How Pilot convinced Index Ventures to think long-term about margins

Whether you agree or not, it’s hard to ignore the fact that the multipliers in Silicon Valley and the growth of software businesses have changed the way we think about a startup’s timeline.

Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri will testify before the Senate on teen mental heath

Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri will testify before the Senate for the first time as part of a series of hearings about online safety for children and teens. Per The New York Times, Mosseri’s hearing will take place on December 6. Mosseri’s upcoming testimony comes after Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) wrote a letter to Facebook […]

Niantic raises $300M at a $9B valuation to build the ‘real-world metaverse’

Niantic, the augmented reality platform that’s developing games like Pokémon GO, raised $300 million from Coatue, valuing the company at $9 billion. The San Fransisco-based startup, which initially spun out of Google, will use this money to build what it calls the “real-world metaverse.” As early as August, Niantic founder and CEO John Hanke has […]

TikTok brings its TV app to more devices across the US and Canada

Just ahead of the U.S. Thanksgiving holidays, TikTok is expanding its footprint in the living room. The company earlier this month launched its TV app in North America in partnership with Amazon Fire TV. Today, TikTok is rolling out its TV app to more TV platforms across North America, including Google TV and other Android […]

Waldo brings its ad-free, private photo-sharing service direct to consumers

Waldo, a photo-sharing platform that has historically targeted businesses, schools, camps, sports leagues, and other organizations, is capitalizing on the growing anti-Facebook sentiment to promote its newly launched consumer product. The company today is introducing a service aimed at private photo-sharing among family and friends which it’s promoting as an “ad-free, non-toxic” and private alternative […]

Popular Twitch Software Changing Name Following Plagiarism Accusations

Yesterday, the Twitter account for the livestreaming software Lightstream accused rival streaming software maker Streamlabs of stealing marketing copy from its website. After Lightstream tweeted about how Streamlabs’ website text was modeled on its own…

Instagram will shut down its companion app Threads by year end

Instagram’s standalone messaging app Threads is shutting down. The app will no longer be supported by the end of December 2021, the company confirmed to TechCrunch after reports began circulating via social media of its impending closure. Instagram is planning to alert its existing Threads users with an in-app notice beginning on November 23, which […]

Spotify’s new Podcast Subscriptions expand to global markets

Just a few months after launching support for podcast subscriptions to U.S. creators, Spotify today is making the service available to creators in global markets. The company says the service, which allows creators to mark episodes as “subscriber-only” content, will now become available in 33 new markets worldwide. When podcast subscriptions publicly launched in the […]