Sarah Buhr
I like writing about tech culture, biotech and sundry other interests. Consumer of fancy tea and kombucha. ENFP.
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Latest from Sarah Buhr
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42Floors Lays Off Half Of Staff As It Cuts Brokerage Team, Refocuses On Search
42Floors, the startup that’s built a platform for finding and leasing commercial office space, has laid off around half of its staff as part of a plan to refocus on its core search business, TechCrunch has learned. A total of 14 people across 42Floors’ San Francisco and New York offices were let go today, we’re told. That’s around half of 42Floors’ workforce. The… Read More
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YC-Backed GitLab Is Like GitHub But For Enterprise – You Know, Like GitHub Enterprise
GitLab calls itself the open-source GitHub that companies can run on their own servers. Like GitHub, it offers an open source git repository. Also like GitHub, it has a cat creature mascot. “But sometimes you want your hub protected on your own servers, behind your own firewall for certain geographic reasons,” Dutch co-founder of GitLab Sytse Sijbrandij told me over the phone from… Read More
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PCH Buys Design Portal Fab In Stock And Cash Fire Sale
In one of the craziest sell-offs in Silicon Valley history, PCH International has closed its acquisition of e-commerce site Fab. The deal, which we first reported back in November, was announced today as a stock-and-cash deal for an undisclosed amount. According to our sources, Fab was selling to PCH for around $15 million. That price is a fire sale for the remaining assets of the company after… Read More
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We Can Talk About Almost Anything Online, Even Things That Matter
This week the Internet lost it over a llama chase, Kanye apologizing, Madonna taking a tumble, and that damned dress – things that arguably do not actually matter that much. But there was one story that bubbled up in the midst of all this, highlighting the triviality of social media chatter: The death of Ajivit Roy, an outspoken Bangladeshi-American blogger. Read More
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CrunchWeek: Net Neutrality Passes, Pebble Time, Growing Potrepreneurship
It’s the end of another week in tech and what a week it’s been! The FCC passed new net neutrality regulations and then the Internet exploded. First it was about the net neutrality news, then we quickly turned our attention to some llamas, and soon after that everyone divided over the color of a dress (do we even deserve net neutrality?). In any case, this week, Sarah Buhr, Alex… Read More
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Smart Motorcycle Helmet Maker Skully Lands $11 Million In Series A To Start Manufacturing The AR-1
Not long after closing on one of the most successful campaigns in the history of Indiegogo and landing another $1.5 million in seed capital, SKULLY, the motorcycle helmet with a heads-up display, has raised $11 million in Series A funding. Walden Riverwood Ventures and Intel Capital led the round, along with participation from Formation 8, Techstars, and Western Technology Investments. Part… Read More
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Come And Get Your Net Neutrality Hot Takes
It is hot take season today on the net neutrality front, and TechCrunch would be remiss if we didn’t bring you the best, worst, banal, and asinine of the virulent anger and relieved happiness that is currently bouncing around the nation. What we’ve done is put our ears to several groaning inboxes, and have selected a number of letters, responses, quotes, and oral comments from the… Read More
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Source: Wearable Maker Fitbit Is In Talks To Buy Fitness App Startup FitStar
For the last several years, Fitbit has created hardware and software designed to help consumers keep track of their activity levels. But we’ve heard the wearable maker could soon acquire FitStar, a startup which makes apps that might help motivate Fitbit customers to actually be more active. Read More
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FCC Passes Strict Net Neutrality Regulations On 3-2 Vote
As expected, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) passed new net neutrality regulations today on a vote of 3-2, with the Commission’s two Democratic appointees joining Chairman Tom Wheeler in voting yes. The Commission’s two Republican-appointed members both voted no. Notably, the FCC’s plan is now known to have undergone a last-minute revision to remove a… Read More
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Flow Kana Brings You Pot Straight Off The Farm
Think of it as the first “farm-to-bowl” concept. Flow Kana just launched an on-demand medical cannabis delivery service that skips the brick-and-mortar dispensary to bring pot from local, organic weed farmers straight to you. “It’s the clean cannabis movement,” founder Michael Steinmetz says. “It’s important for the consumer to know where their… Read More
