of its 20M supposed MAUs were fake
📰 What’s going on
Spotify is launching a higher priced tier, called "Supremium" internally, which offers higher fidelity audio and expanded access to audiobooks; the new tier will first launch outside of the US, starting later this year
The beta version of WhatsApp on the Google Play platform has introduced support for VR technology, specifically the Meta Quest glasses; users will soon be able to link their WhatsApp accounts to the Quest glasses, although the specific mechanism and level of encryption for this compatibility have not been disclosed yet
Apple has released new software tools for developers to build apps for its upcoming Vision Pro mixed reality headset; the SDK leverages familiar frameworks like Xcode, SwiftUI, RealityKit, ARKit, and TestFlight
ChatGPT creator OpenAI plans to launch an AI model "app store,"; the platform would allow businesses to sell their customized chatbots to other companies
Dropbox is launching two AI tools: Dash, an AI-powered interconnected search tool, and Dropbox AI, which can summarize docs
Klarna launched new sustainability tools for purchases made online and through its app; the features are designed to enable customers to act more sustainably and make informed purchases; Klarna's Pay in 4 service will offer a one-tap donation option for purchases at its integrated retail partners; Klarna also updated its in-app carbon footprint tracker
TikTok is piloting "Trendy Beat," an in-app shopping feature, in the UK; the tool offers popular items from trending videos shipped and sold by ByteDance, signaling a shift towards direct sales and potential competition with Amazon and Shein
Alibaba plans to bring its Tmall e-commerce site to Europe; the move comes after Alibaba said it would split its business into six units with greater autonomy; Tmall is a China-based e-commerce platform that focuses on selling foreign brands to Chinese shoppers; the European version will focus on selling local brands to local consumers
Revolut launched its new “ultimate” membership card; the card offers up to £4,100 benefits in return, including subscription bundles with partners for offers on newspapers, exercise classes, VPNs and co-working spaces; there are more than 430,000 people on the waitlist in the UK and Europe for the platinum-plated card, which Revolut is positioning as a card of luxury and lifestyle; meanwhile, competitor Wise launched instant access savings account paying 4.12%
📚 Good reads
Ben Thompson on Vision Pro. If you have to read about the account of the Vision Pro presentation, make it this. Thompson always has the capacity to distill the key elements, success factors, and pitfalls of a new technology (shift) like the Apple Vision Pro and he does a good job with this piece. The product is revolutionary - that’s for sure - but it embeds a series of key design assumptions (for example the vehemently personal nature of the device) that may impact profoundly the type of applications that will spur out it
Drinking AI Optimism from the firehose. Marc Andreessen has just released an essay recapping on his views on artificial intelligence. Silicon Valley’s legend dismisses concerns about AI, expressing his wishes for the West to achieve supremacy in the field. However, Andreessen appears not to consider the impact of AI on the capital-labor relationship, despite discussing (and dismissing) Marx. Andreessen also advocates for the adoption of AI at the institutional level to combat crime and misuse, while ironically simultaneously criticizing China as a panopticon. In any case, an intriguing read: especially for AI optimists
Monetization lessons from growing revenue from $10M to $50M, by Dan Layfield - former head of the growth team at Codecademy. Setting up the basics of a monetization system early on makes a world of difference as your product grows. Simply, the folks that sign up and you don’t monetize early are likely gone forever, so it pays huge dividends to set up a strong foundation:
“If you can get to a place where you have a strong checkout page, good pricing structure, paywalls, payment processing, and a process to manage churn, then you’ll be better off than 90% of early-stage companies”
Estimation isn’t for everyone, by By John Nevins and Eric Chima. “Every hour spent in a ceremony is 2.5% of a developer’s work week gone.” Traditional Scrum teams spend hours defining, refining, and estimating work, but this process may not be as effective as it seems. As leaders of Agile teams, the goal should be to point engineers towards more meaningful work. Eliminating estimations can aid in this agenda and help teams ship meaningful value early and often
5 strategies to conduct effective customer interviews for better product insights. Best Buy Product Manager Sid Saladi shares practical advice for maximising the opportunity for insights from customer interviews, including some handy templates
Shipping fast is not always the best move - Adobe’s CPO, Scott Belsky’s perspectives. Belsky said that one of the things he had to change his opinion on is the capability of innovation of large companies. Such companies often develop complex product portfolios, and the challenge may seem daunting:
“The popular belief system still centers around the “lean startup,” A/B testing, and shipping quickly. There are two reasons why I don’t think that’s necessarily the ideal approach.
Firstly, teams tend to underestimate the gravity created by shipping their first product. Once you share something with customers, you naturally start to think in iterations of that product; it becomes infinitely harder to change direction and climb a different mountain entirely. Shipping too quickly can become a prison – a team can get trapped, iterating on something far longer than they should.
Secondly, moving too quickly can limit the benefits of product-led growth. As advertising has become more expensive, having a product that customers talk about is critical for acquisition. One of the key principles of product-led growth is to “surprise and delight” – to build something that customers will talk about with their friends. It’s easy to forget that people don’t tell their friends about a product that does exactly what they expected; they talk about products that surpassed their expectations.
If you need people to be talking about your product, you shouldn’t just ship a minimally viable product. On the contrary, you should polish and push beyond the core requirements to create something customers don’t expect and that can grow on its own.“
11 misconceptions earlier-stage founders often have, by Ben Yoskovitz. I found this article quite inspiring, so here’s a quick summary with the help of the internet’s favourite tool:
Building a platform isn't necessary:
Horizontal platforms can be too broad and difficult for customers to understand
Specific use cases help customers understand the product better
Going after a big market isn't always the best strategy:
Niche markets can be easier to dominate and expand from
VCs prefer big markets, but attacking smaller markets can still be successful
Adding more features doesn't always lead to more sales:
80% of features in the average software product are rarely or never used
Focus on what makes the product unique and valuable
Product-Led Growth isn't the only way to succeed:
PLG can be effective, but it's not the only strategy
Salespeople have sold more software than products have sold themselves
Copying competitors isn't always effective:
What works for one company may not work for another
It's important to understand your own market and customers
Do your own homework and figure out what to build, for whom, and what to charge
Use competitors as inspiration, but don't copy them flat out and expect it to work
Building a great product doesn't guarantee users/customers:
Making stuff is usually pretty easy, but standing out from the crowd is harder
Figure out what people want/need and if they'll buy it, and then make that
Design partners are not the same as beta customers or pilot customers:
Design partners aren't paying, so you haven't even begun to nibble at the heels of product-market fit
Product-market fit requires a value exchange between you and your customers
Raising capital is not the same as product-market fit:
Don't delude yourself that an investor's support is tantamount to winning
Your ability to convince an investor to write a cheque is not the same as building a great product that solves a real problem in a market you can access and grow into
No one is out to steal your idea:
Ideas are not proprietary or secret
Building in stealth isn't necessary, but avoiding distractions is important
Getting media attention doesn't mean you've made it:
PR coverage can be helpful, but it's dangerous to assume it means you've won
Figure out if anyone wants your product first, before worrying about mass appeal through the media
Raising capital is not the only way to keep the lights on:
Raising capital should not take precedence over validating a problem, engaging customers, building the right product, etc
Not every startup should raise capital, and raising capital doesn't make you a superstar
Last but not least, the golden meme of the week:
That’s all for today! Let me know what you think by replying back to this email or commenting on Substack
Angel