el producto #388 š
Apple Intelligence, AI startups funding, BeReal getting acquired, How Figma gets users to pay, Metrics reviews, Use Perplexity AI in your PM work & more
Hey friends,
Happy weekend and welcome to a new edition of el producto!
š° The week in figures
$3.4B: OpenAIās revenue isĀ pipped to have more than doubledĀ in less than a year, putting the yet-private AI giant on a $3.4B run rate
$2.4B: Databricks is alsoĀ scaling quickly, underscoring that while many tech companies are struggling to grow, there are standouts in the market today. Databricks is now on a $2.4B run rate. Itās huge
$698M: Italian AI startup iGenius is in talks with potential investors to raise a funding round of ā¬650M ($698M). CEO Uljan Sharka confirmed that the firm is eyeing a post-money valuation of ā¬1.7B ($1.8B). The fundraising news comes days after it unveiled "Italia," an open-source AI model catering to financial service organizationsĀ
$650M: AI-powered market intelligence platform AlphaSense secured $650M in funding at a $4B valuation. The funding round will help AlphaSense acquire rival expert research startup Tegus for $930M
$640M: French AI startup Mistral AI has closed its Series B funding roundĀ at ā¬600M ($640M). Its most advanced proprietary model, Mistral Large, is offered through commercial APIs along with generative AI tools like coding assistant Codestral and chatbot Le Chat
$500M: BeReal isĀ getting acquired for $500M by game publisher Voodoo,Ā and its CEO is stepping down
$211M: Low-cost DIY computer maker Raspberry PiĀ went public on the London Stock Exchange this week, with its shares initially priced at Ā£2.80 and rising 32% to Ā£3.70. The IPO generated Ā£166M ($211M), making it the second-largest in UK this year
96.3%: App churn rates on iOS areĀ growing,Ā and day 30 churn rates now sit atĀ 96.3%
50% of code created at Google is now AI assisted, according to a new research paper. In other words, the same amount of characters in the code are now completed with AI-based assistance as are manually typed by developers
š° Whatās going on
SpotifyĀ is launching aĀ new featureĀ that combines features like its AI DJ, Daylist, Blend playlist and the āMade For Youā playlist into a āone-stop shop full of personalised playlists, podcasts, features, and recommendations for each and every listener.ā Hopefully the product teams at Spotify will also start to simplify other aspects of their UX which has become bloated over the years
AppleāsĀ WWDC kicked off this week. Hereās the software announcements Product teams should know about:
Apple Intelligence is getting added across the Apple ecosystem. This includes genAI capabilities inĀ Xcode for teamsĀ building Apple apps, image generation features and text summarization. All in all, it was Apple playing catch up
A newĀ standalone passwordĀ management app is to replace iCloud keychain
Generative AI emojis known asĀ GenmojisĀ are coming to iOS18
iPadOS is getting aĀ new floating tabĀ bar which can be used in iPad apps to add extra context
visionOS 2Ā brings new featuresĀ including 3D photo enhancements and an ultrawide Mac display. Are people still using their Vision Pro devices?Ā This threadĀ sheds some light onto the topic
Tap to Cash, which will let users pay each other via NFC phone taps, without exchanging information. It'sĀ unclearĀ which payment methods (just cards, or also Apple Cash wallet balances) will be enabled
YouTubeĀ is rolling out itsĀ new testing toolĀ which will allow creators to test multiple thumbnails at the same time
Bank and card issuerĀ Capital OneĀ partneredĀ with global payment facilitatorsĀ AdyenĀ andĀ StripeĀ toĀ launchĀ Direct Data Share, a free open-source solution aimed at combating fraud and enhancing real-time authorisation decisions. If Capital One detects fraud at a Stripe merchant and notices the same IP address attempting a transaction at an Adyen merchant, the system can block that transaction in real-time
š Good reads
The weekly metrics review - how to actually be data driven. Inconsistent definitions and misaligned expectations lead great teams to move quicklyā¦ in different directions. Elena Verna proposes a reference touchpoint to help organizations stay aligned around the metrics that matter
How Figma converts users from freemium to premium. A UX analysis of Figmaās monetization strategies by Rosie Hoggmascall
Presenteeism, the silent productivity killer, by Anne-Laure Le Cunff. āPresenteeism is working longer hours than needed and showing up even when sick. Studies suggest that presenteeism can have a greater impact than absenteeism on your business in terms of performance and productivity. But, more importantly, it can have terrible consequences in terms of mental and physical healthā
Grow as a leader. Leah Tharin shares a thoughtful piece on what holds leaders back from growing further and what can they do about it:
Donāt ask others to grow when you canāt demonstrate to them that youāre willing to grow yourself
People will treat you differently because of the title you have, and not always in a good way
Good feedback is uncomfortable; foster it actively instead of being defensive
How to use Perplexity AI in your PM work, by Lenny Rachitsky. 27 examples (with actual prompts) of how Product Managers are using the AI-powered search engine today
Thatās all for this week. As usual, feel free to reach out and share your thoughts by replying back to this email or commenting on Substack
Thanks for your support!
Angel