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Y Combinator-Backed Bright Aims To Bring Solar Power To Mexico
Jonah Greenberger envisions Mexico’s rooftops covered in cost-effective, environmentally friendly, dark blue solar panels. The 28-year-old founder of Y Combinator-backed solar power startup Bright left his job working in fossil fuels at Chevron to work on lowering exorbitant energy costs for the people of Mexico. “The third world pays the most for electricity. Mexico has the… Read More
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Magic Is A Startup That Promises To Bring You Anything — If You’re Willing To Pay For It
Get sushi on a boat, a tiger at your door, or make your parking ticket vanish into thin air. An ambitious new startup says it will let you text for anything you want (and they do mean anything) as long as it’s legal, and it will magically come to you. Just text 408-596-5017 and Magic, a texting service that seems to have blown up over the weekend, promises to deliver. Read More
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Protect Your Smartphone From Government Spies With These Apps
If you didn’t know how easy it was for hackers to grab information off of your smartphone before, you should now. The Intercept reported earlier this week that the National Security Agency (NSA) and the British equivalent spy agency GCHQ had allegedly hacked into and stole information from millions of SIM cards produced by the Dutch company Gemalto. This may have given both agencies… Read More
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CrunchWeek: YikYak Vs. Spam, VCs Funding Coffee, Big Steps For Science Tech
Another week in tech has come and gone, bringing a fresh crop of stories for us to talk about on CrunchWeek, the show that brings a few TechCrunch writers together to talk about some of the most interesting news of the past seven days. This time, Sarah Buhr, Josh Constine and I gathered around the big white table to talk about Josh’s big story on YikYak’s controversial methods… Read More
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FDA Authorizes 23andMe To Market Genetic Testing For Bloom Syndrome
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given 23andMe clearance to begin selling kits for the genetic testing of Bloom Syndrome. This is a rare recessive gene disorder that is characterized by shorter height and a predisposition to develop cancer. Parents of children with Bloom Syndrome don’t exhibit any symptoms of the disorder. Read More
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The NSA Reportedly Stole Millions Of SIM Encryption Keys To Gather Private Data
The American National Security Agency (NSA), and the British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), similar clandestine intelligence agencies, stole SIM card encryption keys from a manufacturer, allowing the groups to decrypt global cellular communications data. The effort, according to The Intercept, took place in 2010, with the agencies breaking into a Dutch firm, Gemalto. The… Read More
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Cloud-Based Bio Lab Startup Transcriptic Lands $8.5 Million In Series A Funding To Help It Scale
Months after announcing its Y Combinator partnership and moving into a giant new Menlo Park facility, the robot-operated biolab startup Transcriptic has raised $8.5 million in Series A funding. Data Collective led the round, with participation from IA Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank, 500 Startups, MITS Fund, Y Combinator partner Paul Buchheit and several other angel investors. Read More
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Scientists Discover A New Way To Block HIV
A new HIV-blocking compound may be the answer to the now 30-year search for an AIDS vaccine. Scientists, supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, say they have discovered a new compound that produces proteins within the cell that look like normal antibodies, but have Y-shaped heads that act as blockers to the virus that causes AIDS. Read More
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Scanadu’s New Pee Stick Puts The Medical Lab On Your Smartphone
Health tech startup Scanadu is working on the cutting-edge of a new type of medical technology that could one day put the hospital in the palm of our hands. It just started shipping its first product Scout, a device that can detect your temperature, blood pressure and other biological phenomenon and then upload that information into an app. Read More
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On The Way To An IPO, Education Technology Startup Instructure Is Close To Raising A Big New Round
Education technology company Instructure has raised a big new round on its way to an initial public offering later this year, according to several sources familiar with the company’s plans. We’ve heard rumors from multiple sources that the cloud-based K-12 and higher education platform is raising between $50 to $70 million in Series E funding, while one source put the low end of… Read More
