Natasha Mascarenhas
The Latest from Natasha Mascarenhas
Extra Crunch Live: Join Inspired Capital’s Alexa von Tobel for a live Q&A on June 25 at 2 pm EDT/11 am PDT
Fresh off chats with distinguished founders such as Eventbrite’s Julia Hartz, Superhuman’s Rahul Vohra, and Plaid’s Zach Perret, Extra Crunch Live is turning the table around with Alexa von Tobe
4 months into lockdown, Eventbrite CEO Julia Hartz sees ‘exciting signs of recovery’
“Eventbrite is in the unique club that nobody wants to be in,” says CEO and co-founder Julia Hartz. “Which is the first affected and one of the most directly affected businesses of the COVID-19
13 Boston-focused VCs share the advice they’re giving portfolio companies
TechCrunch is focusing a bit more on the Boston-area startup and venture capital ecosystem lately, which has gone pretty well so far. In fact, we had originally intended on releasing this regional inv
Extra Crunch Live: Join Eventbrite CEO Julia Hartz today at 2 pm EDT/11 am PDT for a live discussion on leadership in the era of COVID-19
Through tickets and event organizing, Eventbrite empowers the experiences that we all enjoy. Yet with the advent of COVID-19, concerts have been canceled, trade shows shuttered and industry talks disp
Y Combinator’s Startup School relaunches to be ready when you are
About three years and more than 100,000 participants later, Y Combinator is relaunching its free online bootcamp Startup School as a continuous year-round program. “Over the last 15 years, startups
Degreed lands new cash for upskilling in a down market
While the pace of layoffs might be slowing down, an extended recession is forcing companies to get smarter about the way they grow. One way to stay lean and stealthy? Have a team that is constantly le
Investors based in San Francisco? That’s so 2019
As coronavirus keeps offices closed, wealthy venture capitalists are moving out of apartments in San Francisco and New York and decamping to other vacation-friendly zip codes. In San Francisco, a city
3 perspectives on the future of SF and NYC as startup hubs
It has been an incredibly tough period for everyone the past few months as the global COVID-19 pandemic has wiped out whole industries from the economic map. While tech has been among the most resilie
We asked 12 Boston startups about their diversity efforts
It will take until 2085 for Black workers to reach the same hiring rate of white men in the industry today. For Latinos, it will take until 2045. And for women, it will take until 2070.
Kahoot raises $28M for its user-generated educational gaming platform, now valued at $1.4B
As schools stay closed and summer camp seems more like a germscape than an escape, students are staying at home for the foreseeable future and have shifted learning to their living rooms. Now, Norwegi
Instacart raises $225 million at $13.7 billion valuation
Facing unprecedented growth, Instacart has secured new funding to keep up with demand. The San Francisco company announced today that it has raised $225 million in a round led by DST Global and Genera
HBCUvc founder Hadiyah Mujhid on one way investors can advance racial equity
In response to VCs’ sudden rush to invest in more Black founders, Black venture capitalists and entrepreneurs have penned a bunch of advice on the best way to tap into talent. Among the strateg
Potential down market could temper VCs’ promise of more diversity
Venture hiring by definition is exclusive. Legally, investors have to be able to fork out their own capital, ranging from hundreds of thousands to multi-millions, to join as a partner of a fund, meani
Edtech is surging, and parents have some notes
Unlike most sectors, edtech has been booming over the last few months. Flashcards startup Quizlet is now a unicorn, digital textbook company Top Hat is finding unprecedented surges in usage and studen
What to consider before publishing your diversity memo
In the past few weeks, several venture capital firms have published different variations of the same pledge: we’ll do a better job supporting the Black community. My timeline, and I’m assuming you
ClassTag raises $5M for parent-teacher communication
Like many working parents, Vlada Lotkina, the founder and CEO of ClassTag, wanted to be more involved in her daughter’s preschool education. A paper notice about an upcoming field trip, squeezed bet
Instacart makes changes to tip policy following shopper complaints
Instacart announced today that it is changing its tip policy to protect its growing shopper network from tip-baiting. Tip-baiting, a grotesque tactic, is when customers bait shoppers with a big tip an
Join Eventbrite CEO Julia Hartz for a live Q&A: June 17 at 2pm EDT/11am PDT/6 pm GMT
One of the earliest disruptions created by the novel coronavirus manifested in the form of event cancellations. Some of the world’s biggest tech conferences, like F8 and Google NEXT, got postpon
A message from the Equity crew
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week, however, the Equity crew (Danny, Natasha, Chris, and Ale
Ethena raises $2 million in seed funding for smarter anti-harassment software
Corporate harassment training is often defined by mandatory annual workshops, stock photo-ridden curricula and, often, outdated scenarios. Harvard graduates Roxanne Petraeus and Anne Solmssen think th