Tag: consumer

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What’s a crypto exchange worth?

Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.

This week Alex was back with Grace and our new producer to kick off the week. Now that we are through earnings season, things are a little quieter on the forecast front, but that didn’t mean that we were short on material:

Equity is back Wednesday and Friday this week, as we do not have a live show. Chat soon!

Equity drops every Monday at 7 a.m. PDT and Wednesday and Friday at 6 a.m. PDT, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts.

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4 ways founders can amplify revenue during hard times

Ari Jacoby Contributor
Ari Jacoby is the CEO and co-founder of Deduce.

Anyone who travels frequently will tell you that one of the greatest innovations of the past decade has been the TSA PreCheck.

It’s so simple and effective that it makes you wonder why no one thought of it before. This example can serve as adequate inspiration for businesses, especially as the markets show no signs of recovery: How can companies, hoping to retain revenue during the recession, do something similar?

Companies should be offering an express lane when times are tight so customers can get into the online store, check out and be done without any roadblocks or friction to mar their experience.

How do we create customer experiences that are equivalent to the TSA PreCheck to help us retain revenue?

The biggest stumbling block for repeat customers and retained revenue might come from an unlikely place — your security protocols.

Know thy customer: A password-less future

It is critical to understand if a visitor to your site is a new customer trying to create an account, a returning customer or a fraudster trying to steal your customer data. If you can determine whether someone is a legitimate customer up front, you won’t have to verify their email addresses or phone numbers during the account creation workflow — friction that security teams introduce to keep things secure.

I read a sobering statistic recently: While U.S. businesses will lose $95 billion to fraud this year, incorrectly identifying prospective and returning customers will cost those businesses almost $1.8 trillion.

About 58% of U.S. consumers abandon their cart due to difficulties managing their password, according to the FIDO Alliance. This shows us that you should grease the wheels of the sale in any way possible. In times of recession, you have to make things easier, not more difficult.

A business can very likely calculate the cost it incurs to get each new individual to create an account on their site or app. It should also know what the lifetime value (LTV) of a customer is and what impact its brand reputation has when things don’t go right. In other words, a company  should be aware of how many potential new customers complete the sign-up form but are then challenged to “verify their email” and never do so.

Parameter Calculated values
Number of monthly accounts created 50,000
Percentage of incomplete account creations 9.00
Number of accounts incomplete or churned 4,500
Customer LTV $50
Lost LTV due to churn $225,000
Percentage of LTV attributed to cost of acquisition 10
Monthly cost of acquisition lost $22,500
Percentage of LTV attributed to brand reputation damage 1
Total monthly brand reputation damage $2,250
Total loss per month $249,750
Annual loss due to account churn $2,997,000

Let’s say you see 50,000 accounts created per month, and 9% (the industry average) never complete the sign-up process due to the authentication step. If your LTV is $50 and your cost of acquisition is 10% of LTV ($5), and your brand reputation damage was 1% of LTV ($0.50), then your security measures are costing you nearly $2.5 million per year.

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Apple patches nasty security bugs, HBO Max suddenly removes content, and a16z backs Neumann’s next thing

Hello hello! We’re back with another edition of Week in Review, the newsletter where we quickly recap the top stories to hit TechCrunch across the last seven days. Want it in your inbox? Sign up here. 

other stuff

a16z backs WeWork founder’s new thing: When a company implodes hard enough that it inspires a miniseries, would anyone back the founders again? It doesn’t seem to have dissuaded a16z, who recently put its biggest check ever into WeWork founder Adam Neumann’s next thing.

Black Girls Code founder fired by board: “Kimberly Bryant is officially out from Black Girls Code, eight months after being indefinitely suspended from the organization that she founded,” write Natasha Mascarenhas and Dominic-Madori Davis. Bryant has filed a lawsuit in response to the termination, alleging “wrongful suspension and conflict of interest.”

Google shutters IoT Core: Google’s IoT Core is a service meant to help device makers build internet-connected gadgets that connect to Google Cloud. This week, Google announced that they’re shutting it down, giving those device makers a year to figure out another solution.

Apple’s big security bug: Time to update your Apple devices! This week the company shipped critical patches that fix two (!) security issues that attackers seem to already be actively exploiting. The bugs involve Safari’s WebKit engine and can lead to an attacker having, essentially, full access to your device — so, really, go update.

HBO Max removing titles: HBO Max is merging with Discovery+, and for some reason this means a bunch of titles are getting the boot — and fast. I was going to tell everyone to go speed-binge their way through the incredible “Summer Camp Island” series before it’s gone, but apparently it already got removed. Find the full list of gone/soon-to-be-gone titles here.

TC battles stalkerware: Back in February, TechCrunch’s Zack Whittaker pulled back the curtain on a network of “stalkerware” apps that were meant to quietly gobble up a victim’s private text messages, photos, browsing history, etc. This week Zack launched a tool meant to help people determine if their Android phone — and thus, their private data — was impacted. We’ll hear more from Zack about this new tool below.

An illustration of a blue-lit phone with a location pointer over it, on a background of red and blue moving eyes.

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch

audio stuff

What’s up in the world of TechCrunch podcasts? This week the Equity crew talked about why we need to “officially stop comparing Adam Neumann and Elizabeth Holmes,” and Burnsy talked with Ethena co-founder Roxanne Petraeus and Homebrew’s Hunter Walk about how to “sell the vision, not the business,” on TechCrunch Live.

additional stuff

What lies behind the TC+ paywall? Some really great stuff! Here’s a taste:

How does venture capital work?: It seems like a basic question, but it’s one we get…quite a lot. Haje, with his rare overlapping perspective as a reporter AND pitch coach AND former director at a VC fund, breaks it all down as only he can.

Planning to use your startup equity as collateral? Good luck: After years of work, you’ve managed to build up a ton of equity in the private company you’ve helped to build. Can you actually use it as collateral for anything? Compound’s Max Brenner walks us through the challenges.

writer spotlight: Zack Whittaker

Image Credits: Veanne Cao

This week we’re experimenting with a new section where we quickly catch up with one TechCrunch writer to hear a bit about them and the thing that’s on their mind this week. First up? The incredible, inimitable Zack Whittaker.

Who is Zack Whittaker? What do you do at TechCrunch?

Hi, I’m the security editor here, a.k.a. TechCrunch’s Bearer of Bad News, and I oversee the security desk. We uncover and report the big cybersecurity news of the day — hacks, data breaches, nation-state attacks, surveillance, and national security — and how it affects you, and the wider tech scene.

If you could snap your fingers and tell everyone in the world one thing about your beat, what would it be?

