Contrary Research Rundown #24
Building customer love, and new memos on Linear, Sourcegraph, and more
Research Rundown
The world is becoming increasingly noisy. More products, more sales pitches, more demands on time, attention, and budgets. For software companies, it's become increasingly difficult to stand out. In a recent blog post, Evan Armstrong made the argument that a businesses core responsibilities are "(1) Create stuff, (2) Acquire customer to buy stuff, and (3) Distribute that stuff." The internet made the cost of distribution near zero, and now with the recent wave of generative AI, the cost of creation is also approaching zero. The only costly activity left? Customer acquisition.
In an increasingly noisy world, companies have turned to unique ways of acquiring their customers. One significant trend has been the rise of product-led growth. Companies have let their products do the talking for them, attracting customers not with expensive marketing campaigns or flashy advertising, but with high-quality features and easy-to-use functionality.
Over time, the focus on product quality gave rise to an emphasis on user communities. Open source, developer-focus, and the consumerization of enterprise SaaS made it increasingly important to meet your users where they were. Many of the memos we're releasing this week are built around these trends. Companies like Common Room exist to help companies better understand their communities of users. Products like Sourcegraph and Linear were built with customer delight in mind. Products have shifted their focus to be customer-obsessed, rather than sales-obsessed. "If you build it, they will come."
On March 21st, we're excited to host some of the people behind these products who are working to solidify the love their users feel. Our very own VP of Product at Contrary, Jen Yang-Wong, will host a virtual event with leaders from companies like Vercel, Sourcegraph, and HashiCorp to unpack the magic behind supporting a community of users, and how to build products in a way that ensures customer delight. Space is limited, so be sure to register here to lock in your spot for this event.
Zocdoc allows patients to find nearby healthcare providers who accept their insurance and book appointments instantly online. For health providers, it aims to improve access to care by aggregating millions of in-person and virtual appointments To learn more, read our full memo here.
Common Room provides a unified intelligence dashboard across a company’s community, providing real-time insights to inform actions and quantify its contributions to the business. To learn more, read our full memo here.
Linear is a design-focused issue-tracking and project management tool that helps create a more enjoyable and efficient way to manage the software development process. To learn more, read our full memo here.
Sourcegraph offers universal code search, batch changes, and queryable code insights to improve developer productivity and happiness while working across different code bases and languages. To learn more, read our full memo here.
DeepL is a machine translation platform that enables companies to translates written communications into over 40 different languages, while capturing specific linguistic nuances. To learn more, read our full memo here.
Elon Musk has approached AI researchers about forming a new research lab to develop a ChatGPT alternative. Check out our deep dive on ChatGPT's parent company, OpenAI
Meta is forming a team to get generative AI into its products, led by Ahmad Al-Dahle, who joined Meta in 2020 after 16 years at Apple.
Autonomous drone manufacturer Skydio, used by the Ukrainian military, raised a $230 million $2.2B valuation. Check out our memo on Hadrian, another startup building in the defense industry.
Snapchat is introducing a chatbot powered by the latest version of OpenAI’s ChatGPT for Snapchat+ subscribers. Check out our memo on OpenAI.
An overview of the challenges in the vertical farming landscape after billions of dollars of venture capital funding over the past few years. Check out our memo on Bowery Farming.
Audio transcription tool Descript published a list of AI-powered tools for creators across video editing, podcasting, music, and writing.
Autonomous driving technology company Waymo is going to test driverless rides in Los Angeles.
Reddit CEO defends Section 230 on New York Times Hard Fork podcast. Check out our memo on Reddit.
Canada follows US and Europe with the TikTok ban on government devices due to national security concerns.
Redpoint Ventures’ Tomasz Tunguz on the implications of increased regulatory scrutiny for startup acquisitions. To unpack some of the details around Adobe's attempted acquisition of Figma, check out our deep dive on the design market.
Yuga Labs announced the NFT project TwelveFold, which contains limited-edition generative art pieces inscribed to the Bitcoin blockchain. Check out our memo on NFT marketplace OpenSea.
Jack Dorsey backed decentralized social network Bluesky debuts in the App Store as an invite-only beta; Twitter started Bluesky in 2019 and spun off the project in 2022.
Elad Gil’s blog post on how mid-to-late-stage tech startups will likely face a reckoning in late 2023 to 2024 as companies run out of cash from “free rounds” fueled by low-interest rates.
Instacart told employees that its Q4 revenue increased 50%+ YoY, Q4 gross profit rose 80%+ YoY, and 2022 revenue grew 39% YoY to ~$2.5B.
A group of companies, including OpenAI, TikTok, Adobe, BBC, and Bumble, have signed up for a new set of guidelines on responsibly building, creating, and sharing AI-generated content.
London-based Revolut reports £636M in 2021 revenue, a third coming from its crypto trading business, and a £26M net profit. Check out our memo on Greenlight, another banking app.
Former FTX Director of Engineering Nishad Singh pleads guilty to US criminal charges. Check our memo on Kraken, another crypto exchange.
Microsoft’s Head of Bing wrote a blog post about the engineering behind their new chatbot.
OpenAI launched a ChatGPT API for businesses with dedicated capacity plans, priced at $0.002/~750 words, and says Snap and Shopify are among the early adopters.
A look at India’s homegrown digital payments system UPI, which is run by a nonprofit organization NPCI and is now used by ~300M individuals and 50M merchants.
Baseball legend Alex Rodriguez and Former Walmart ecommerce President Marc Lore have raised $20 million for Jump, a new ticketing and fan experience startup.
EU regulators are likely to approve Microsoft's $69B Activision Blizzard acquisition, satisfied by the company's Nintendo and Nvidia licensing deals. Check out our memos on two other gaming giants, Epic Games and Niantic.
Canva, the Australian graphic design player, launched Canva for Campus, a new subscription for universities and colleges. Check out our memo on Canva here.