notes & upside

notes & upside is a Substack focusing on the technological and startup landscapes, examining strategies for business defensibility, the impact of software innovations, and the evolving dynamics of infrastructure markets, automation, AI, and investment trends within tech and startup ecosystems. It provides insights into company-specific strategies like Twilio and Etsy, and broader market phenomena such as open source adoption and cloud computing.

Tech Industry Trends Startup Strategies and Insights Software and B2B Business Models Investment and Venture Capital Trends Automation and Robotics Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Data Infrastructure and Analytics Cloud Computing Evolution E-commerce Platforms Open Source Software Product Analytics Natural Language Processing

The hottest Substack posts of notes & upside

And their main takeaways

Modern Software Moats

98 implied HN points • 31 May 21
  1. Defensibility is crucial in business to sustain market leadership as competition grows in all markets.
  2. Counter-positioning, building communities, and leveraging platforms are effective strategies for creating defensibility in modern software and B2B businesses.
  3. Switching costs, cornered resources, and process power are common moats that software companies build to establish defensibility and competitive advantage.

Twilio: The Next Act 📞

39 implied HN points • 12 Oct 20
  1. Twilio has a durable business that can reach over $100B in value by focusing on the API economy.
  2. Twilio sustained success by building a strong developer community and continuously expanding its product portfolio.
  3. Twilio is transitioning from a communication platform to a holistic customer engagement platform through acquisitions and new product launches.

Why We Need Etsy 🛒

39 implied HN points • 01 Jul 20
  1. Etsy's stock has seen significant growth and is positioned to be a key player in ecommerce.
  2. Consumers choose Etsy for unique handmade items and human connection in shopping.
  3. Small businesses benefit from Etsy's marketplace model and flexibility, especially during times like the mask frenzy.

Open Source by Default

2 HN points • 07 Feb 23
  1. Open source software (OSS) is publicly accessible, allowing anyone to modify, view, and distribute the source code.
  2. Open source is becoming the default choice in many purchasing decisions due to advantages like community-driven development, extensibility, and security.
  3. Investing in open source startups progresses from early adoption at seed stage to refining sales at series A and scaling with enterprise sales at series B.

Compound Startups

1 HN point • 16 Jun 23
💼 Business Startups Software Investing Business Models
  1. More startups are embracing a "compound" business approach that integrates multiple products in one coherent offering.
  2. Software has shifted from a long period of unbundling to a new era favoring consolidation through compound businesses.
  3. Compound businesses excel in offering integrated products across multiple services and provide flexibility in monetization and customer acquisition.
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The Evolution of Infrastructure Markets — Cloud Computing

0 implied HN points • 01 Nov 22
  1. Large infrastructure markets are created when new enabling technologies 10x their predecessors and demand catalysts create problems for a wide range of applications.
  2. After providing initial infrastructure primitives, subsequent abstractions aim to balance ease-of-use, performance, and cost to remove customer burdens.
  3. New cloud-native markets can be challenging for cloud providers to enter, creating opportunities for startups targeting different users or buyers.

Investing in Data & ML: 2022

0 implied HN points • 15 Mar 22
  1. Public markets saw a wake-up call with high-growth tech stocks like Snowflake and MongoDB
  2. Record high M&A activity in 2021, big tech companies like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon made significant acquisitions
  3. Private markets continue to be founder-friendly with plenty of available capital and a focus on high-premium data/ML companies

Amplitude: Mad Men to Moneyball

0 implied HN points • 06 Oct 21
  1. Amplitude is a leader in product analytics, helping businesses make data-driven decisions and improve product experiences.
  2. Market trends like rise of bottoms-up businesses and shift to product-led growth are driving growth in the product analytics market.
  3. Amplitude's core products include Analytics, Recommend for personalization, and Experiment for feature management.

2020 closing thoughts

0 implied HN points • 15 Dec 20
  1. Venture capital funding has long feedback cycles, making evaluation of performance challenging.
  2. Successful startup investments focus on inflection points and durability for hypergrowth.
  3. Building a network in the VC field is about forming genuine connections through platforms like Twitter and Slack.

Accelerating Automation 🤖

0 implied HN points • 26 Mar 20
  1. Economic pressures could accelerate the shift towards automation in the labor market.
  2. Remote work trends are pushing companies to invest more in automation solutions.
  3. Hardware-driven robotics and software-driven automation are both key areas to watch for future developments.

The Evolution of Infrastructure Markets — Foundation Models

0 implied HN points • 06 Dec 22
  1. Abstractions in AI are similar to how cloud computing started with AWS providing storage and compute primitives, but now foundation models like OpenAI's GPT-3 are the catalyst for AI evolution.
  2. AI workflows with foundation models concentrate efforts on a few models for various use cases, necessitating tools for model training, adaptation, prompt engineering, and deployment.
  3. New AI-native problems arise around safety, compliance, and security with generative AI models, requiring shared responsibility between model providers, applications, and end users.

2021 (end of year)

0 implied HN points • 31 Dec 21
  1. Decide between exploring and optimizing opportunities
  2. Focus on markets over competition in software categories
  3. Being right is more important than being non-consensus in venture capital

Investing in Data [2021]

0 implied HN points • 11 Feb 21
  1. Data companies are becoming more prevalent as talent and technology advance.
  2. Changes in distribution, like open source adoption and partnerships, are shaping the data infrastructure landscape.
  3. The debate between data warehouse and data lake is evolving towards a 'LakeHouse' model, blending the best of both worlds.

Where Work Happens 💬

0 implied HN points • 10 Feb 20
  1. Collaboration is key in modern software like Slack
  2. Enterprise organizations are a major focus for platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams
  3. There are untapped opportunities for new players in vertical and horizontal applications for collaboration software

ChatGPT Plugins — Automation for Everyone

0 implied HN points • 11 Apr 23
🕹 Technology AI Platforms Consumer Products
  1. OpenAI introduced ChatGPT plugins, which allow the language model to access updated information and use third-party services.
  2. Each plugin serves a specific function like converting a recipe to a shopping cart, expanding ChatGPT's capabilities.
  3. The addition of plugins positions ChatGPT as a platform between end users and software applications, potentially changing how businesses interact with AI.

The State of NLP & LLMs

0 implied HN points • 28 Jul 22
  1. Natural Language Processing (NLP) has seen significant advancements in recent years
  2. Transformers have revolutionized how we process language in AI
  3. NLP offers commercial opportunities in automation, intelligence, and content generation

Unpacking Microsoft's Acquisition of Softomotive

0 implied HN points • 28 May 20
  1. Microsoft is making strategic moves to become a major player in the RPA market.
  2. The acquisition of Softomotive fills gaps and helps Microsoft expand its RPA footprint.
  3. Microsoft's investment in RPA tools, AI talent, and developer community positions it as a strong competitor in the market.

The Renewal of Travel Tech 🛫

0 implied HN points • 25 Apr 20
  1. Major players in the travel industry are facing financial challenges due to the pandemic, creating opportunities for innovative startups.
  2. The online travel booking ecosystem involves various players like airlines, hotels, Global Distribution Systems, and Online Travel Agencies.
  3. Future trends in travel tech include focusing on customer ownership, experience-based services, and addressing emerging problem spaces like group travel planning and disease prevention.

2022 (end of year)

0 implied HN points • 24 Dec 22
  1. The macro environment plays a significant role in financial success.
  2. The focus in venture capital is shifting from high valuations to sustainable partnerships.
  3. Globalization is declining, and businesses are adapting to more efficient models to stay profitable.