Think of cybersecurity as an investment for something you hope never happens, like a breach of your personal data. It’s better to get ahead of it now. Nowadays it’s easier than it’s ever been — and it’s never too late to start. Invest a small amount of time on three simple steps that make it so much tougher for hackers to break into your accounts or steal your data: Use a password manager, set up two-factor authentication everywhere you can, and keep your apps and devices up-to-date.

Tell me about this anti-stalkerware tool you launched this week

Back in February, TechCrunch revealed that a network of near-identical “stalkerware” apps share the same common security bug, which is spilling the private phone data of hundreds of thousands of Android device owners around the world. These malicious apps are planted by someone with access to your phone and designed to stay hidden, but silently steal a victim’s phone data, like messages, photos, call logs, location and more. Months later, we obtained a leaked list of every single device that was compromised by these apps. The data didn’t have enough information for us to identify or notify victims, so we built this lookup tool to allow anyone to check if their device was compromised — and how to remove the spyware, if it’s safe to do so.

Ugh. Okay. So someone grabs your phone, installs one of these sketchy apps while you’re not paying attention, the app rips your private data for the installer to snoop around… meanwhile, the app is leaking a bunch of data to anyone who knows where to look. Does it seem like the folks behind the stalkerware apps have any intention of stopping?

Not at all. The Vietnam-based group of developers behind the stalkerware network went to great lengths to keep their identities hidden (but not well enough). The number of compromised devices was growing daily, but with no expectation of a fix, we published our investigation to help alert victims to the dangers of this spyware. Nobody in civil society should be subject to this kind of invasive surveillance without their knowledge or consent.

Besides this tool (which is excellent!), what’s your favorite post you’ve written or thing you’ve done with TC?

In the four years I’ve been here? That’s tough! One I still think about often is the inside story of how two British security researchers in their early-20s helped to save the internet from the fast-spreading WannaCry ransomware malware in 2017, which spread around the world, locking up computers in NHS hospitals, shipping giants, and transport hubs, causing billions of dollars in damage. But when one of them found and registered a certain domain name in the malware’s code, the attack stopped dead in its tracks. They found the malware’s kill switch, making them overnight “accidental” heroes. But the only thing holding back another WannaCry outbreak was keeping the kill switch domain in their hands alive, despite efforts by bad actors to force it offline by overwhelming it with internet traffic. “Being responsible for this thing that’s propping up the NHS? Fucking terrifying,” one of the researchers told me at the time.

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This Week in Apps: Android 13 arrives, apps plan for midterms, Amazon copies TikTok

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy.

Global app spending reached $65 billion in the first half of 2022, up only slightly from the $64.4 billion during the same period in 2021, as hypergrowth fueled by the pandemic has slowed. But overall, the app economy is continuing to grow, having produced a record number of downloads and consumer spending across both the iOS and Google Play stores combined in 2021, according to the latest year-end reports. Global spending across iOS and Google Play last year was $133 billion, and consumers downloaded 143.6 billion apps.

This Week in Apps offers a way to keep up with this fast-moving industry in one place with the latest from the world of apps, including news, updates, startup fundings, mergers and acquisitions, and much more.

Do you want This Week in Apps in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here: techcrunch.com/newsletters

Top Stories

Android 13 arrives

Image Credits: Google

Big news for Android users this week as Google rolled out the new version of its mobile operating system, Android 13, initially to all Pixel devices, following the beta launch a month ago. The OS will reach other non-Pixel Android devices sometime later this year, including Samsung Galaxy, Asus, HMD (Nokia phones), iQOO, Motorola, OnePlus, Oppo, Realme, Sharp, Sony, Tecno, vivo, Xiaomi and others.

As mobile platforms have standardized, the latest efforts from both Google and Apple have been focused on personalization elements. In iOS 16, this now includes a customizable Lock Screen with widgets, while Android is doubling down on its Material You UI. With the prior version of Android, users could theme their device to match their background. With the latest update, they can now also match their non-Google apps to their chosen theme and color schemes. This is a much simpler and more elegant solution than the icon customization on iOS today, where apps like Brass, Themify, Aesthetic, Color Widgets and many others have to leverage a combination of configuration profiles and shortcuts to do the same.

In another personalization move, Android 13 allows users to set the languages used for different apps — useful for those who speak multiple languages.

Other improvements include the ability to copy content (e.g. URLs, photos, videos, text) between Android devices, better multitasking features on tablets, an expanded bedtime mode with dimmed wallpaper and a dark theme, HDR video support on third-party camera apps, BLE Audio, Spatial Audio on supported headphones, an upgraded media player widget that showcases album artwork and includes a dancing playback bar and more. On the privacy side, there are changes to permissions that allow users to more narrowly select images and videos to be shared with third-party apps and the OS now prevents unwanted access to your clipboard.

Another big benefit of the upgraded mobile OS for end users is that they can more easily block apps from annoying them with notifications. Now, apps users download will need explicit permission to send notifications, rather than being allowed to send notifications by default. This change sees Android finally catching up with iOS, which has offered this type of setting for years. (Many, many years.)

The Android source has also been pushed to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP).

This week TechCrunch’s Frederic Lardinois also sat down with James Ward, Google’s product manager for Kotlin, to talk about the language’s role in the Android ecosystem and its future plans. You can read that here.

Five years later, Google is still all-in on Kotlin

TechCrunch’s new spyware lookup tool

This week, TechCrunch launched a new product in service to its readers who are concerned about security risks related to mobile spyware.

The spyware lookup tool can check to see if an Android device is one of the hundreds of thousands that’s been hacked by one of several spyware apps, including TheTruthSpy — the subject of a months-long investigation into consumer-grade spyware apps. The apps are installed by someone with physical access to your mobile device and are designed to stay hidden from home screens. They give the attacker the ability to see the victim’s phone data in real time, including calls, messages, contacts, location data, photos and more.

The new lookup tool will check against the leaked list of unique device identifiers, like IMEI numbers and advertising IDs, and is available free of charge to anyone who wants to ensure their phone has not been compromised.

TechCrunch launches TheTruthSpy spyware lookup tool

TikTok caught keylogging?

A new privacy analysis warns that TikTok’s in-app browser may be engaged in keylogging. Research by developer Felix Krause found that the TikTok iOS app was injecting code that would allow it to monitor all keyboard inputs and taps that took place on third-party websites that were rendered inside the app. Concerningly, this information could include users’ passwords or payment card information when they’re buying something promoted on TikTok. The researcher couldn’t prove that TikTok was actually doing anything malicious with the access — that is, he couldn’t confirm the data was collected, transferred or determine how it may be used. Users should be aware, however, and opt to open links outside of the TikTok app to be safe.

TikTok’s in-app browser could be keylogging, privacy analysis warns

TikTok refuted the claims saying the JavaScript code is only used for debugging, troubleshooting and performance monitoring — like checking to see how quickly a page loaded or if it crashed. The company also pointed to several other reasons as to why the report’s claims were overblown. The researcher also accused Meta of modifying third-party sites loaded in their in-app browsers, which has since led Ireland’s Data Protection Commission, the lead data protection regulator for Meta and TikTok under the GDPR in Europe, to request a meeting with the tech giant to discuss.

