Cursor's Conundrum

I don’t quite follow private companies closely. OpenAI and Anthropic are perhaps the only exceptions; I had to make the exception because they are simply too big to ignore and likely will have profound impact on how AI shapes the broader tech industry in the next 5-10 years. Cursor

Beyond the "Search" Box

Anecdotally, we have all been hearing some version of this in the last few months, at least on twitter: “After I started using ChatGPT, my Google search usage went down a LOT!” While Google bears increasingly depict a visceral visualization of Google increasingly being replaced by ChatGPT, Google search bull

Maravai 2Q'25 Update

I cannot recall a company’s stock going up 30% after management decided to withdraw its previously shared guidance. Of course, despite the 30% pop after Q2 earnings, most shareholders likely feel like the below meme! There are, however, good reasons why the stock reacted like that. I will share

Golden age of Digital Ads, LLM P&L

Golden age of Digital Ads Last month, some researchers at Meta published a very interesting paper that highlighted Meta’s ability to monetize LLMs through its core advertising platform. Meta management sort of alluded to some of these during earnings calls, but this paper really drove the point home for

ChatGPT's Edge, Tech Talent Retention

GPT-5 had bit of a mixed reaction. I was initially excited about the much cleaner UI (no more selecting models; to be fair, I was using o3 for 95% of my queries anyway). However, it didn’t take me too long to realize GPT-5 is “thinking” considerably less than o3

CoStar Multifamily vs Zillow Rentals

Each quarter, I closely track Zillow rentals revenue to gauge how the competitive dynamics between Zillow Rentals and CoStar multifamily segment (mainly Apartments.com) is evolving. At first glance, it may appear Zillow Rentals is really eating Apartments.com’s lunch for the last few years as Zillow Rentals revenue

Shopify's Surprise, XPEL 2Q'25

Shopify’s Surprise I started buying Shopify in February 2022 in the $80s. I eventually averaged down which led to my average buy price to be ~$39/share, but the stock kept going down and found bottom in the mid-20s. I eventually sold my position in mid-$40s (sold at

Digital Advertising Snapshot, Corpay 2Q'25, Portfolio Change

Digital Advertising Snapshot As is the tradition in every earnings season, I am sharing my digital advertising Snapshot after 2Q’25 earnings. Three key takeaways: 1. For the nine consecutive quarters, Meta has outpaced Google in terms of incremental share. If Meta’s guide is any indication, that will almost

Airbnb 2Q'25 Update

Airbnb had a decent quarter. While nights booked decelerated to 7%, both Gross Booking Value (GBV) and revenue increased by double digit rate. Q2 started with a lot of economic uncertainty from tariffs but demand on Airbnb accelerated from April to July. However, the company cited impending hard comps for

Novelty bias and future of software engineering, Social's growing share in ad dollars

Alex Telford, who mostly writes on healthcare adjacent topics, recently published this interesting piece: “Thoughts on the future of software development as a non-developer”. Allow me to digress from the core point of the piece, but the below paragraph stood out to me: One of the larger workflow changes post-LLMs