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Figma: The Design OS at the AI Crossroads
You can listen to the Deep Dive here
Back in 2011, Dylan Field, then a 18-year old intern at the social magazine startup Flipboard, found himself wrestling with clunky design software. He was frustrated by Adobe Fireworks and wondered aloud why designing on a computer couldn’t be as seamless
The Social Media Ban Wagon
A programming note: I hope to publish my Deep Dive on Figma tomorrow. Next month, following the big tech’s earnings I will review Meta, Amazon, and Alphabet’s 10-Ks and update my models. As it’s been the case for the last couple of years, I won’t publish
Some charts that caught my attention
a16z recently published their “State of Markets” presentation. I will share some of the charts from the presentation that caught my attention.
First of all, I do want to highlight a key limitation of a16z’s data; they mention that the presentation only includes data voluntarily provided to a16z by
The Bull Case for AI Content on UGC Platforms
Yesterday, Ben Thompson interviewed Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters. I don’t cover Netflix, but this particular bit on “AI Slop” caught my attention:
Ben Thompson: Is AI slop going to save you? If it overwhelms the UGC platforms and basically it’s like you’re a refuge, so this is
The Case for Giving Employees More Agency in Compensation
Whenever software companies take a beating in the market, their elevated stock based compensation (SBC) becomes a talking point between bulls and bears. As the stocks tumble, some atypical investors start to look at SaaS companies and often get dissuaded pretty fast after taking a look at their excessive executive
The Great SaaS Debate
Software is having one of its periodic identity crises. Instead of writing yet another think piece on the future of SaaS, let me curate today a wide range of point of views that I came across on this debate which I think will help you think through the high pitched
The Slow Singularity
I often come across almost a steady stream of tweets from people mostly in tech (and sometimes in finance) that imply you have a very short period of time left to “escape the permanent underclass”. These tweets have a tinge of humor and warning associated with such an outlook of
Incentives > Intelligence: The Real Barrier(s) to Agentic AI
A few days ago, I came across this reels through which I got to know about Amazon’s new “Buy For Me” feature. This feature, however, created some controversies. From Modern Retail:
“Amazon’s “Buy For Me” feature allows users to purchase products from third-party websites without leaving Amazon’s
The Misunderstood Utility of Search Ads
I have been increasingly noticing an overwhelming negative perception on search ads. Ben Thompson often mentions how search ads can feel like skimming the advertisers as Google collects rent on economic activity that would likely happen anyway. Notice this piece from 2022:
“…oftentimes search ads feel like a rake on
TSMC's Green Signal
A Programming Note: I will take a personal day tomorrow, so there won’t be any new post tomorrow.
TSMC’s 4Q’25 call was quite reassuring for AI bulls. Many investors look at TSMC as an important barometer for assessing the cycle as TSMC is deeply incentivized to ensure