Amazon gets TikTok-ified

It’s official, the TikTok vertical video feed format is now the mobile app user interface to knock off if you’re building a new social experience. How do we know? Because this week, Amazon of all places, was found to be testing its own TikTok clone. The feed, called “Inspire,” appears in the bottom nav bar of the Amazon app.

Image Credits: Watchful via The Wall Street Journal

Amazon, of course, has no interest in competing as a new social or entertainment experience with other big tech companies. But it does copycat the latest, hottest formats when it builds out new shopping features. In years past, that’s seen the company cloning other social apps like Pinterest or Instagram or steaming live shopping videos. Now that TikTok’s feed is the go-to, Amazon has adopted it as well.

For now, the Inspire feed is being tested and is not publicly available to all users.

In Other News…

Apple Updates

  • Apple’s next iPhone event will reportedly be held on September 7, per a Bloomberg report. The company is expected to unveil its iPhone 14 line featuring camera upgrades and a faster chip. Apple has not made a formal announcement of the event at this time.
  • Apple’s iOS 16 beta 5 added a nifty feature to again show the battery percentage in the status bar on iPhone after being removed for notched models when the iPhone X debuted.
  • Apple noted prices of apps and IAPs will increase in Ghana and Turkey. 

Augmented Reality

Snap and HBO partnership for House of the Dragon

Image Credits: Snap

  • Snap and HBO Max partnered on a new AR experience for HBO’s “House of the Dragon” premiere, which includes a new selfie and worldview Lens in Snapchat’s app, as well as new Landmarker Lenses. Users can immerse themselves in the fantasy world by turning themselves into dragons or watching them fly around you, among other things.
  • Universal Studios launched the Dinotracker AR app (iOS/Android) built by Trigger XR and Niantic Labs to promote the new movie, “Jurassic World Dominion.” Users have to try to find dinosaurs around them. The app is using Niantic’s new Lightship ARDK to place 10 dinosaurs in the user’s environment. The technology features include semantic understanding, environmental awareness, walkable planes, occlusion and hand-tracking, among others. Other partners include LG Uplus, Qualcomm and KOCCA in Korea.

Image Credits: NBCUniversal Media

Social Networking

  • ⭐ Twitter, Meta and TikTok all outlined their policies related to their plans on handling the 2022 U.S. midterm elections. Twitter said it’s rolling out redesigned tweet labels and “prebunks” on misleading content. TikTok is offering state-by-state information in an Elections Center and will label and fact-check videos. Facebook said it will disable new political ads a week before the midterms.

Facebook will disable new political ads a week before US midterm elections

TikTok launches an in-app US midterms Elections Center, shares plan to fight misinformation

Photos

  • Pixelmator Photo, a photo-editing app from the company behind graphic design app Pixelmator Pro, is bringing its iOS app to the Mac. The company also said it’s moving to a subscription pricing model to better sustain its business.
  • Snapchat’s selfie-recording drone Pixy is already being killed off after just launching in April. The drone project is a causality of re-prioritization of resources at Snap amid economic concerns.

3 teens with a drone

Image Credits: Snap

Messaging

  • Messenger began testing end-to-end encryption for individual Messenger chats. The news was announced after it was revealed Meta turned over private messages to aid in the prosecution of a Nebraska teen’s abortion.
  • Telegram’s founder slammed Apple for delaying a major update to the messaging app, saying it had been stuck in review for two weeks with no explanations.
  • WhatsApp now allows users to delete a private or group chat message up to two and half days after sending it. Before, the limit was 1 hour, 8 mins, and 16 seconds. The app also introduced a new privacy option that allows people to use the app without being visible online except to selected contacts they choose. It’s additionally testing screenshot blocking and will soon allow users to leave groups privately without sending out a notification.

WhatsApp is adding new privacy options, including screenshot blocking and a stealth mode

  • WhatsApp also launched its native Windows app out of beta. The app now works without requiring users to link a phone. A similar Mac app is underway.
  • Facebook and Instagram added a new “Add Yours” sticker to Reels that lets people start trends others can add to with their own content; the trend will have its own landing page in the app.
  • Google kicked off a public campaign, “Get the Message,” designed to pressure Apple to adopt messaging standard RCS in its own Messages app. The communication protocol would support a better messaging experience between Android and iOS users, but would also make iMessage a less compelling alternative than it is today.

Google RCS campaign

Image Credits: Google

Streaming & Entertainment

  • HBO Max rolled out new mobile (and desktop) apps, promising an improved user experience with features like SharePlay support, a shuffle button for mobile, a dedicated home for downloads, tablet support in portrait and landscape modes, a better screen reader, split screens where supported, improved navigation and overall better performance.
  • Apple signed a first-look deal with Pulitizer Prize-winning Futuro Studios to bring more original podcast content to its Podcasts app, and possibly, allow it to turn those shows into Apple TV+ programs further down the road.
  • Spotify began selling live concert tickets directly to fans in a new Tickets website. The company previously only worked with partners like Ticketmaster and Eventbrite. Spotify’s home screen also gained new discovery feeds for music and podcasts. The separate feeds will direct users to the type of content they’re looking for at the time. It’s also been testing the ability to record reactions to podcasts.
  • An analysis of Spotify usage by Sensor Tower showed how engaging the app is compared with its competition; 10% of its mobile app users engage with the app daily, more than the 4% who engage with YouTube Music or 1% who engage with Pandora. (Apple Music was not included.)

Image Credits: Sensor Tower

  • Google Meet introduced a new feature that allows users to watch YouTube or stream Spotify together.
  • Apple-owned Shazam celebrated its 20th anniversary with a curated playlist of the most Shazamed songs of every year. The app now has 225 million global monthly users, Apple also noted, and has surpassed 70 billion song recognitions as of this week.
  • Netflix’s upcoming ad-supported tier may not offer offline viewing, according to findings in the app’s code.
  • Plex introduced a new social experience in its streaming apps called Discover Together, which includes the ability to add friends and see what they’re watching, bookmarking and how they’re rating shows and movies.

Image Credits: Plex

Gaming

  • Netflix’s games have seen 23.3 million downloads and average 1.7 million daily active users, per Apptopia data. This represents less than 1% of Netflix’s 221 million subscribers.
  • Google began testing a way to allow users to launch games from its cloud gaming service Stadia, as well as from Xbox Cloud Gaming and Amazon’s Luna directly from its Google Search results.
  • Fortnite maker Epic Games’ appeals case against Apple is set to be heard starting on October 21. The game maker wants to be able to sell games outside the App Store and use its own payment systems.
  • Roblox’s earnings report revealed shifting demographics for games. The fastest growing group was people ages 17-24. The company said male 17- to 24-year-olds would become the biggest tracked category in terms of users and engagement hours in the U.S. and Canada over the next couple of months.

