el producto #400 🚀
Nailing subscriptions, OpenAI Search, PayPal cashback and rewards,Snapchat "Lite," Generative UI, (Bad) Growth tactics, The sleep-creativity cycle & more
Hi folks 👋
Happy weekend and welcome to the 400th (!!) edition of el producto!
🎰 The week in figures
$1B: Former OpenAI Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskeve recently cofounded Safe Superintelligence (SSI), which has already raised $1B. While the company wouldn’t divulge its valuation, sources have been floating around a $5B valuation. It goes to show that, despite the recent drop in stock from AI heavyweights, investors are still willing to back exceptional founders with stellar resumes
$200M: Ride-hailing app Rapido just secured $200M in Series E funding at $1.1B valuation. India-based Rapido offers bike taxis, auto-rickshaws, taxicabs, food delivery, and third-party logistics services. Last month, it was reported they brought in $1B in GMV with 2+ million orders per day
80% of OpenAI’s staff joined after ChatGPT launched and only 3 of the 13 people who helped found the company are still there
15%: Chatbot startup Character.ai is laying off 15% of its staff
10.58% of news websites are now blocking Apple’s bot which is being used to train its AI models. “applebot-extended” is blocked by the likes of Wired and the New York Times with more potentially on the way as exclusivity deals start to get enforced
📰 What’s going on
OpenAI's initial prototype of SearchGPT was released to a select group of users. The platform uses AI to summarize information from various websites, providing concise answers with clearly marked sources. As the user feedback rolled in, it became clear that much work was needed to compete with the likes of Google. While some users reported positive results in areas like event planning and coding assistance, others reported false or even “hallucinated” information
Midjourney moves away from Discord and launches its own web platform. Midjourney now lets you create up to 25 images for free (on a temporary free trial), all without needing to sign up for Discord. The announcement came from CEO David Holz (yes, on Discord), but now you can use the tool directly through a dedicated web app
Instagram Stories are getting comments. Story comments can be turned on or off for any individual post. If enabled, comments can be seen by anyone following an account, but only mutuals can leave comments. Spotify recently rolled out a commenting section on podcasts and studies have shown that commenting - and replying to comments - can impact overall engagement level significantly
Snap’s CEO says the company is testing a ‘simplified’ version of Snapchat. In a letter to staff and shareholders, Evan Spiegel says early indications show that the changes have been ‘directionally positive’ during testing but it’s unclear if this simplified version will run in parallel to the existing version
Zoom is adding a smart name tag that allows you to automatically assign names to people in physical locations. A nice idea for the days where half the team are in the office and the rest are working remotely
X has launched a beta version of its TV app that will allow users to watch content on smart TVs
Users skyrocket for Brazilian social networking startup: Four days after Brazil’s ban on X, Brazilian social networking startup Bluesky has added over 2M new users. As engineers scrambled to stabilize servers amid the influx of new sign-ups, some users even experienced the occasional error message: “Not Enough Resources”. To put into perspective just how many users signed up over the weekend, app intelligence firm Appfigures reported a 10,584% increase in total downloads compared to the previous weekend, with a 1,018,952% increase in downloads from Brazil alone. If there was ever any doubt about the importance of social media in today's society, it's safe to say those doubts no longer exist
Revolut is rolling out dedicated crypto payment cards for spending on everyday items. Integrated with Apple Pay and Google Pay, the new virtual cards enable users to pay in person and online for shopping using crypto, from big budget items to everyday essentials, such as the daily commute and morning coffee
PayPal introduced rewards and stackable cashback offers. It enables PayPal Debit cardholders to receive 5% cash back on up to $1,000 in selected category spend per month
📚 Good reads
The sleep-creativity cycle - Why sleep is the secret ally of creative minds, by Anne-Laure Le Cunff. In the pursuit of creativity, a good night’s sleep might just be your most powerful tool. By prioritizing sleep, you’re not just resting your body, but actively supporting your creative cognition, which in turn will lead to better sleep
Six popular growth tactics … that don’t actually work. Elena Verna shares some popular over-superficial changes with little user value and practicality. I think I have failed with all of them
An introduction to Generative UIs, by Mark O’Neill. A nice and to-the-point guide to inspire you using AI to make user interfaces better, faster, and simpler. Complement with this other article by Deniz Can Demir, in which he presentes a conceptual framework to integrate ML and generative AI into UX workflows
How to price your subscription product: insights and examples. Yuri Berchenko, Product Partnerships Lead at YouTube outlines a few common strategies and models for setting pricing and shares practical tips and real-world examples
The Subscription Value Loop: A framework for growing consumer subscription businesses, by Phil Carter. Including case studies, templates, and 10 proven growth tactics from top consumer subscription apps like Duolingo, Spotify, Tinder, and Calm
Open Banking in the U.S. - a Guide to America’s Next Generation of Consumer Financial Data. A great explainer by Aeropay, including use-cases, costs and more
That’s 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