el producto #351 đ
el producto #351 đ
The "iPhone of AI," Spotify's AI-translated podcasts, Apple integrates Open Banking APIs, ChatGPT connects to the internet, Meta's AI-assistants, North Star Metrics & more
Hey team,
Happy weekend and welcome to a new edition of el producto!
đ° The week in figures
$90B: OpenAI is discussing a secondary share sale that would value the company at between $80B-$90B, ~3x its most recent valuation, as the startup is on track to generate ~$1B in revenue in 2023
$6B: AI chatbot startup Character.ai is talking with investors to raise fresh funding at a valuation between $5B and $6B
$4B: Amazon announced it will invest up to $4B in AI startup Anthropic with an initial investment of $1.25B for a minority stake; Anthropic was valued at ~$5B in a funding round earlier this year
$1B: OpenAI is in advanced talks with iPhone designer Jony Ive and SoftBankâs Masayoshi Son to raise more than $1B to build the âiPhone of AI,â funded by SoftBank; Iveâs firm LoveFrom will develop OpenAIâs first consumer device
$274M: Enflame, a Shanghai-based startup developing chips for AI applications, raised a ~$274M Series D
$200M: Mixin Network, a DeFi project that helps blockchains handle more transactions, has suspended activity after suffering a hack involving ~$200M in crypto; the hack was caused by Mixinâs cloud provider being compromisedÂ
$150M: AI-powered market intelligence platform AlphaSense brought in $150M in a Series E funding round, boosting its valuation to $2.5B
$100M: Openly, a Boston-based startup building an AI tool that generates home insurance quotes, raised a $100M Series D
$100M: Nord Security announced it raised a $100M round. Besides its VPN, the company runs the NordPass password manager and the NordLayer enterprise remote access networking. It operates in over 20 countries and employs 2,000 people globally
$500: Tinder launched a $500/month program called Tinder Select, which includes the ability to DM users up to twice per week without matching
25M: BeReal said it has more than 25M active users globally, disputing reports from research firm Similarweb, which estimated BeRealâs MAUs at ~16MÂ
5%: Increasing customer retention rates by just 5% can increase a companyâs overall profits by 25% to 95% according to a new survey of product managers and marketers
-16%: Epic Games confirmed it is laying off 16% of staff (~830 employees). Epic Games sold Bandcamp to Songtradr, a platform for licensing music
đ° Whatâs going on
Meta announced it will integrate an AI assistant and 28 AI characters based on Kendall Jenner, MrBeast, Snoop Dogg, and others into WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger
Meta unveiled its Quest 3 mixed reality headset, offering full-color "passthrough" for users to see their surroundings in color while wearing the device. The Quest 3 will ship on October 10, with prices starting at $500 for the 128GB base model
Amazon launched Bedrock, a service that allows AWS customers to build and customize apps on top of generative AI models from Amazon itself and third-party partners through an API
Microsoft to reduce spend on AI. Due to rising costs associated with AI, Microsoft leadership has directed its ~1500 researchers to develop in-house conversational AI software thatâs cheaper to operate than OpenAIâs, even if it underperforms
Apple has filed a patent application for user identification using headphones. The product would give Apple the capability to identify if a user wearing a pair of headphones is the person that actually owns them, using their movement patterns.Â
Apple Wallet app will now be able to show UK usersâ current account balance from their bank via Open Banking APIs. It will also integrate records of deposits and payments, and credit card limit and balance
Reports have emerged of the iPhone 15 overheating. According to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the issue could be linked to compromises made in the thermal system design to lower the weight of the phones, specifically the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max
Google is planning on shutting down Google Podcasts in 2024 as part of a push to migrate users over to YouTube Music
Google will announce its latest Pixel devices during its hardware event on October 4. The âMade By Google" event takes place in New York City and will be livestreamed starting at 7 a.m. PT on YouTube and the Google Store site. The Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, will have AI-powered camera features. These include "Photo Unblur" for post-capture picture unblurring and "Magic Eraser" for removing unwanted objects from photos
OpenAI now lets âPlusâ and âEnterpriseâ users prompt ChatGPT using both voice commands and images, and ChatGPT can now respond vocally as wellÂ
OpenAI's ChatGPT can now browse the internet for up-to-date information and is no longer limited to data before September 2021.The new capability leverages Microsoft's Bing search engine to process user questions and provide more recent answers. The capability, called "Browse with Bing," is now available to ChatGPT Plus and Enterprise subscribers and will expand to all users soon
Spotify partnered with OpenAI on a feature that allows podcast hosts to reproduce episodes in different languages using their voice; the product is built on OpenAIâs voice transcription tool Whisper, and has been just launched on ProductHunt
Adobe has launched Photoshop on the web with AI-powered tools.These include Generative Fill and Generative Expand, which are powered by Adobeâs Firefly generative AI model
Getty Images is launching a generative AI image tool in partnership with Nvidia; the tool lets users create legally protected images using Gettyâs library of licensed photos
Reddit launched a âContributor Program,â where verified users can get paid on a monthly basis based on karma and gold earned from âeligible contributionsâ
đ Good reads
How Miro grows: tactical lessons from the $17.5B whiteboard, by Aakash Gupta and Jaryd Hermann. A masterclass on how to drive SaaS growth. Plus, what we can learn about the PLG Iceberg, product-led sales, 4 different community growth strategies, and breaking into the enterprise
Expand your Product info diet. Another one by Jaryd Hermann, one of our favourite authors here at el producto. Jaryd shared a great list of resources to sharpen your product/growth skills and general thinking. Interesting that he made it on Figma (after his Miro deep-dive)
Could âAmazon Oneâ palm payments get the upper hand over digital wallets? Amazon is spearheading a potentially revolutionary payment method with its Amazon One palm technology, which was first introduced in September 2020 and had over 3 million uses by July 2023. This article looks at the tech, security, and user perception of this payment method
How to make the case for better design systems, by Better by Design. A good system acts like a useful starter kit of technical constraints and helps us make sure weâre delivering something meaningful for the user without getting lost in the weeds
The magic prioritization trick. John Cutler shares a useful 3-step approach for organizing initiatives based on urgency and cost of delay
The North Star Metric: an extremely simple, powerful concept, by Pawel Huryn. The North Star Metric is a single metric that creates focus and reflects how customers get value from the product. It ensures the value is sustainable and serves as a leading indicator of long-term business success. Pawel Huryn has made a nice and brief 101 to help you frame your NSM
Writing good survey questions - 10 best practices by Matt Brown for Nielsen Normal Group. Designing a good survey is harder than it may seem. Ensure accurate and reliable data by writing questions that are appropriate for the method and worded to minimize bias
[Video] Mark Zuckerberg on Threads, Elon Musk, AI, the Quest 3, and more. In a rare interview, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg joined Alex Heath, to discuss where AI is going next, the new Quest 3 headset, Threads, and his ongoing rivalry with Elon Musk
Thatâs all for this week! Let me know what you think by replying back to this email or commenting on Substack
Angel