Dating

  • Bumble reported Q2 2022 earnings with revenue up 18% YoY to $220.5 million, above estimates, but a higher net loss of $6.4 million versus $2.6 million estimated.
  • As part of the larger revamp of its “Bumble BFF” friend-finding feature, Bumble has also been developing a new “communities” offering it’s calling “Hive,” which may include support for features like group chat, polls and video calls.

Bumble experiments with group chats, polls and video calls for its new social networking feature, ‘Hive’

Health & Fitness

  • Fitbit to end Mac and PC syncing on October 13, 2022 and will instead move file transfers to its smartphone app and local music and playlists over to Pandora and Deezer.
  • Meditation and wellness app Calm laid off 20% of staff, or 90 people out of around 400. The company had been valued at $2 billion in 2020.
  • A Mozilla study found that 18 out of 25 top reproductive apps and wearables, like Clue, Flo, Glow and Eve, didn’t have strong privacy protections. Most didn’t say if they would share data with law enforcement, either.

Travel & Transportation

  • Lyft Media is a new business unit designed to consolidate Lyft’s ad offerings, which will focus on showing more ads in cars, on the Lyft mobile app and at bike-sharing stations.
  • Uber sunset its free loyalty program Uber Rewards in favor of subscription membership, Uber One. The membership costs 9.99 per month or $99.99 per year, and offers perks like 5% off certain rides or delivery orders and unlimited $0 delivery fees on food orders of over $15 and grocery orders of more than $30.
  • Airbnb launched anti-party technology which includes an algorithm that looks at signals, like the history of positive reviews, how long the user has been on the platform, the length of the trip, the distance to the listing and weekday versus weekend booking. Potential rule-breakers will be prevented from booking an entire property, and will instead direct them to results where they can rent a room where hosts are physically present.

Airbnb launches ‘anti-party’ tech to spot potential rule-breakers at the point of booking

Utilities & Productivity

  • Meta launched the Duet Display app which allows Portal owners to turn their smart screen devices (Portal Plus Gen 2 and Meta Portal Go) into a second screen for their Mac and PC. The company said it would also launch the Meta Portal Companion app on Mac for Meta Portal touch-based devices (Meta Portal Go, Meta Portal Plus, Meta Portal and Meta Portal Mini) to allow for screen-sharing on video calls. Meta is said to be phasing out its consumer Portal devices.

Adtech

  • Bloomberg reported Apple is considering rolling out ads to more places across iOS, including Maps (which was explored internally) and possibly other apps like Books or Podcasts. Currently, Apple’s ad revenue is around $4 billion.

Report: Apple explored ads in Apple Maps as it weighs broader ads push

  • A new report by FT noted many small businesses reliant on personalized ads have cut back on marketing efforts, in part due to Apple’s ATT changes, as they now face rising customer acquisition costs.
  • The WSJ reported that before launching ATT, Apple and Meta had engaged in discussions about revenue-sharing agreements, including one that would see Apple taking a cut of “boosted posts” via IAP and an ad-free Facebook subscription.
  • TikTok rolled out new ad solutions as part of its commerce ad suite called “Shopping Ads.” The company is currently testing three formats of Shopping Ads, including Video Shopping Ads, Catalog Listing Ads and LIVE Shopping Ads.

Government & Policy

  • South Korean regulators have begun to investigate Apple and Google over possible violations of the country’s in-app payment rules. The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) is also investigating SK Group’s homegrown app store called ONE Store. If the KCC discovers the companies have violated the law, it will issue fines which can be up to 2% of the company’s annual revenue.

South Korea to probe Apple and Google over in-app payment rule break

  • The EU is set to make a final decision related to a privacy complaint regarding Instagram’s handling of children’s data in the region. The decision is expected at the end of August, with a hard deadline of the first week of September.
  • Google was fined A$60 million (around $42.7 million USD) in Australia over Android settings it had applied around five years ago which were found to have misled consumers about its location data collection.
  • China’s internet regulator published a list of 30 algorithms used in popular apps including WeChat, Taobao, Meituan and Douyin, which includes a brief description of their usage.

Security & Privacy

Hands-on with Lockdown Mode in iOS 16

Funding and M&A

📉 Unity rejected a takeover offer from AppLovin that would have valued the company at $58.85 per share, an 18% premium over Unity’s stock price at the time. The deal would have been valued at $17.54 billion. Unity said it would proceed with its own deal to acquire ironSource for $4.4 billion in stock. Its shares dropped 7% after the board rejected the acquisition.

🤝 Unity announced a deal to create a JV, Unity China, in partnership with Alibaba, China Mobile, Oppo, and Douyin Group. The deal valued at $1 billion will allow Unity to expand into the world’s largest games market.

💰 European encrypted messaging app Wire, focused on enterprise use, raised €24 million in Series C funding led by growth equity firm Cipio Partners and Iconical.

💰 She Matters, a health app for Black women, raised $1.5 million in pre-seed funding. The app recently expanded its resources and support for postpartum healthcare.

🤝 DNSFilter acquired the iOS firewall app Guardian for an unknown sum in order to expand its web-based threat detection capabilities. Guardian was founded in 2013 by Will Strafach, a security researcher and former iPhone jailbreaker. Its iPhone app blocks apps from sharing users’ personal information with third parties, such as IP addresses and location data, by using a VPN.

💰 FullStory raised $25 million in new funding from Permira to help companies spot issues in their websites and apps. FullStory says it analyzed more than 15 billion user sessions in 2021, including nearly 1 trillion clicks, text highlights and scrolls.

💰 Infrastructure-as-a-service platform maker Mobot raised $12.5 million in Series A funding to expand its suite of robots that bug-test mobile apps. The robots can run through custom-designed testing flows to tap, swipe and rotate mobile devices, and more. The system integrates with standard dev tools like Jira and provides clients with results and reports.

💰 Meme-based dating app Schmooze recently raised $3.2 million in seed funding led by Inventus Capital and Silicon Valley Quad. The app lets users swipe left or right on people they like and up to love memes presented to them. The latter will help to inform match selections.

💰 Meta invested in Take App, a Singaporean startup founded by former Facebook engineering manager Youmin Ki. The app offers an easy way for users to set up simple websites for online orders, with a shopping cart, payments and a direct connection to WhatsApp for managing and tracking orders. The investment size was undisclosed but came in via the company’s NPE Team, which had previously developed social apps and more recently shifted to investments.

💰 New York-based family journaling app Qeepsake has raised $2 million in seed funding led by LaunchCapital. The company, which has 700,000 registered users, plans to invest in its marketing and engineering teams.

