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Welcome to Volume 129 👋🏽
Happy Thursday!
March is a day shy from being over, and the month has been quite eventful: the AI wars are still ongoing, with Microsoft and Google fighting to keep up with OpenA,I and other apps trying to do the same. Canva also launched a suite of magic AI tools.
In this week’s email, we cover:
- 🛑 Notable leaders call all AI labs to suspend operations for six months
- 🚀 How Linktree Became Worth $1.3 Billion [Case Study]
- 👀 What’s the latest in B2B SaaS this week?
- 🧠 This week’s brain food
- ➕ The best content across the web and job vacancies to consider
Let’s dive in.
🎧 Listen to the latest Create Like the Greats episode while you work to hear Ross Simmonds break down how to navigate a recession.
AI UPDATE
🛑 Notable Leaders Ask AI Labs to Halt Operations
Since OpenAI released the first iteration of ChatGPT in November last year, the world of work hasn’t been the same.
It’s becoming increasingly obvious that conversational chat is the future of web search, and Google, Bing, and other search engines are fighting hard to gain dominance. Then there’s GPT-4 and OpenAI allowing other tools to incorporate its features.
(I should mention the ChatGPT guru who starts off posts with “99% of people are using ChatGPT wrong” 😅😅😅. I’ve bookmarked many of these posts, but hardly read them 🫣).
While there have been mixed reactions about the innovation, many notable tech leaders had been silent until Tuesday this week.
1,280 notable leaders, such as Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, and Tristan Harris of the Center for Humane Technology, signed an open letter calling on all AI labs to pause training AI systems more powerful than GPT-4 for at least six months.
Here’s an excerpt of the letter:
TechCrunch shares that engineers from Meta and Google also appended their signatures. That’s interesting 🧐. Could Google be worried about losing market share, especially with Bard falling behind Bing chat and Microsoft’s alliance with OpenAI? 🤔 Or are there truly job and safety issues we should be concerned about?
I believe generative AI tools are super helpful thinking partners for subject matter experts and writers with expert research skills. It’s also great for brainstorming and writing quick email responses and it eliminates writer’s block.
However, one thing I agree with from the letter is how AI spits out false information with so much confidence. Anyone who isn’t skilled in research or doesn’t like fact-checking will flood our information/distribution channels with misinformation.
As for automating all our jobs, I don’t think AI is there yet, especially because its generic answers require a human expert touch. These tools could get there someday, but it doesn’t hit the mark for now. That’s why no one should rely on them alone.
You can read the full letter here.
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We cover critical issues such as the importance of product vs. brand, the impact of social media channels on revenue, and the relationship between blog posts and traffic. The full report is only available to Lab Insiders.
SAAS MARKETING
🚀 How Linktree Became Worth $1.3 Billion [Case Study]
30 million+.
Linktree had this many users as of March 2022, with nearly 40,000 signups per day.
But that’s just scratching the surface.
The freemium link-in-bio app has a $1.3 billion valuation and received numerous industry recognition. It was named one of Fast Company’s top ten most innovative companies of 2020 and featured on CNBC’s 2019 “Upstart 100” list of brightest young startups.
Linktree’s growth from zero to 30 million+ users in just six years is impressive, especially considering it had no funding and was temporarily banned from Instagram for “breaking community standards” two years after its initial launch. Right now, the same Instagram generates more than 60% of Linktree’s organic social media traffic.
If you’re wondering about the strategy Linktree used to achieve such rapid growth, you should become an insider today. I dive deep into the product-led marketing strategy that led to a billion-dollar valuation in six years, with more than 30 million global users.
Become an Insider today to read this case. It drops tomorrow, right in your inbox! Don’t miss out.
👀 What’s the Latest in B2B SaaS This Week?
💰 Alpine Investors-backed wellness marketplace company Ingenio has acquired Simple Habit, a meditation app that Y Combinator and Foundation Capital backed.
📌Orb, a SaaS pricing platform, secured $19.1 million in Series A funding to acquire more customers, implement go-to-market strategies, and invest in research and development.
🥷🏽 Substack is offering a community fundraising round where writers can invest in, and have ownership of, the company.
🧠 This Week’s Brain Food
How often do you take the time to reflect on your own actions?
It’s easy to get caught up in work and forget to evaluate your own performance. But taking the time to appraise yourself reveals your strengths and areas for growth more clearly.
When you clearly understand your own performance, you are better equipped to make decisions that improve your relationship with your team and boost your overall productivity. Block some time on your calendar each day or week to review how you’re doing and identify areas where you can improve going forward.
Remember, reflecting on your performance is just as important as working. So, prioritize personal assessment and development, and watch your productivity soar!
🏆 Hiring Brilliant B2B Marketers
🏅 Twitter Thread of the Week
3 content audit tips by Michaela Mendes
🎖️ LinkedIn Post of the Week
An open Letter to anyone who wants to create content that generates results the easy way by Ross Simmonds
🤳🏽 Nice Finds You Should Binge
- How Zendesk’s Website Content Strategy Does More with Less
- Don’t Fall Prey To These Content Distribution Misconceptions
- How to Become Insanely Well-Connected | First Round Review
- The Top 20 ABM Marketing Tools For 2023
🎧 What We’re Wired Into This Week:
How to Navigate a Recession (Create Like The Greats Podcast)
This charcuterie board of insights is brought to you by me, Jessica Tee O. ✌🏾!
