In a bull market, it’s especially hard to understand people and their value systems. The pandemic does not help us engage, understand culture nor help build a human connection.
Mission-driven ventures are growing fast during the pandemic
You’ve heard of SPACs, meme stocks and buy now, pay later, but have you heard of the LTSE, First Women’s Bank and Upsolve?
Credo AI launches out of stealth with $5.5 million to help companies with ‘ethical AI’
There are many in the world of AI who worry about its implications. One of those people is Navrina Singh, a former product manager for Qualcomm, then Microsoft, who saw firsthand at Microsoft how a Twitter bot it developed in 2016 as an experiment in “conversational understanding,” was, to quote The Verge, “taught to be […]
TechCrunch+ roundup: Automattic TC-1, federal startup grants, ‘getting s*** done day’
Our latest longform look at a notable tech company examines Automattic, “the leading commercial complement to the open-source WordPress publishing platform.”
Republic may build a secondary exchange for digital securities, fueled by $150 million in new funding
There’s plenty of frustration in the world of startups over when a digital asset does and does not constitute a security in the eyes of the Securities & Exchange Commission. Where many see regulatory murkiness, the five-year-old, New York-based investing platform Republic sees opportunity. Indeed, while many outfits grapple with whether to distance themselves from […]
The Automattic TC-1
Sixteen years in and now valued at $7.5 billion, Automattic has found a multitude of strides, even as it strives to own ever more of the media market.
Check out these startups from Pear’s Demo Day (there’s usually a breakout or two in the bunch)
We can’t check out every investing outfit’s demo day. But one event that we try to catch every year is that of Pear, which is held annually each fall and features (blessedly) just a dozen or so very nascent startups. Pear, a seed-stage venture firm founded in 2013, has an impressive track record when it […]
The venture bull market is great for founders, but not in the way they might expect
Venture firms have more dry powder, deal sizes are growing rapidly and valuations are soaring. But a closer look reveals that these trends apply very unequally across the funding continuum.
Female Founders Alliance raises a $10M fund, renames to Graham & Walker
Starting as a Facebook support group for founders, the Female Founders Alliance community has done a lot of evolving and changing since its inception. Today, it announces a name change and the fact that it’s started writing checks out of its inaugural fund. With $10 million to play with, the newly minted Graham & Walker […]
We’re already very much at war with China, argues a provocative new book
If China once seemed to be committed to the free market economy, over the course of 2021, it has shattered that illusion entirely by abruptly disempowering its own tech companies and turning up the dials on media censorship at the direction of a president who, three years ago, oversaw the erasure of presidential limits from […]