el producto #354 🚀
Assumption-testing, Generative AI in banking, Apple's Gen-AI, X's subscription tiers, Zappier's growth case-study, Effective storytelling, The API guide for PMs, & more
Hey team,
Happy weekend and welcome to a new edition of el producto
🎰 The week in figures
$80B: OpenAI is in talks to sell employee shares in a move that would boost its valuation above $80B, nearly triple what it was six months ago
475M: Snap shares jumped on this week following a media report by The Verge, saying Snapchat is expected to surpass 475 million daily active users (DAU) in 2024
400M: Windows 11 has surpassed 400M MAUs and is on pace to pass 500M in early 2024
$342M: Zhipu, a Beijing-based generative AI startup, has raised ~$342M from Alibaba, Tencent, Ant Group, HongShan (fka Sequoia China), Meituan, and others this year. Based in Beijing, Zhipu specializes in building foundation AI models and is viewed as China's counterpart to U.S.-based OpenAI
$100M: Patreon has acquired Moment, a live-streaming platform that integrates events and ticketed experiences like podcast recordings and concerts; the acquisition will not require regulatory approval, meaning the deal was likely less than $100M
$12: Netflix is once again raising its prices, with its Basic plan moving from $10 to $12 and Premium increasing from $20 to $23 in the U.S.
+27%: Total global funding for AI startups grew 27% y/y in Q3 to $17.9B, as overall startup deal volume dropped 31% y/y to $73B
-3%: LinkedIn announced layoffs of 668 employees (3%) across its engineering, product, talent, and finance teams
-28%: Stack Overflow cut 100 employees (-28%), primarily in sales and support roles, as more of its traffic gets taken away by AI-powered coding tools
-60%: Product Hunt CEO Rajiv Ayyangar cut ~60% of the team in a “strategic” round of layoffs, which impacted the company’s design, product, and sales units
📰 What’s going on
Amazon is testing "Consult-a-friend," which allows Amazon app users to share products with friends. After a user taps the "share" button, their friends will receive a message with a "consult-a-friend" link. After tapping the link, the friend can view the product, react with emojis, and leave commentary
Amazon announced plans to launch a marketplace in South Africa in 2024. The e-commerce platform will be open to third-party sellers based in the country
YouTube introduced new creator-focused features on Wednesday. The video-sharing platform aims to make shoppable videos easier to create:
YouTube released a video timestamp feature for tagged products
Creators will also be enabled to tag affiliate products in bulk across their video libraries
YouTube is also testing analytics tools that will allow creators to see sales metrics, clicks, and impressions for their affiliate products
Apple shifted resources away from developing AR glasses towards building a lower-cost version of its Vision Pro headset due to the technical difficulty of developing standalone AR glasses
Apple unveiled a more budget-friendly Apple Pencil with a hidden USB-C port. The stylus pen will launch in November at a price point of $79
Apple could bring generative AI to the iPhone and iPad as early as 2024. Jeff Pu, who specializes in Apple's supply chain, claims Apple is gearing up to build hundreds of AI servers this year and next, paving the way for GenAI integration in late 2024 at the earliest. Pu anticipates Apple will offer both cloud-based and edge AI, when data is processed offline directly on the device
OpenAI has released DALL-E 3, its latest text-to-image generator, to paid premium and enterprise ChatGPT users. DALL-E 3 renders better-quality and more realistic images, especially with longer prompts, and can better handle complex content like text and human hands
Adobe showcased AI-driven tools and features encompassing various domains, from photo editing and audio to video, 3D modeling, fashion, and design. A standout innovation was Project Primrose, an interactive dress that dynamically alters its colors and patterns when worn
Elon Musk confirmed that X will introduce two new subscription tiers for users. One tier will offer a lower price point but will continue to show ads, while the other will be more expensive but completely ad-free. Earlier this week X started testing a program, starting in New Zealand and the Philippines, where new, unverified users will have to pay $1/year to post
Brazil suspended WhatsApp's payment service a week after its launch
Netflix will air its first live sports event, a golf tournament called "Netflix Cup," which will feature "Drive to Survive" F1 drivers facing off against "Full Swing" golfers
📚 Good reads
Zapier’s incredible growth from 0 to $230M ARR and a $5B valuation; all with just $1.3M in funding. Their playbook for growth is incredibly capital efficient, and Jaryd Hermann dissected it for us
Generative AI in banking. Generative AI is reshaping banking, automating tasks, enhancing experiences, and boosting efficiency for a brighter banking future. Andrii Bas shares 10 examples/use cases
Understanding the pros and cons of different onboarding approaches: Freemium, Trial, Interactive Demos, and Sales Guy. Leah Tharin shares a short but useful guide to help you choose the right onboarding approach for b2b
Assumption testing - a complete guide by Teresa Torres. If I need to find resources about user discovery, I always start with Teresa. In this new guide, she covers assumption testing extensively and from multiple angles: basic theory and concepts, taxonomy, documenting, tracking, and lots of “how to” and practical examples
APIs: an intro guide for non-technical PMs. APIs act as invisible bridges connecting software applications and enabling them to communicate and share data seamlessly. As a PM, you have likely worked with them, or at least encountered them in engineering conversations. While you don’t need to be an expert in the technical details, having a foundational understanding is crucial, and will help you navigating decisions
Start right before you get eaten by the bear: how to avoid backstory scope creep, by Wes Kai. Front-loading a story with too much context is a losing situation for both sides. If you’re leading, too much backstory means less time to get the feedback you need, hash the issues out, or make the decision. If you’re on the listening end, you get lost in irrelevant details and zone out while muting yourself and replying to Slacks. The way to avoid it is to aim for what Wes calls the minimum viable backstory. Ask yourself: What’s the minimum backstory necessary to set the context, so we can spend time on the important stuff? The goal is to share just enough to get your idea across with “an economy of words”
That’s all for this week! Let me know what you think by replying back to this email or commenting on Substack
Angel