How to deliver value fast, in-house vs outsourced mobile development, and more

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👋 Welcome to today’s edition of Build & lead (formerly the CTO blueprint), a newsletter by Appolica. Every two weeks, we dive deep into the tech, product, and leadership challenges that keep founders up at night.

In this week’s issue, we dive into how to deliver value fast and why speed matters in product development. Then, we explore the trade-offs of in-house vs outsourced mobile development to help you decide what’s best for your startup.

On another note, this is our last issue of the year, but we’ll be back next year with a slightly revised format and the same mission. See you in 2025!

Today’s insights:

• How to deliver value fast

• In-house vs outsourced mobile development

• 5 AI tools to make you more productive

• Everything you need to know this week

“I wish my team could deliver faster.”

“Our delivery is too slow.”‍

I’m talking with a lot of founders and CTOs and I often hear these two statements. Generally, I think product delivery in most companies is too slow. That’s why I’ll explain how I see fast product delivery and pinpoint common behaviours that make companies slow.

In order to do so, we need to get two things straight - what exactly value and fast mean.

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Having a mobile app is (almost) always a must, if you run a digital business. Everybody has a phone and that’s arguably the easiest way to reach your customers.

Here comes the hard part: do you build your own in-house team, or do you work with an agency to build the app? There’s no right answer, but the decision depends on what you’re building and what’s most important to your business - speed, cost, or control.

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✅ Waveloom: Build AI workflows with text or drag-and-drop.

✅ Basedash: Connect your database and get an AI-powered admin panel.

✅ Codara: Streamline code reviews with AI to boost productivity and cut costs.

✅ UpsolveAI: Deliver customer-facing analytics with AI-powered dashboards embedded in your product.

✅ Prisma: Analyze database queries with AI to uncover insights and get recommendations for better performance.

• OpenAI’s ChatGPT now integrates smarter web search and real-time voice browsing: On the eighth day of OpenAI’s “shipmas,” ChatGPT introduced two big upgrades: an improved web search feature and a new voice browsing capability. Now, ChatGPT can provide timely, relevant answers pulled straight from the web, complete with links to reliable sources. The new advanced voice mode takes things even further, allowing users to ask for live updates like restaurant recommendations or event details in real time.

• Google unveils Gemini 2: smarter, faster, and ready to act on your behalf
  Google has announced Gemini 2, its next-generation AI model, designed to perform tasks seamlessly across users’ devices and the web. This upgraded model features enhanced multimodal capabilities, excelling in video, audio, and speech interpretation while introducing native image and audio generation.

• Google redefines video and image creation with Veo 2 and Imagen 3.1: Google has unveiled Veo 2 and Imagen 3, the latest iterations of its cutting-edge video and image generation models. Veo 2 delivers unparalleled realism, understanding everything from the physics of motion to the subtleties of human expression. Whether it’s cinematic tracking shots or hyper-detailed close-ups, Veo 2 supports resolutions up to 4K and extended video lengths, bringing professional-grade results to creators.

• Custom AI agents and smarter enterprise search for businesses: Google has introduced Agentspace, a groundbreaking platform designed to bring AI-powered agents and intelligent search to enterprises. By combining the advanced reasoning of Gemini, Google-quality search, and seamless integration with enterprise data, Agentspace empowers employees to tackle complex tasks with ease.

• ChatGPT to get task scheduling with new “Tasks” beta feature: OpenAI is introducing Tasks, a beta feature that lets users schedule prompts for future execution by ChatGPT. Expected to roll out during OpenAI’s “12 Days of Shipmas,” the feature allows tasks to be scheduled up to two years in advance, with options for repetition. Codenamed Jawbone, Tasks will include a user-friendly interface for managing, pausing, editing, and deleting scheduled prompts.

At Appolica, we build the technology that powers startups at the pre-seed, seed, and Series A stages. Specializing in these crucial phases, we've helped over 75 ventures scale rapidly, with $500M raised collectively. You can learn more about partnering with us here.

Thoughts on today’s issue?

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Want to see more of us? Have a look at our LinkedIn account. Interested in what we do? Visit appolica.com.

Thanks for reading & until next year.

Best,

Martin & the Appolica team