💰 Indian fintech app Jar raised $22.6 million in Series B funding led by Tiger Global. The app helps millions of Indians save small amounts to invest in digital gold and is planning to expand into insurance, mutual funds and lending.

💰 Sofy, the maker of a testing platform for mobile apps, closed on $7.75 million in seed funding led by Voyager Capital. The startup has raised a total of $9.5 million to date.

🤝 Just Eat sold its 33% stake in the Latin American joint venture iFood to Prosus for $1.8 billion. Prosus will now fully own the Brazilian food delivery company and app maker as a result.

Downloads

Along

Image Credits: Along

A new video creation app called Along has launched into beta testing to offer a way to create “infinite-length” collaboration videos with multiple creators. The app introduces a concept called “tapes” which begins with one creator’s video that others can then add their own clips to, which the original creator approves. The idea is similar to the “Add This” feature that Meta recently rolled out to its short-form video offering, Reels. Except in Along’s case, users are collaborating on a video “tape,” curated by the original poster, not simply contributing to a trend page.

The app is currently in private, invite-only testing but TechCrunch readers can access the app early here: along.video/invite/techcrunch. (This is not an ad — just an invite!)

You can read more about the app here on TechCrunch.

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VTubers are making millions on YouTube and Twitch

It was the world’s largest gathering of internet celebrities. As I waited to meet Twitch streamer Code Miko in a hotel lobby at VidCon, I spotted an Instagram-famous husky, a fan favorite contestant from Netflix’s “The Circle,” and a controversial beauty blogger. But when a fashionable Korean American woman approached me, I realized I was half expecting to see a 3D, hyperrealistic animation in front of me, rather than a real human. Maybe it was the near-hallucinatory exhaustion from day three of a massive online video convention, but unlike so many of the social media stars in the echoing hotel entrance hall, VTubers like Code Miko are sometimes unrecognizable in person.

A movement originating in Japan, “VTuber” means “virtual YouTuber,” but the culture is also prevalent on other streaming sites like Twitch, where Code Miko has almost a million followers. To build their virtual personas, streamers use motion-capture (or even just AR face-tracking) technology to embody a virtual avatar and weave a backstory and mythos around the character.

“I thought it would be really fun to be another character,” the streamer told TechCrunch. “I just felt like I had this vision. I wanted to take control of a virtual character and have the audience be able to interact with her live on stream. I’m a big fan of ‘Ready Player One,’ so when I felt like I could make a tiny percent of it, I was really excited.”

Code Miko streaming on Twitch

The Code Miko character, for instance, is an NPC (non-playable character) who dreams of starring in a major video game, but she’s too glitchy, so she’s resorted to streaming instead. Fans call the actual human behind the avatar “the Technician,” but her first name is Yuna. Since Yuna was a VR animator before she was laid off in the pandemic and created Code Miko — which is now her full-time job — her avatar is far more realistic than most VTubers. Also, most VTubers would never dare meet a journalist in person, let alone show their face on stream. But Yuna sometimes shows her face to offer viewers a behind-the-scenes peek at her mocap technology.

VTuber avatars usually resemble anime characters, since the genre first emerged in Japan. Fans disagree about who the first VTuber was — some say that the culture was sparked by Hatsune Miku, the avatar of a Vocaloid music production software who has opened for Lady Gaga, appeared on David Letterman, and performs live for stadium-sized audiences. Others credit Kizuna AI, a project of Japanese tech company Activ8, who started her channel in 2016 and coined the term “VTuber.”

Kizuna AI’s popularity birthed a new generation of online stars in Japan. Unlike Japanese idol culture, which holds its real-world celebrities to impossibly high standards, VTubers are more free to be themselves, even though they’re performing as a virtual character.

“They exist in this space between anime character and real person,” said anime YouTuber Gigguk in a video. “But they can explore original ideas or get away with things that other people can’t who exist in the same space.”

VTubers thrived for years in Japan, but the genre turned heads around the world during the pandemic. As much of the world entered lockdown, the massively popular VTuber agency HoloLive launched its English-language division, courting a new audience of Western viewers.

The plan didn’t just work. It changed the landscape of streaming forever.

In just two years, HoloLive English’s most popular VTuber Gawr Gura has amassed over 4 million YouTube subscribers. The white-haired anime girl wears an oversized, blue shark hoodie, her face framed by the hoodie’s shark teeth. Of course, her bright blue eyes are the same color as the highlights in her hair, and when she smiles, her adorable shark-like teeth peek out. She’s a musical artist, as many VTubers are, and she streams games like Minecraft, Mario Kart and even Japanese Duolingo. According to her channel description, she is “a descendant of the Lost City of Atlantis, who swam to Earth while saying, ‘It’s so boring down there LOLOLOL!'”

At the same time, HoloLive also introduced talent like Mori Calliope (2 million subscribers), who claims to be “the Grim Reaper’s first apprentice” and became a VTuber to “collect souls” from her viewers. Calliope is a red-eyed rebel, adorning her pastel pink hair with a black crown and veil.

We can’t confirm the progress of her soul-harvesting, but when it comes to money, Calliope is certainly succeeding. According to Playboard, an independent YouTube analytics site, Calliope earned $854,595 in 2021 just from superchats (a YouTube livestream monetization feature), making her the seventh-most superchatted YouTuber in the world.

Who were the six streamers who out-earned Calliope’s superchats? Also VTubers, of course.

Why become a VTuber anyway?

It’s rare for a VTuber to reveal their human body like Code Miko — for many of these streamers, the anonymity is the whole point.

You don’t have to sign to a major agency like HoloLive to become a VTuber. Though Code Miko’s technology is ultra-advanced and puts Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse to shame, it’s not the norm. With only an iPhone, a new streamer can create a face-tracked, 2D virtual persona.

Now, there’s a growing community of trans VTubers, some of whom say that adopting an avatar has helped them navigate gender dysphoria. Unlike the TikTok side of social media, where showing your face is almost non-negotiable, VTubers can show another side of themselves screen. VTuber Ironmouse, for example, is the most-subscribed female streamer on Twitch. But in real life, the Puerto Rican gamer is chronically ill and sometimes bed-ridden, so VTubing helps her have fun and socialize, especially when isolating from the coronavirus.

For some streamers, these avatars are also barriers against harassment.

“I don’t get the same amount of bad treatment online as my female coworkers do,” Yuna told TechCrunch. “It’s harder to troll somebody that’s a cartoon.”

Then again, in a recent stream where she showed off her state-of-the-art mocap suit, she called out a viewer for commenting that her technology was “the future of porn.” While some VTubers do get a bit racy — it is the internet, after all — there’s more to these digital personas than sex appeal.

