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Tech’s role in the COVID-19 response: Assist, don’t reinvent
The pandemic has affected just about every business in the world, but tech has also geared up to fight back in its own way, as we found out from speakers…
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To fill funding gaps, VCs boost efforts to find India’s standout early-stage startups
After demonstrating scale, growth and financial improvement, one founder of a two-year-old agritech startup based in India told me that he’s now confronting a new challenge: Unlike his peers in edtech, fintech or e-commerce, there are very few investors he could approach for raising funds, he told TechCrunch, requesting anonymity. He suggested that a startup…
The fintech industry is on a tear. Popular consumer services like Robinhood to Coinbase and Revolut have managed to attract millions of customers, but the most interesting trend right now…
How 3 remote-friendly tech companies plan to return to the office
Six months ago, millions of workers left their offices for the last time without realizing it. Many would be laid off because of the pandemic, but for those fortunate to…
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Scaling to $100 million ARR: 3 founders share their insights
Last week at TechCrunch Disrupt, Alex Wilhelm hosted a panel titled “Getting to $100 million ARR” on the Extra Crunch Stage. He was joined by three executives, including Vineet Jain, CEO and co-founder at Egnyte, Michal Tsur, president and co-founder at Kaltura and Sid Sijbrandij, CEO at GitLab. The panelists discussed their path to building…
Despite a rough year for digital media, Blavity and The Shade Room are thriving
Last week at TechCrunch Disrupt, TechCrunch media and advertising reporter Anthony Ha sat down with Blavity CEO Morgan DeBaun and The Shade Room CEO Angelica Nwandu to chat about their…
Big tech has 2 elephants in the room: Privacy and competition
The question of how policymakers should respond to the power of big tech didn’t get a great deal of airtime at TechCrunch Disrupt last week, despite a number of investigations…
CDC removes updated guidelines around COVID-19 aerosol transmission, but this expert explains why it should reverse the reversal
Last week at TechCrunch Disrupt 2020, I got the chance to speak to Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding, an epidemiologist and health economist who is a Senior Fellow of the Federation of…
A meeting room of one’s own: Three VCs discuss breaking out of big firms to start their own gigs
One of the more salient trends in the tech world — arguably the engine that propels it — has been the recurring theme of people who hone talents at bigger…
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Senate’s encryption backdoor bill is ‘dangerous for Americans,’ says Rep. Lofgren
“You cannot eliminate encryption safely,” said the House Democrat.
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How FaZe Clan is continuing to lead the esports world
The esports world is evolving quickly, and so are the professional organizations that drive it. FaZe Clan is among the world’s most popular. At TechCrunch Disrupt 2020 we talked to FaZe Clan CEO Lee Trink, investor Troy Carter and Nick Kolcheff, better known as NICKMERCS, about the shifting industry landscape. Carter first explained the motivation…
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Conan O’Brien on how to embrace an ever-changing media landscape
“Like most of the best things in my life,” Conan O’Brien explains, with a wry smile, “the success of the podcast was a complete surprise.” The answer is a typically self-effacing one from the comedian. Since launching “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” nearly two years ago, the show has quickly risen up the podcasting charts…
Check out this never-before-seen clip from HBO’s The Perfect Weapon
At Disrupt 2020, we got a chance to see some never-before-seen footage from HBO’s upcoming documentary The Perfect Weapon. The documentary, which was executive produced and directed by John Maggio,…
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And the winner of Startup Battlefield at Disrupt 2020 is… Canix
We started this competition with 20 impressive startups. After five days of fierce pitching in a wholly new virtual Startup Battlefield arena, we have a winner. The startups taking part in the Startup Battlefield have all been hand-picked to participate in our highly competitive startup competition. It was an unprecedented year as we moved all…
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How the NSA is disrupting foreign hackers targeting COVID-19 vaccine research
The headlines aren’t always kind to the National Security Agency, a spy agency that operates almost entirely in the shadows. But a year ago, the NSA launched its new Cybersecurity Directorate, which in the past year has emerged as one of the more visible divisions of the spy agency. At its core, the directorate focuses…
Outschool, newly profitable, raises a $45M Series B for virtual small group classes
Outschool, which started in 2015 as a platform for homeschooled students to bolster their extracurricular activities, has dramatically widened its customer base since the coronavirus pandemic began.The platform saw its…
While Checkout.com has kept a low profile for many years, the company raised $380 million within a year and reached an impressive valuation of $5.5 billion. It wants to build…
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3 VCs discuss the state of SaaS investing in 2020
Yesterday during Disrupt 2020 I sat down with three investors who know the SaaS startup market very well, hoping to get my head around how hot things are today. Coming on the heels of the epic Snowflake IPO (more to come on that in this weekend’s newsletter), it was a great time for a chat.…
Steven Yang and Sonny Vu discuss COVID-19’s impact on tech manufacturing
Like most of the rest of the world, COVID-19 hit the manufacturing sector by surprise. That China — which continues to comprise the vast majority of electronics manufacturing — was…
VCs have to train themselves to ‘ask the stupid questions,’ says Hoxton Ventures’ Hussein Kanji
If venture capitalists could predict the future, why wouldn’t they just start companies themselves? That’s the question Hussein Kanji, founding partner at Hoxton Ventures, asked rhetorically at Disrupt 2020. “If…
Ride-hailing was hit hard by COVID-19 — Grab’s Russell Cohen on how the company adapted
Ride-hailing services around the world have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, and Grab was no exception. The company is one of the most highly-valued tech startups in Southeast…
Benchmark’s Peter Fenton: ’10 to 20 years of innovation just got pulled forward’
Earlier today at TechCrunch Disrupt, venture capitalist Peter Fenton joined us to talk about a variety of issues. Among them, we discussed how he’s putting his stamp on Benchmark now…
Meet the five startup Battlefield finalists at Disrupt 2020
TechCrunch hosted an unusual Startup Battlefield this week — the founders, judges, audience and moderator (me) were all in different locations, doing our best to interact over WebEx. But the…
Boston Dynamics delivers plan for logistics robots as early as next year
Boston Dynamics is just months away from announcing their approach to logistics, the first real vertical it aims to enter, after proving their ability to build robots at scale with…
Ron Howard and Brian Grazer say that their accelerator can help diversify Hollywood
Impact Creative Systems (formerly Imagine Impact) is bringing a startup accelerator-style approach to finding fresh creative talent, and it announced this morning that, with funding from venture capital firm Benchmark,…
Cloudflare’s Michelle Zatlyn on getting funding for crazy ideas
It’s not easy getting funding for any startup, but when Cloudflare launched at one of our early events 10 years ago, most investors sure thought its idea was a bit…
Fabletics’ Adam Goldenberg and Kevin Hart on what’s next for the activewear empire
Like plenty of other modern direct-to-consumer companies, influencer marketing has been an essential part of Fabletics’ journey. Actress Kate Hudson co-founded the company and co-CEO Adam Goldenberg believes that its…
Jennifer Doudna sees CRISPR gene-editing tech as a Swiss Army knife for COVID-19 and beyond
Jennifer Doudna, one of the pioneers of the gene-editing technique known as CRISPR, thinks the biotech tool could be an essential one for combating COVID-19 and future pandemics. Due to…
Canix aims to ease cannabis cultivators’ regulatory bookkeeping
Growing cannabis on an industrial scale involves managing margins while continually adhering to compliance laws. For many growers, large and small, this consists of constant data entry from seed to…
ClearFlame Engine Technologies takes aim at cleaning up diesel engines
Diesel engines are the workhorses of freight transportation and agriculture — and by extension keep the economy fed and well supplied. They also have a dirty side. The founders of…
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