el producto #405 🚀
Uber Green, Google dropping ad share, Venmo and Stripe updates, Miro's innovation workspace, Planning resources, Career manifesto, The emerging startup playbook & more
Hi folks 👋
Happy weekend and welcome to a new edition of el producto
🎰 The week in figures
$267M: Human Interest, a startup that lets smaller companies offer retirement plans and 401k's, raised $267M at a $1.33B valuation
$148M: Asaas, a Brazilian company that makes financial software for small- and medium-sized businesses, raised a $148M Series C
$135M: EvenUp, an AI startup focused on personal injury law, just raised $135M, pushing its valuation over $1B. Over 1,000 law firms already use EvenUp’s product to streamline case prep and document analysis, hoping for fairer settlements faster
$130M: atVenu, a payment solutions provider for live events, raised $130M
50%: Google is set to drop below 50% of the search ad revenue market for the first time within the next year. But it’s not AI startups eating away at Google’s dominance (yet). It’s Amazon. It turns out quietly building a search ad engine eventually pays off after all. But, Perplexity is preparing its own ad-funded model with OpenAI and others likely to follow suit, too
📰 What’s going on
Google Docs is getting a new tabs feature which makes it easier for writers to break down complex topics and for readers to navigate them
Google could be headed for a breakup: If it happens, it will take years. If it happens at all. But, a judge overseeing a case that Google lost regarding whether or not it has a search monopoly has laid out possible remedies for the company’s infractions. Among the list are limiting Google’s ability to force companies to opt-in to its AI products if they want to be indexed in its search service, and sharing data with smaller search companies to ensure a robust market
Miro launched it’s biggest product update since its inception, including:
Docs: “Turn your ideas into structured product briefs, research insights, or workshop summaries with the help of AI”
Tables: “Transform brainstorms into clear project plans using tables and timelines to track progress and sync tasks effortlessly”
Prototypes: “Speed up your customer feedback loop by letting AI transform your canvas ideas into interactive prototypes in seconds”
AWS Cloud View & Cost Calculator: “Automatically visualize your AWS infrastructure and estimate costs in real-time, right within Miro”
Adobe Integration: “Create and edit images and videos directly in Miro with Adobe Express”
Bring Your Own AI: “Connect your company's AI model to run Miro AI features. We're starting with OpenAI (including through Azure), with support for Gemini and Anthropic coming soon”
Uber announced Uber Green: Uber's annual Go-Get conference in London brings exciting updates, especially for EV enthusiasts. The company is transitioning its Uber Green service to fully electric in 40 cities worldwide, reflecting the surge in EV drivers on its platform. Now, riders can adjust their app settings to prioritize an EV if they’re nearby. They’re also launching a chatbot in 2025 to help drivers figure out things like which EV to buy and where to charge. Plus, they’re rolling out a mentorship program where EV drivers can earn rewards by helping others make the switch
Jira is overhauling the language it uses across its core products. All items were previously known as “issues” which had the unintended side effect of making everything piece of work feel like a problem or bug that needed to be solved. This is sometimes the case, of course, but not always. Atlassian’s team now allow users to choose what they want users to call their work including “tasks”, “subtasks”, “blockers”
Venmo (PayPal subsidiary) launched new features to let users schedule one-time or recurring payments and payment requests
We’re rolling out the ability for Venmo users to schedule one-time or recurring payments or requests with friends and family in the Venmo app, making it easier than ever to make regular payments using Venmo for things like splitting rent or utilities
PayPal also broadened its international footprint with the launch of its Complete Payments platform in China, and used its proprietary PYUSD stablecoin to pay an invoice for the first time
Stripe announced a bunch of new features including the ability for businesses to process payments on a dozen other providers (including Worldpay) while still using Stripe, multiprocessor support, improved analytics and enhanced usage-based billing for Stripe Billing, and payment receipt within a few hours for US businesses for fre
Stripe also rolled out new stablecoin features this week – with support for businesses to accept payments in USDC – and in the first 24 hours, customers from 70+ countries have paid with stablecoins
Snapchat is planning to monetize the main chat feed and maps with ads
Tesla’s unveiled their new Robotaxi, Cybercab, Robovan, and household Robot. This was all announced at their event “We, Robot.” TSLA 0.00%↑ stock is down big time
📚 Good reads
Non-obvious behaviors that will kill your startup. Andy Vandervell argues that inertia is the default mode of most companies. Plans are important, but they shouldn’t be your guiding principle—customer and business impact is. When something more valuable for your users comes up, be flexible and adjust quickly. And when you’re tempted to delay launching for perfection, ask yourself: What’s more valuable, feedback from real users and fixing something important to them now, or an extra week of polish?
A two-minute career manifesto for ambitious people. Dan Hockenmaier explains that there are two games you can play in your career—focusing on making the company better (Game One) or focusing on boosting your own image (Game Two). Too many people chase the wrong game, and it backfires. If you spend all your time trying to look good for promotions and titles, you miss the bigger opportunities that come from actually solving important problems. Play the right game and watch the doors open
Inside how Stripe crafts quality products. Stripe is a company that’s widely known for its focus on craft and quality. Katie Dill, Stripe’s Head of Design (and former Head of Design at Airbnb and Lyft), presents a deep dive into Stripe’s rituals and principles to produce surprisingly great work
Quarterly planning resources. Ok, ok, we are two weeks into Q4 already, but that also means we are two weeks closer to Q1 2025 planning 🙈. Wherever you are in your planning prcess, Sten shares a list of resources worth bookmarking
The power of default choices. Adam Fishman explains what it means to use “opinionated defaults,” including successful examples from Patreon, AirBnB, Box, Canva, GoFundMe, Perplexity, Lyft, and Yelp, and a framework for deciding on your own defaults
The emerging startup playbook. Eight learnings from the next generation of software by Kyle Poyar
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