IMO doing this sort of ad campaign spend at this stage isn't a great sign. It can be a sign that the product isn't growing organically as hoped.

It's also a very competitive space now since they're now competing against Google, OpenAI, X and soon Meta.
They might have to pivot (or get acquired) since they won't be able to out-spend any of them to remain relevant.

Aravind Srinivas

IMO doing this sort of ad campaign spend at this stage isn't a great sign. It can be a sign that the product isn't growing organically as hoped.

It's also a very competitive space now since they're now competing against Google, OpenAI, X and soon Meta.
They might have to pivot (or get acquired) since they won't be able to out-spend any of them to remain relevant.

https://x.com/AravSrinivas/status/1901668081245790348

The open web is dead, long live the open web. ⌐◨-◨

Building Farcaster

Writer. Building @pinatacloud. Working on simple static site hosting https://orbiter.host \ https://polluterofminds.com

I tried it for a bit but I found myself always going back to ChatGPT and Google.

It's never been good enough and since ChatGPT and Grok are better now with search then Perplexity is irrelevant.

Red flag for me is never using it in the first place. But agree about ad spend

I think the below summarizes the argument FOR:

COMPOUND OR DIE

Five years ago, doing a compound startup was the domain of repeat entrepreneurs who could raise tons of capital, and was otherwise discouraged by investors and advisors.

Today, with plummeting software development costs and a 10x increase in competition, every…

Gokul Rajaram

Chasing Curiosity. People, Nature, Machines. Hakuna Matata, "Its a problem-free philosophy.”

What we would've assumed was "too early" for a certain stage company may no longer be true and that window has shifted. In a hyper-scale business like AI, you almost have to burn through large amounts of capital to keep "compounding" even if it's highly risky.

I'm not saying I'm 100% bought in, but I think it is a fairly reasonable argument for it.

How does the ad campaign relate to this?
I'm struggling to see it.

I think the below summarizes the argument FOR:

https://x.com/gokulr/status/1901382085534953487?s=46

I got the bad feeling when they launched a VC fund