Google Cloud unveils new generative AI products, Whispp creates AI phone-calling app

Top News

Google Cloud unveils new generative AI products designed to help retailers personalize their online shopping experiences and streamline operations. - Link

Whispp brings voice boxes into the millennium with its AI-powered assistive speech and phone-calling app. - Link

Microsoft finishes the second phase of its rollout of a data localization offering in the European Union. - Link

Gabriel’s urban intelligence infrastructure aims to create safer neighborhoods across Latin America by integrating cameras and computer vision with routine police operations. - Link

Overmoon, a vacation rental startup, aims to combine the best of Airbnbs and hotels, where the company owns the homes and has more control over the quality and maintenance of the properties. - Link

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Advice of the Day

9 Things the Best Founders Do to Build a Great Company

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, shares 9 key principles for building a successful company:

1. Understand users by doing customer support and spending time with them.

2. Embrace short cycle times and leverage compound growth for continuous improvement.

3. Commit to the long term, viewing companies as 10-year projects for better decision-making.

4. Stay lean in the early stages until everything works well, allowing for flexibility.

5. Focus on building a strong team.

6. Prioritize relentless execution and attention to detail for a positive customer experience.

7. Persevere through challenges, as startups often involve repeated setbacks before success.

8. Acknowledge the importance of self-care during the entrepreneurial journey.

9. Develop a clear mission early on to attract talent, drive founders, and build a passionate user base.

Read more here.

Startup Demo of the Day:

pre.dev is a platform that simplifies the initial stages of software development. Users can chat with the pre.dev AI and receive full software architecture, recommended tech stack, statements of work, and automatic creation of JIRA tasks. You can also request developers to build out the project.

Founder University is a 12-week pre-accelerator program run by Jason/LAUNCH for builder founders. We're investing $25k in 20-30 companies from Cohort 7. Apply at founder.university/letsbuild.

This Week in Startups

E1877: Jason and Jon from Halcyon discuss ransomware's resurgence, anonymity in attacks, and counteraction strategies, citing the 2023 MGM and Caesar's ransomware incidents. They highlight Halcyon's endpoint agent and touch on hacker markets, AI, multi-factor authentication, global cybersecurity, privacy on platforms like TikTok, and threats to the American power grid. - Watch

E1876: Sunny Madra joins Jason, showcasing demos on room decor customization, upgrading stock photos with FaceID Plus, creating and purchasing clothing designs with Pixite's generative AI, and AI-assisted image editing by Storia Lab, among others.

E1875: A discussion featuring Bill Gurley, Brad Gerstner, and Jason Calacanis covers various tech market aspects, including startup shutdowns, market insights, Altimeter's activity, reflections on IPOs, Series B/C deals, starting a company, venture success, Silicon Valley talent, AI impact, and Meta and Apple's positions in AI. - Watch

E1874: Cecilia Ziniti joins Jason to discuss the NY Times vs. OpenAI lawsuit, delving into legal aspects such as fair use, attribution defense, and potential outcomes. They also explore parallels with past cases like Roy Orbison vs. Two Live Crew and Google vs. Java, providing insights into the legal challenges in the context of digital platforms. - Watch

E1873: Sunny Madra and Jason discuss 2024 AI predictions, including bets on AI-generated music hitting the top 100, AI hosting a TWiST segment, an AI-generated Pixar short going mainstream, local deployment of small AI models on mobile devices, and the rise of open-source multimodal models. The conversation also touches on music industry dynamics, the New York Times lawsuit's implications, and OpenAI's financial success. - Watch

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