“I think for people who watch VTubers, a lot of them don’t even care about who is behind the avatar, who is the voice actor,” explained Zhicong Lu, an assistant professor at the City University of Hong Kong who has studied VTubers. “It’s more about the persona, the avatar, and they know very little about the real life of that voice actor.”

Anonymity creates its own set of new challenges, though.

“Especially for VTubers run by companies, the voice actors may be replaced, and their labor may be exploited,” Lu said. Many of the most popular VTubers are created or managed by agencies like HoloLive, Nijisanji and VShojo. VTubers have distinct personalities informed by their voice actors, but it’s possible for agencies to bring on a new voice actor without fans noticing. Plus, it’s not public knowledge what the percentage of pay the talent gets from the agency.

“The tricky thing is, people actually cannot see anything,” Lu told TechCrunch. “It’s totally opaque. It’s not transparent, because of the avatar.”

Of course, corporations want to cash in

In mid-August, a VTuber of Tony the Tiger made his streaming debut as part of a partnership with Twitch. Yes, that Tony the Tiger, the Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes mascot who has appeared on cereal boxes since 1952.

A marketing and VTubing expert, Teddy Cambosa told TechCrunch that brands like Netflix, SEGA and AirAsia have used VTubers in their marketing. But activating the massive fanbase around VTubers isn’t so easy as simply participating.

“Brands need to better understand that tapping into the VTuber space need to understand that the demographic is not just for the short-term period,” Cambosa said. “Once they understand the culture and behavior of these fans, they can tap into the fan’s loyalty in order to acquire them as potential customers and retain them in the longer run.”

Tony the Tiger’s VTuber debut was awkward. The mascot did not actually play “Fall Guys” along with the four IRL streamers who joined him, and he left the stream for long stretches of time, prompting thousands of viewers to demand Tony’s return in the Twitch chat. He made up for his absence a little bit, though — Tony the Tiger told his 13,000 viewers that they are his “pog champs.”

Beyond the VTuber space, brands like Pacsun and Calvin Klein have partnered with Lil Miquela, a completely fictional Instagram influencer who is operated by a venture-backed company called Brud. But these advertising campaigns are often met with backlash — why not partner with a real, non-CGI woman to model these clothes? Social media is already criticized for harming teen girls, in part by promoting unrealistic beauty standards. But no beauty standard is as unrealistic as a virtual ideal of a female body.

Tony the Tiger and Lil Miquela have the technology and the financial backing to be technically impressive and well-marketed, but VTubers have to be authentic to connect with fans. Even for VTubers who only connect with audiences through their avatars, the phenomenon is ultimately about the human connection. After all, there’s still a real human behind those big anime eyes — even if you’ll never see their face.

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The Anti-Adam Neumann

According to earlier reports this week, Adam Neumann, the famed, controversial cofounder of WeWork, is in the process of creating a vast network of residential real estate properties that — we’re guessing — can be rented on a highly flexible basis to people who don’t want to be confined to one location or lease but to live as “global citizens.” It was the vision behind an earlier company that Neumann started, WeLive, a short-lived offshoot of his far better-known company, WeWork, and it’s an idea that in a post-Covid world where remote-work reigns, makes more sense than ever.

Here’s Neumann talking to The Guardian about the idea in 2016: “It’s going to be a new way of living, day to day, week to week, month to month, year to year. You will be a global citizen of the world. If you’re a member of one, you’re a member of all of them.”

The idea is so timely that another serial entrepreneur may be even farther along with his version of it — even if you haven’t heard of him before. He’s Bill Smith, the 36-year-old founder of the three-year-old, 600-person, membership-only flexible, furnished rental company Landing.

Smith, who favors button-down shirts to graphic T-shirts, is the anti-Neumann in many ways. While Neumann’s real-life drama with his investors became fodder for a television series, Smith has, with little fanfare, made his own backers a lot of money. After raising starting capital from friends and family for a reloadable Visa card company in his 20s, Smith sold that outfit to the bank-holding company Green Dot for what Forbes says was tens of millions of dollars. His next startup Shipt, a same-day delivery company that Smith founded in 2014, sold to Target in 2017 for $550 million.

Smith — unlike Neumann, who famously sold too much of WeWork to SoftBank at too unrealistic a price  — has also been conservative when it comes to VC. Shipt raised $65 million from the venture firm Greycroft and others before it was sold, but Smith still owned fully half the company. The outcome, which he now calls a “game changer,” gave him enough confidence and capital that he has now sunk at least $15 million of his own money into Landing, of which he owns one-third. (According to Forbes, Landing has raised $237 million in venture funding to date at a $475 million valuation, including from Greycroft. Meanwhile Flow, which has yet to launch, just raised $350 million in funding from Andreessen Horowitz at a reported $1 billion valuation.)

Such differences aside, both appear to be chasing a very similar, if not the exact same, opportunity to create a club that anyone can join in return for the ability to live at — and move among — properties they control.

It isn’t yet clear what Neumann might charge a member, though one imagines receiving a SoHo-type aesthetic for the price, based on the appearance of most WeWorks. In Landing’s case, the membership fee is $199 per year and the rent is 30% to 40% above what Landing itself pays building owners to lease their space. But in return for at least a six-month commitment, a Landing member can live in a growing number of places — including Tampa, Austin, and Las Vegas. Members receive fully furnished apartments ( Landing has its own innocuous furnishings made in Vietnam and shipped to the U.S. to keep its costs down) And the longest a member need stay in one location? Just one month.

After reading a (very good) Forbes piece about the business earlier this week, we asked Smith to also walk us through what he’s building, as well as what lessons he has learned, if any, from watching Adam Neumann from a distance. You can hear that conversation here. Excepts, edited for length, follow below.

You estimate that perhaps 10% of the 40 million Americans who live in apartments right now could choose furnished, flexible stay homes within a decade. How have you come up with that estimate?

When you think about all the other aspects of our lives over the last decade, the way that we live has completely changed. But apartment living is generally an offline, pretty old school process. There’s not much freedom and flexibility and convenience in the current model . . and a large portion of the 40 million people who rent today are anywhere from 20 to 40 years old and they want this flexibility.

You’re taking “flexible” to an extreme. That’s enticing as a consumer, but from a business standpoint, how do you rationalize it?

We’re not trying to create a vacation brand or a travel business. People that live with Landing are committed to this lifestyle and to living on our platform, which enables us to deliver really high occupancy. And if you can deliver high occupancy, you can provide this product at a cost that’s accessible to a large number of people who stay for a long time.

How long do people tend to stay in one location?

Right now people are staying in one location about six months on average.

Do you handle any type of home repairs? Before launching Landing, you were trying to build a home services type marketplace.

We don’t. Home repairs are handled by the companies that own the properties that we’re located in. We do provide cleaning and those types of services. You’re right, though. The first company I started [after Shipt] was kind of concierge home services for homeowners, and we tested that for about a month, and that was a very fast flop, and we decided to move from that to what is now Landing.

