Jordan Crook
Managing Editor
The Latest from Jordan Crook
Dogs aren’t just a vibe, they’re a lifestyle, and Fable built a brand to match
The way that recent generations of consumers treat(!) their dogs is vastly different than those who have come before. It’s gotten to the point that it’s memeable. View this post on
Synthesia raises $50M to leverage synthetic avatars for corporate training and more
Synthesia, a startup using AI to create synthetic videos, is walking a fine, but thus far prosperous, line between being creepy and being pretty freakin’ cool. Today, it announced the close of a
Goalsetter raises $15 million to go B2B with children’s financial literacy app
Goalsetter, a financial education platform for kiddos, has announced the close of a $15 million Series A financing round. The funding was led by Seae Ventures, with participation from Fiserv, Mass Mut
Auth0’s Eugenio Pace and Ubiquity’s Sunil Nagaraj will outline how the startup went from seed to a $6.5B acquisition
In March, Okta completed a $6.5 billion acquisition of Auth0, an identity and access management platform. The deal surely brought a smile to the faces of Auth0’s investors. On December 1 at 12 p
How Pilot convinced Index Ventures to think long-term about margins
Whether you agree or not, it's hard to ignore the fact that the multipliers in Silicon Valley and the growth of software businesses have changed the way we think about a startup's timeline.
Hear NVP’s Priti Choksi and Birdies founder Bianca Gates explain how to land early-stage funding
Priti Choksi, partner at Norwest Venture Partners, has a portfolio that includes Bright, Lumosity, Citcon, UPSIDE Foods and Birdies. But before she ever entered the world of VC, she was an operator at
Rent the Runway co-founder Jenny Fleiss and Volition Capital’s Larry Cheng talk early-stage fundraising on TechCrunch Live
Rent the Runway is more than 10 years old now and has raised upwards of $500 million, recently filing to IPO at a valuation north of $1 billion. Jenny Fleiss is a co-founder at Rent the Runway and sit
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky discusses the future of work and the one thing he’d do over
"I think we're now better off than we were before the pandemic. But that was a bit of a wake-up call to us. That wake-up call actually led to a lot of changes."
Aileen Lee and Rachel Carlson walk through Guild Education’s early pitch deck
You can't raise more than $370 million on a good idea alone. But you can raise a seed round worth a few million from Aileen Lee with that and a few other critical ingredients.
Airbnb boosts host protection, adds Wi-Fi speed verification
Last night, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky took to Twitter to share what he’s seeing in the company’s data. The broad strokes version was that the pandemic-induced flexibility in our work lives h
Talent Hack raises $17 million led by Emergence to power the fitness creator economy
The Great Resignation, the pandemic-caused seismic shift in the way we work, play and live, and the boom of the creator and influencer economy, has led to a surge in apps designed to serve those creat
UpWest raises $70 million for Fund IV, investing in Israeli founders looking to tackle US market
UpWest, the venture firm led by Shuly Galili, Gil Ben-Artzy and Assaf Wahrhaft, announced this morning that it has closed on a $70 million fund, the fourth in the firm’s more than 10-year histor
Webflow’s Vlad Magdalin and CapitalG’s Laela Sturdy to discuss finding success in no-code
Webflow has raised more than $200 million and become a household name in the world of web design, creation and hosting. What makes Webflow special is that it has been a pioneer in the no-code space, a
Hone, a human-powered platform for leadership training, nabs $16 million
As the Great Resignation builds, corporations and organizations are looking for bigger and better ways to retain talent. One of the most popular ways to do that, right now, is to offer to employees be
Pilot’s Jessica McKellar and Index’s Mark Goldberg will outline how to become a unicorn on TechCrunch Live
Pilot, a unicorn fintech company looking to bring bookkeeping into the 21st century, has raised more than $160 million in funding from investors that include Stripe, Sequoia, Index and more. On an upc
Stampli, the invoice management platform, launches a digital card
Stampli, a SaaS company that streamlines corporate invoice management, has announced the launch of Stampli Card. The idea here is that some corporations sign on with vendors who only accept, or prefer
Check out the outstanding speakers joining us on TechCrunch Live in November
TechCrunch Live (formerly Extra Crunch Live) has been incredibly educational over the past few months. We’ve learned how Rec Room’s pitch landed investment from Sequoia, how Wheel crafted
Electric, the IT platform for SMBs, raises $90 million Series D
Electric, makers of IT infrastructure software for SMBs, has been on a tear lately. The company announced the close of a $90 million Series D financing round today. GGV, an existing investor, led the
Figma continues expansion beyond design with updates to FigJam whiteboard tool
In April of this year, collaborative design powerhouse Figma launched a whiteboarding tool called FigJam. A separate tool and brand from Figma, FigJam allows users to brainstorm and iterate together i
Mindbody acquires ClassPass in all-stock deal and secures $500 million investment
ClassPass, the subscription-based fitness marketplace most recently valued at $1 billion, is today announcing that it has been acquired by Mindbody. Mindbody is a bit like the OpenTable of the fitness