April 2019
Featured Article
How a blockchain startup with 1M users is working to break your Google habit
The antitrust argument that says big tech needs breaking up to stop platforms abusing competition and consumers in a two-faced role as seller and (manipulative) marketplace may only just be getting going on a mainstream political stage — but startups have been at the coal face of the fight against crushing platform power for years.…
Some reassuring data for those worried unicorns are wrecking the Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area is a global powerhouse at launching startups that go on to dominate their industries. For locals, this has long been a blessing and a curse.
This startup just raised more than $10 million for its additive manufacturing software, with the help of Autodesk’s former CEO
Most of us don’t know what a geometric modeling kernel or solid modeling kernel is, but every CAD or design application uses one to create shapes. It’s the underlying infrastructure…
In this week’s newsletter: Uber, Slack and the evolving Series A.
Tesla, Elon Musk and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reached an agreement Friday that will give the CEO freedom to use Twitter —within certain limitations — without fear of being…
I wrote a lot about the Galaxy Fold here. After a week with the device, I was left with mixed feelings independent of the whole ongoing display saga. The TLDR;…
Earlier today, agents from the FBI searched the offices of uBiome, the medical testing company that sells analyses of an individual’s microbiome — the bacteria that live in the gut,…
Featured Article
It’s open season for poaching talent in Silicon Valley
Several recent court decisions have changed the landscape of California’s competition law, concluding that employee non-solicitation provisions are per se invalid. These cases have major implications both for mature companies relying on such provisions to preserve their talent pool, and for startups and other companies looking to attract the best people from their competitors.
If Magic Leap fails, the skeptics will at least have to admire the AR startup’s keen ability to raise vast amounts of capital. The company announced today that it has…
PayPal makes a big marketplace play with its $500M investment in Uber
Uber’s announcement of its IPO pricing earlier today came with a $500 million belated Easter egg. The payments giant PayPal is making a half-billion-dollar investment in the company, paying $47…
TurboTax and H&R Block hide their free tax filing tools from Google on purpose
Low-income Americans can file their taxes for free, but odds are they ended up paying anyway. ProPublica found that tax-filing giant Intuit is deliberately concealing search results for its free…
Daily Crunch: Facebook faces new privacy investigations
The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you…
E3’s just over a month away, and per usual, the news in the lead up has offered more insight into what we won’t be hearing about at the big gaming…
Plex adds more TIDAL-powered features, including ‘Artist TV’ for playing music videos
Media center app Plex today is rolling out new features to expand upon its partnership with TIDAL, the streaming music service it began working with last November. Before, Plex subscribers…
If free nations demand companies store data locally, it legitimizes that practice for authoritarian nations, which can then steal that data for their own nefarious purposes, according to Facebook CEO…
A new era for enterprise IT
Amidst the newly minted scooter unicorns, ebbs and flows of bitcoin investments and wagers on the price of Uber’s IPO, another trend has shaken up the tech industry: enterprise software…
Why your CSO, not your CMO, should pitch your security startup
Whenever a security startup lands on my desk, I have one question: Who’s the chief security officer (CSO) and when can I get time with them? Having a chief security…
Go to Google (don’t worry, I’ll wait). Type in “Thanos.” Click the little cartoon Infinity Gauntlet on the right side. Now sit back in horror as Evil Space Grimace snaps half…
Facebook says it’s open to advertising u-turn for the EU elections, enabling cross-border campaigns
Facebook’s VP of global affairs and communications, Nick Clegg, today said the social network — likely in response to pressure from European officials — is “open” to changing its rules…
Sam Altman’s little brother Jack is an entrepreneur, too. And yes, his startup is a YC grad.
Twitter makes ‘likes’ easier to use in its twttr prototype app. (Nobody tell Jack.)
On the one hand, you’ve got Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey lamenting the “like” button’s existence, and threatening to just kill the thing off entirely for incentivizing the wrong kind of…
Apply now to compete in Startup Battlefield at Disrupt SF 2019
Is your early-stage startup ready for prime time? Do you have what it takes to step onto the Main Stage at Disrupt San Francisco 2019 and compete in Startup Battlefield? Show us what…
Yesterday Amazon managed to beat Wall Street’s already optimistic expectations with another record quarterly revenue report. In amongst its victory laps, the company announced intentions to shift its free two-day…
AWS wants a bigger share of Asia following Hong Kong launch
Amazon’s cloud computing unit is making further inroads into Asia after it opened a data center in Hong Kong this week, adding to the seven existing locations where it currently…
Slack files to go public, reports $138.9M in losses on revenue of $400.6M
Slack has filed to go public via a direct listing. Similar to what Spotify did last year, this means that the company won’t have a traditional IPO, and will instead…
Amazon is prepping a high-fidelity TIDAL competitor
Amazon is prepping a high-fidelity music streaming service for a launch by year-end, according to a report from Music Business Worldwide — a site which also accurately reported Amazon’s recent…
New York attorney general probes crypto exchange Bitfinex over alleged $850M fraud
In what seems like a historic moment in crypto, the New York state attorney general’s office has announced that it is investigating iFinex, the company behind exchange Bitfinex and stablecoin…
Uber prices IPO at $44-50, to raise $7.9-9B, PayPal takes $500M stake in strategic partnership
Uber, the transportation-on-demand behemoth, today filed its much-anticipated updated S-1, where it announced that it would be pricing its initial public offering at $44-50 per share. Selling 180 million common shares, Uber…
China’s Ctrip now owns half of India’s MakeMyTrip following share swap with Naspers
China’s Ctrip, the world’s second largest online travel company, is doubling down on India after it announced a deal to increase its ownership of travel company MakeMyTrip to nearly half. Ctrip…
London-based startup Wheely has raised a $15 million Series B round led by Concentric, with Oleg Tscheltzoff, Misha Sokolov and other investors also participating. The company wants to build an…
