Hey Product Fans!

Welcome to this week’s 🌮 Product Tapas.

New here? We're your shortcut to staying sharp. Essential stories, practical tools, real insights.

For the best reading experience, check our web or app version and sign up for future editions here.

What’s cooking this week? 🥘

Cursor hits $1bn ARR in under two years (developer tools or gold rush delusion?), everyone’s still going "agentic" and slaps it on everything, and TikTok Shop matches eBay's scale whilst Australia bans teens from social media (both admitting it's fundamentally addictive). Meanwhile Waymo's on freeways at speed, Russian robots face-plant on stage, and scientists validate one-hour global flights we won't be allowed to use for decades.

The AI infrastructure land grab is accelerating. Anthropic wants $50bn for data centres, Mira's raising at $50bn pre-revenue, Databricks eyeing $130bn. Cursor's gone from seed to $1bn ARR in under two years - either developer tools are the new gold rush or we're wildly overestimating stickiness. Nvidia's selling full server racks when everyone's panic-buying infrastructure. The real question: do any of these valuations make sense six months from now when the next model drops?

Every tech company discovered "agentic" and slapped it on everything. Microsoft's "Agentic OS" sounds transformative until you realise it's probably just Copilot with better hooks. Google's shipping agents for scheduling, shopping, research, coding - they've realised search alone isn't moat enough. NotebookLM browsing autonomously is a proper workflow replacement, not just a chatbot. Some pretty amazing stuff. But, real test: how many of these agents are you using in six months versus gathering digital dust?

Busy week for Google - four big Gemini announcements. 'Most powerful' claims are standard marketing, but worth questioning whether the improvements are as significant as the hype suggests. Private AI Compute copying Apple's privacy play makes sense - if 'your data stays private' sells, everyone will offer it. ChatGPT group chats piloting in Asia-Pacific. Model improvements feel incremental whilst marketing stays exponential - but that's true across the board, not just Google.

Australia's banning teens from social media whilst TikTok gives you badges for not using it - both admitting the sector's fundamentally addictive. TikTok Shop matching eBay's scale is the real story: e-commerce is being rebuilt inside entertainment feeds, not the other way round. WhatsApp owns India's business layer, Spotify's acquiring music metadata, platforms are eating infrastructure. The shift isn't social media companies adding commerce - it's commerce companies realising attention is the only moat left.

Outside of some of the traditional stuff I normally look at, it seems crazy out there. Waymo's freeway expansion is the bellwether - highways at speed with unpredictable traffic is considerably harder than geo-fenced blocks. UBTech's $112M factory orders suggests industrial adoption is real, not just Twitter demos. Contrast is brutal: China's shipping humanoids to production, Russian robots face-planting, iRobot's broke. Blue Origin landed a booster - space race tightening. $1,030 robot dog feels like "democratisation" narrative, but what exactly do you do with a budget quadruped?

World models having their moment: Marble, Sima 2, LeCun reportedly leaving Meta for his own startup. If true, massive vote of confidence in spatial intelligence - or LeCun's betting he can out-execute whilst Meta's distracted. Capturing supernovas and recovering 39,000-year-old RNA is genuinely astonishing. Mach 10 travel validated but aviation moves at regulatory speed - we'll have the tech decades before anyone's allowed to use it. Valar and China's thorium reactor signal nuclear's comeback. The finger regeneration protein and malaria drug are quiet wins saving lives whilst everyone's distracted by AI demos.

Check the link here to access.

Bill Kerr discusses how companies are adapting to economic shifts by embracing leaner operational practices. By leveraging artificial intelligence and strategic hiring, organisations can significantly increase their revenue per employee while maintaining efficiency. Read the full article here.

💡 "If you aren’t getting lean, you aren’t going to make it."

Peter Ramsey examines why personalised user experiences often fail to deliver value, despite being ubiquitous across digital products. Through analysing Nike's approach, he reveals that effective personalisation isn't about greeting users by name—it's about using data to genuinely improve the experience. Read the full article here.

💡 "I don't need my banking app to say 'Hello, Peter'. I've experimented a lot, and I've never seen this make a difference."

Craig Unsworth explores how cinema perfectly captures the messy reality of organisational change through 11 iconic films. He reveals the universal transformation arc that every change leader experiences, from initial resistance to lasting legacy. Read the full article here.

💡 "Leading transformation often feels like walking into someone else's well-established world and daring to change it. At first, you're seen as disruptive. Resistance is fierce. Things can look worse before they look better."

Remember, we've built an ever-growing library of our top podcast summaries. Whether you need a quick refresher, want to preview an episode, or need to get up to speed fast - we've got you covered.

OK 3 links to Podcasts from from Peter Yang in as many weeks. But this you'll see my pattern shortly heading us down the path of how to get the best out of Claude Code and Obsidian.

💡 "The PMs who master AI-assisted workflows will ship faster, explore more ideas, and focus their energy where it actually matters: talking to customers and making strategic decisions."

I'm so excited about Claude Code. I'm as excited about it as I am about voice-to-text in terms of how much it can improve your efficiency and effectiveness.

So I wanted to include this podcast because it's a great intro from Carl Vellotti as he takes you from Claude Code beginner to hero in this tutorial.

🎥 Watch the full episode here

📆 Published: 4th October 2025 🕒

Estimated Reading Time: 6 mins. Time saved: 92 mins! 🔥

Key insights from the full article:

👉 Read the full breakdown — sent separately, check your inbox

That’s a wrap.

As always, the journey doesn't end here!

Please share and let us know what you would like to see more or less of so we can continue to improve your Product Tapas. 🚀👋

Alastair 🍽️.