On the last Gang recording session in early October before the birth of our first grandchild, I tried to stir the pot by attacking Democratic Progressives for capsizing the second of two Infrastructure bills. The moderates, led by the recalcitrant Joe Manchin and his silent sidekick Kyrsten Sinema, were successfully gumming up the Democrats’ best […]
Online platforms have a responsibility to protect children from harm
We must arm children and teens with tools and technology to understand whether someone they meet online has a record of bad behavior.
One woman’s mission to build a network of female and non-binary angel investors
Angel investing has traditionally been mostly open to men, who travel in certain circles and have access to certain networks, but Amanda Robson, a principal at Cowboy Ventures, is attempting to change that by building an informal network of women and non-binary folks who have the means to write checks, but for whatever reason have […]
ShipBlu bags $2.4M for its e-commerce and fulfilment service in Egypt
African e-commerce fulfilment startups backed by Y Combinator seem to be piquing investors’ interest this year for their niche e-commerce play. Summer batch graduate ShipBlu is the latest on that list and confirmed to TechCrunch that it has raised $2.4 million in seed funding. The company, founded by Ali Nasser, Ahmed ElKawass, Abdelrahman Hosny in […]
Every startup has a tipping point. How do you recalibrate?
Welcome to Startups Weekly, a fresh human-first take on this week’s startup news and trends. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here. I spent the past month interviewing current and former employees at Ro, a health tech unicorn, about rising tensions within the company as it struggles to grow into its $5 billion valuation. […]
This Week in Apps: SharePlay arrives, Android Dev Summit wraps, Snap and TikTok go to Congress
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. The app industry continues to grow, with a record 218 billion downloads and $143 billion in global consumer spend in 2020. Consumers last year also spent 3.5 trillion minutes using apps on Android devices alone. […]
How VCs are adapting to meet an increasingly global startup market
Welcome back to The TechCrunch Exchange, a weekly startups-and-markets newsletter for your weekend enjoyment.
Neurodiversity in technology: Are businesses missing out on key talent?
Neurodiversity presents a huge opportunity for leaders to bring in unique talent with different skill sets to drive progress in the tech industry.
3 signs that a startup’s ‘impact’ is just a marketing ploy for investors
For some founders, tying themselves to impact is a way to play into trends and get noticed by investors, but there’s a fine line between impact and pushing a narrative for marketing purposes.
TechCrunch+ roundup: BNPL competition heats up, Bowery Farming TC-1, Silicon Valley dreams
Is Southeast Asia about to hit an inflection point for tech startups? Four hundred million people in the region already use the internet, but by year’s end, one estimate suggests that 80% of the population over the age of 15 in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam will be digital consumers. “As per […]