el producto #406 🚀
Becoming an AI PM, ChatGPT for Windows, Netflix growth, Google goes nuclear, Instagram profile cards, Annual planning resources, The global growth of Chinese apps & more
Hi folks 👋
Happy weekend and welcome to a new edition of el producto
🎰 The week in figures
$7.2B: Squarespace is no longer publicly traded after private equity firm Permira completed its acquisition, offering $46.50 per share and valuing the company at around $7.2B. Despite initial concerns from shareholders about the offer, the deal went through, marking one of the biggest take-private transactions of 2024. CEO Anthony Casalena will stay on, retaining a significant portion of his equity
$1B: Stripe is reportedly in talks to acquire crypto infrastructure startup Bridge for $1B as the fintech giant looks to deepen its involvement in stablecoins. The acquisition, still under negotiation, would be Stripe’s largest to date, helping them strengthen their crypto payment offerings. Bridge, founded by Zach Abrams and Sean Yu, supports stablecoin transactions and has processed over $5B in payments, serving major clients like SpaceX and Coinbase
$125M: Contabilizei, a Brazilian startup which automates accounting for small businesses and self-employed professionals, raised $125M
10: There were just 10 Vision Pro apps built last month
💸 Q3 results
Netflix crushes Q3 earnings: Netflix beat both top and bottom-line expectations in its Q3 earnings report. The results were welcome, with Netflix’s stock up around 11%. The streamer’s ad-tier memberships jumped 35% QoQ. Revenue: $9.83B vs. $9.77B expected. Paid memberships: 282.7M vs. 282.15M expected. Net income for the period was $2.36B, or $5.40 per share, up from $1.68B, or $3.73 per shareYoY. Revenue jumped 15% to $9.83B from $8.54B a year earlier
📰 What’s going on
Foldable iphones are reportedly coming in 2025, and Apple Smart Glasses to rival Meta's Ray-Bans specs are expected to launch in 2027
Google announced plans to work with Kairos Power to purchase power from “reactors to be built by nuclear-energy startup Kairos Power.” Put another way, AI-induced demand for low-carbon power generation is driving a nuclear power renaissance in the United States
YouTube is working on a new “captured with a camera” label that will let users know if a video has been recorded using a recognised camera device to help users understand when content is human vs AI generated
Instagram launches Profile Cards. The new two-sided profile cards are designed to make it easier for users to share their Instagram account with others, as you don’t have to send your handle to someone, you can just share the card with them
Emteq Labs unveils smart glasses that use advanced sensors and AI to track your facial movements and emotional states. One of the most intriguing applications is tracking eating habits: sense glasses can detect chewing patterns and, combined with an outward-facing camera, monitor food consumption
Perplexity expands to local data search: The company announced a new capability to search both the web and internal corporate documents simultaneously. The new feature will allow companies to better tap their internal data and knowledge, potentially extending Perplexity’s TAM
OpenAI is launching a dedicated ChatGPT app on Windows. It’s currently in preview to select users but should roll out more broadly later this year
Microsoft's VP of GenAI research to join OpenAI. Sebastien Bubeck move follows a series of departures from OpenAI, including that of longtime chief technology officer Mira Murati in September
Revolut launched its own payment terminal for small businesses to compete with incumbents like Square and Adyen
Airtable has unveiled ProductCentral, a major new release designed specifically for Product teams. It consists of an integrated package that includes features like roadmaps, customer feedback, and other Product-oriented items
Adobe launched Project Concept, an AI-powered mood boarding tool which looks a little bit like a Photoshop-powered Miro board, designed to be used in the early stages of a Product design process
Intercom has launched the second iteration of its chatbot Fin, with new capabilities including the ability to perform actions on behalf of users during customer support queries. Thanks to third party API integrations, Fin 2 can do things like assist customers with payment queries by checking Stripe for payment amounts and understand why payments weren’t processed correctly. It’s a step towards AI customer support agents becoming not just knowledge hubs but autonomous agents who can solve problems by performing actions
Zoom has filed a patent which measures how engaged users are in meetings. Zoom’s tech relies on a trained model to pick out which meeting participants spoke the most, and who stayed on mute
📚 Good reads
Annual planning sucks. A CPO, CRO, CFO and COO share advice on how to make it better. First Round Review brings a detailed resource that helps execs put together pain-free, actually useful annual plans. Includes templates, stories from stellar companies, tactical examples and previews of how they’re incorporating AI into their 2025 annual plans
How to become an AI PM. Aakash Gupta shares a framework to get ready for AI roles. The detailed version is paid
Setting boundaries that work. It’s often said that “saying No” is a top PM skill. However, it’s not always easy, nor comfortable. Anne-Laure Le Cunff shares the reasons why this happens and some valuable advice
What tools are Product Managers using the most? Mind the Product shares the results of a poll sent to +500 PMs, asking which tools they are finding most valuable. Note: Pendo owns Mind the Product 🤔
The growing presence of Chinese apps on the world stage. Adjust and SensorTower explore how Chinese apps are expanding their reach across markets and industries. While gaming remains a key vertical, the rapid rise of AI-powered and short drama apps marks a new era of export growth. These emerging verticals, along with the ongoing success in social media, entertainment, shopping, utilities, and finance, highlight the forward-thinking and inventive approach of Chinese app developers
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