Natasha Mascarenhas
The Latest from Natasha Mascarenhas
Tech’s coveted internships are getting canceled due to COVID-19
Victoria Stafford, a third-year student at UC Berkeley, was set to begin working at Yelp in June as a sales intern — the only internship she applied to. And then it was canceled because of the C
Sequoia-backed Houzz scraps plan to create home goods in-house
Houzz, the home decorating startup backed by Sequoia Capital, has scrapped a plan that would have seen the company design and sell its own houseware. The plan, a pilot program called Private Label, wa
Former founders of SocialRank have launched a job board for COVID-19 layoffs
The COVID-19 pandemic has already triggered a number of layoffs across industries, from travel companies to scooter startups. But, as a gray footnote to all tragedies, we’re starting to see innovati
Where top VCs are investing in D2C
If you’re looking for toothbrushes, skin-care face masks, mattresses, glasses or even socks, there’s a digitally-native, direct-to-consumer (D2C) company or two that can help you out. And thanks t
Brex acquires three companies to build out its bank alternative for startups
Brex wants to help startups get the money that traditional big banks won’t lend them, and it just acquired three companies to help it do so: Neji, Compose Labs and Landria. Per Brex, 12 new people w
Instacart will bring on 300,000 new full-service shoppers due to coronavirus
San Francisco-based Instacart today announced it will bring on 300,000 shoppers for its grocery delivery platform over the next three months. The move is meant to manage an uptick in demand due to the
New Jersey launches online portal to give residents accurate answers about COVID-19
Fake news about the novel coronavirus disease is a rampant problem across our social timelines. Think misinformation about treatments, symptoms and anecdotes tainted with racism and xenophobia. As sci
Californians can now order alcoholic beverages to go
In a memo yesterday detailing relief efforts for small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control has temporarily allowed retailers to sell alcoho
Raising in a recession
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week’s episode was a testament to making do, as we’
California governor announces a statewide shelter in place
In a press conference this evening, California Governor Gavin Newsom ordered “all individuals living in the State of California to stay home or at their place of residence” to stop the spr
Virtual dates and video speed dating: Dating.com Group launches a $50 million corporate venture fund
The dating startup world is notorious for few exits, and a similarly slim number of buyers. There’s Match Group, which owns Tinder, Hinge and OkCupid, and there’s Spark Networks, which owns Christ
Slack adds 7K customers in 7 weeks amid remote-work boom, besting its preceding 2 results
Today, Slack, a popular internal chat application, announced that it added 7,000 new customers between February 1 and March 18. That is 47 days. For context, Slack added 5,000 customers total in its p
Remote Year, which helps you work while traveling the world, lays off 50% of staff
Remote Year wants to help people travel around the world and keep their job while doing so. The Chicago startup relies on the idea that “great work can be done anywhere.” And to prove it, it bring
Startups rethink what it means to be high-touch during a pandemic
Glossier NYC, in normal times, is typically visited by more than 2,000 people every day, with lines of people from all over the world curling out the door. And when you enter, it’s tempting to touch
The 20 best startups from Y Combinator’s W20 Demo Day
With world events overtaking the tech world’s preferences to meet for coffees and convene at events, Y Combinator skipped its famous two-day live Demo event and went for a radical experiment: no
VC firms offer group therapy for founders due to the COVID-19 outbreak
Founders face many trials and tribulations when building their companies, from fundraising woes to visa challenges to product failures to company failures. And according to Kari Sulenes, “almost e
Listen to the TechCrunch staff’s YC Demo Day wrap-up call here
It’s been a bonkers week in the world, with markets gyrating, companies fretting, investors tweeting and founders re-cutting their 2020 forecasts. But for one collection of startups, the past fe
Yelp cancels internship program due to COVID-19 outbreak
Yelp has canceled its summer internship due to the safety threat from the COVID-19 outbreak. While health is the priority across the world right now, the move is another blow to the potential prospect
All Raise CEO Pam Kostka on how the world isn’t ending
This isn’t the first economic downturn All Raise CEO Pam Kostka has been through. “I was here during the dot-com bust and rush, and here during the financial fallout that happened, so we’re a