You’re using data to try and understand how to cut your costs, including to adjust your pricing based on location and seasonality. Can you share a bit more about the kind of data that you are churning through and how you are using it? Relatedly, how much can you glean from your customers once they are inside a unit?

We need to know where people want to live so that we can have supply available for them and ready, so we’re looking at what neighborhoods people are searching in; what time of year they want to live there; and how fast they want to move in, and we’re using that information to power our supply efforts.

We also have distribution centers and our own last-mile delivery network, and we use data to determine where we make investments on that side of the business. Certain times of the year, there might be a lot of demand to move to certain parts of Phoenix, while in other parts of the year, you see a spike in demand in Miami, and we have to have physical items ready to ship in those areas so that people can move in very quickly.

Your software lists an apartment before you even sign a lease with a landlord, then you find the tenant. Once that renter has signed a lease with you, you sign the lease with the landlord and you furnish the apartment. Is that how it works?

Yeah, so what we’ve built is the first on-demand model for building out supply this way. An apartment community will list units on our site, then we’ve built the technology and the operational infrastructure to create a ‘Landing’ in just a few days, which sounds super simple but is incredibly complex if you think about everything it takes to furnish and set up an entire home from your sofa down to the silverware.

Is software development a big focus of yours?

There’s a huge technology component of Landing. We’ve built the entire platform that operates our business, everything you see on our site from discovering and reserving a home, to the experience once you check in, including how you access the building and [ensuring all your needs are met] once you’re living there. It’s also the apps that our teams who are providing services in the field use. It’s the technology running our distribution centers and our last-mile delivery network. So there’s a significant amount of technology that we’ve had to build to run this business. It’s not something you can just buy off the shelf.

Are you at all focused on buildings with community spaces? How people literally flow and gather was a focus of Adam Neumann, and I’m guessing it continues to be with his company Flow.  In a world where fewer people go into offices, is this a consideration when you are looking at buildings?

We think about community more from a neighborhood level instead of just a property level. If you think about the typical apartment community, there might be 250 units, so it’s not a large number of people and [they] are going to be a very diverse group with unique interests. So we think about it more on a neighborhood level and building community between people that have chosen to live this lifestyle in a particular part of Miami, for example.

You sign one-year leases with apartment owners. Why not lock down these spaces slightly longer, and hopefully lock in better rent?

Certainly we could try to do multi-year deals, but I think it’s better to have very little lease liability in the company. We would be the antithesis of the WeWork model where we have very little lease liability. And we can flex as there are changes in the markets. [Also], over time, we will partner with owners to bring this product to their building, and it really won’t be a Landing lease product; they’ll just join the Landing platform. They’ll operate using our technology and our standards and it won’t be this model of, Landing leases it and is committed to that lease.

So Landing will become an enterprise SaaS company in some ways?

Having a SaaS component is probably the best way to describe it, yeah.

As a student of the space, are there other lessons from WeWork that you’re replicating or avoiding?

WeWork and Landing are really such different businesses — office versus residential is just a totally different category. But what I learned really, and not directly from WeWork but just generally, is that the unit economics of the business are critical. In the early days of any company, you’re trying to figure out the unit economics. But on this one, in particular, we had to master the unit economics really fast. We didn’t have five or six years to prove that out like a lot of other other consumer businesses did, and I think that’s because people saw WeWork and saw all the challenges there.

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Mark Zuckerberg says the metaverse won’t be as cringey as his cursed selfie

To mark the expansion of Meta’s bland virtual reality platform, Horizon Worlds, into France and Spain, Mark Zuckerberg recently shared a selfie. The graphic, featuring the boyish CEO in front of a low-res model of the Eiffel tower, quickly struck a nerve, sparking sneers, jeers and sighs from quippy social media users. And honestly, can you blame them?

If the image offended you — and personally, I’d find that reasonable given Meta’s influence over our virtual past and present — then perhaps you can find solace in this: Mark Zuckerberg hears you. He sees you. And no, he more or less says, the metaverse won’t look that wack. At least, not forever. 

Mark Zuckerberg's Horizon avatar, looking just awful

Mark Zuckerberg’s Horizon Worlds avatar, looking just awful. Image Credits: Facebook

“Major updates to Horizon and avatar graphics coming soon. I’ll share more at Connect,” the CEO said on Instagram on Friday, referring to Meta’s upcoming developer conference. “Also, I know the photo I posted earlier this week was pretty basic — it was taken very quickly to celebrate a launch,” the executive added, showing signs of humanity. The misstep echoed something wholly relatable: the act of posting a late-night selfie, only to regret it in the morning.

The Meta boss’ response included another avatar and an ancient-looking cafe, with fine details that evoke a bit more Pixar and a little less e-card. Zuckerberg went on to reassure his followers that Meta’s graphics and avatars are “capable of much more — even on headsets — and Horizon is improving very quickly.”

Indeed, for all of our sakes, I sure hope he’s right.

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Netflix may copy Disney+’s decision not to run ads during kids’ programming

Netflix’s ad-supported tier may not run commercials during kids’ programs, a decision that its rival Disney+ made in May. As reported by Bloomberg, Netflix told partners that kids’ programming would stay commercial-free.

Sources also told the outlet that original movies would initially stay ad-free, likely to appease filmmakers who don’t want their high-budget releases ruined by advertising. If true, subscribers would be happy about this, as well.

However, original series such as “Stranger Things,” “Bridgerton,” and “Squid Game” are expected to get still include ads.

Netflix declined to comment to TechCrunch.

If the streamer were to keep its kids’ programming ad-free, it could help to make up for its recent loss of subscribers. Some parents may have strayed from the service due to the high price, so the upcoming cheaper ad-supported tier could help them save money while also giving their kids an ad-free streaming experience.

Advertising and children’s programming don’t mix well. Google and YouTube realized this after paying $170 million for violating kids’ privacy laws. Targeting ads to individual children is seen as exploitative to some, and Netflix probably doesn’t want this reputation — nor do its advertisers. Organizations like the American Psychological Association have called for heavier restrictions on advertising for children.

Disney+ promises a light ad load and zero commercials for preschoolers on new ad-supported tier

We don’t know much about Netflix’s upcoming ad-supported plan at this time — only that it’s coming to the service in 2023.

In partnership with Microsoft, the technology and sales for advertising are all handled by the third party, so some decisions may be out of Netflix’s control. For instance, it was speculated that the ad-free plan would block offline downloads, a common move for streaming services.

We also know that not all its shows can be offered on the ad-supported version. Netflix has confirmed it’s negotiating deals to get certain programming onto its ad-supported tier.

Analysts predict that Netflix will be one of the most prominent players in online video advertising, generating an estimated $4 billion a year in ad sales.

Netflix’s ad-supported plan may block offline viewing, code suggests

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Wayfair to layoff 5% of its workforce, or nearly 900 employees

Wayfair, the online home goods retailer, announced today it was laying off close to 900 employees as a way to reprioritize investment needs and meet the company’s current needs. This comes after the company announced a hiring freeze back in May. 

The layoffs represent close to 5% of the company’s global workforce and 10% of its corporate team, according to SEC filings. 400 jobs are being cut in Boston, at the company’s HQ.

“We were seeing the tailwinds of the pandemic accelerate the adoption of e-commerce shopping, and I personally pushed hard to hire a strong team to support that growth,”  said Founder and CEO Niraj Shah in the company’s memo to employees. “This year, that growth has not materialized as we had anticipated. Our team is too large for the environment we are now in, and unfortunately, we need to adjust.”

It is unclear which teams were specifically affected by the layoffs. TechCrunch reached out to Wayfair but was referred to the company’s memo.  

Those laid-off will receive a severance package based on geography and tenure. According to the company, U.S.-based employees will receive a minimum of 10 paid weeks in addition to other resources — outplacement services for example. 

The Boston-based company said it is expecting layoff costs to range between $30-$40 million, comprised mainly of employee severance. According to the SEC filing, the hit will be reflected in the company’s current quarter. 

“We are actively navigating Wayfair towards a level of profitability that will allow us to control our own destiny, while still investing aggressively in the future,” Shah said. “We’ve prioritized our work and set clear goals: to focus on the basics, drive cost efficiency and earn more customer and supplier loyalty. This macro environment doesn’t change our belief in the size of the opportunity ahead, and we are moving purposefully to seize that opportunity.”

For the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the company was profitable and reflected so in its stock, but has since taken a hit. According to The Wall Street Journal, Wayfair’s stock fell by over 17% Friday morning. 

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TechCrunch+ roundup: How VC really works, longevity investor survey, choosing your angel

“Venture capital” is semantically equivalent to “dangerous money,” which is part of its mystique.

Essentially, VC is a high-stakes extreme sport in which top players can accumulate startling amounts of wealth and power. And sometimes, a massive pile of investor cash burns so brightly, it gets picked up on satellites.

But where does all that money actually come from, and how do VCs actually make money? Prior to joining TechCrunch, reporter Haje Jan Kamps worked at VC fund Bolt, where he interacted directly with early-stage founders.

“Once you’re on the VC-fueled treadmill, you can’t easily step back off,” he writes. “The corollary of that is that I suspect a lot of founders don’t really know how venture capital works.”

In this comprehensive explainer, he deconstructs venture capital to help readers understand how investors think about risk and return, pro-rata rights, and why “VC investing is a hits-driven business.”

It should go without saying, but it’s a bad idea to pitch an investor if you don’t have a solid grasp of how they operate.

“As a startup founder, you’d never dream of selling a product to a customer you don’t truly understand,” writes Haje. “Not understanding why your VC partner might be interested to invest in you is dangerous.”

Thanks very much for reading TC+ this week!

Walter Thompson
Editorial Manager, TechCrunch+
@yourprotagonist

As a startup founder, you really need to understand how venture capital works

Planning to use your startup equity as collateral? Good luck

Employee incentives are one of the oldest brain hacks. Offer the right person enough equity and delicious snacks and they will gladly work 60+ hours/week or take part in a weekend dev sprint.

But workers who are interested in accessing liquidity have just two options: wait for a tender offer from their employer, or find a private buyer in the secondary markets.

“You could claim the system is broken. I happen to agree,” says Max Brenner, part of the founding team at Compound.

Planning to use your startup equity as collateral? Good luck

Why do startup valuations go down when interest rates go up?

Digital generated image of pink popsicle in shape of DOLLAR sign melting on yellow background. Inflation concept.

Image Credits: Andri Onufriyenko (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

The U.S. Federal Reserve has hiked interest rates to tamp down inflation, just one of several factors that are driving down startup valuations these days.

But why?

Higher inflation directly impacts access to capital, your customers’ ability to pay, and, not incidentally, the service you’ll receive from providers (which includes your own employees).

“If your customers benefit from inflation, then there’s a good chance that your company will, too,” says Equidam founder Daniel Faloppa.

“In most cases, though, when your customers benefit, your service providers suffer.”

Why do startup valuations go down when interest rates go up?

Pitch Deck Teardown: Mi Terro’s $1.5M seed deck

In March, Mi Terro raised a $1.5 million seed round to scale up efforts to turn agricultural waste into proteins that can be used to replace legacy plastics that have fouled our environment.

The company’s founders shared a 15-slide pitch deck with TC+ that runs through their plans to use spent grain to create material for everything from contact lenses to detergent pods.

Or, as the closing slide states, “Drink more beer, reduce more microplastic.”

Pitch Deck Teardown: Mi Terro’s $1.5M seed deck

Dear Sophie: How do I get an O-1 visa to freelance on web3 projects?

lone figure at entrance to maze hedge that has an American flag at the center

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin/TechCrunch

Dear Sophie,

I’m a UX/UI designer in Europe working at a web3 company in the United States.

I would like to resign from my current position and move to the U.S. to pursue work that allows me to have more autonomy, flexibility and the ability to take on a variety of projects with different clients in the U.S.

How can I make that happen? Thanks for your help!

—Worldly web3 Wonder

Dear Sophie: How do I get an O-1 visa to freelance on web3 projects?

Choose your angel: Learn how they invest and what motivates them

White wings isolated on black background

Image Credits: Newbird (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

The “choose your fighter” meme can be traced back to the video game Mortal Kombat, but it’s also relevant for seed-stage founders who are looking for an investor.

Making money is top of mind for every angel, but according to Mack Kolarich, VP of Assure Analytics, most of them also “have a second or third motivator driving them to invest in startups.”

In a TC+ guest post, he lays out several factors entrepreneurs need to consider when investor-shopping: Are they supporting a local ecosystem? Do they write direct checks?

“Armed with this knowledge, you can strategically select the right partner for your business,” says Kolarich.

Choose your angel: Learn how they invest and what motivates them

5 investors explain why longevity tech is a long-term play

person Lighting 93 candles on a cake; longevity tech investor survey

Image Credits: Lucy Lambriex (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

In the United States, average life expectancy has fallen for two years in a row. In 2019, it was 78.86 years, but by 2020, that figure shrank by 2 years and 3 months.

The decline was due to COVID-19, but reporter Anna Heim interviewed five investors who are backing startups developing technology that may allow us to live longer, healthier lives.

Longevity is a nascent vertical today, but “the space is only getting started now and will infiltrate all aspects of our life in the next five to 10 years,” said one respondent.

5 investors explain why longevity tech is a long-term play