Latest and Hotest Technology Updates

Midweek? More like mid-weak! Okay, terrible pun, but we're a little low energy in this heat wave today, so it kinda made sense.

Oh! And good news, btw, we're offering 15% off Disrupt tickets (excluding online or expo tickets) for you, our trusty Daily Crunch readers. Use promo code “DC” to claim your discount!

See you tomorrow!  — Christine and Haje

The TechCrunch Top 3

• Slumdog $5-illonnaire: Landa is the latest startup to attract venture capital, in this case $33 million, to democratize real estate ownership, Mary Ann writes. Its approach enables people to invest in the real estate sector, which is known for providing generational wealth, but in a less expensive, more fractional way, and in some cases, for as little as $5 initially.
• Snap, crackle and . . . fizzle: Despite the myriad of news and new revenue streams we've reported about Snap right here in this newsletter, Evan Spiegel said the words no tech employee wants to hear right now: "restructuring our business." Amanda reports that this unfortunately means cutting 20% of staff.
• Obstacles abroad: Amazon faces some tough competition in India, and Manish reports that has presented some challenges in the e-commerce giant's ability to gain a more prominent foothold in the country.

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Startups and VC

This week, Haje went deep with a founder who's building digital license plates. He mused that building an easy-to-copy hardware product in an incredibly tightly regulated industry where winner-takes-all would be an utter nightmare, but when it works, it works, and it's fascinating to see Reviver build a company, one license plate at the time.

Populus, the San Francisco–based transportation data startup, got its start as shared scooter mania took hold and cities tried to make sense of how infrastructure was being used by fleets of tiny vehicles. Now, Populus co-founder and CEO Regina Clewlow is repositioning the company to take advantage of another hot opportunity: curbs and congestion, Rebecca writes. It's a really good read from the TechCrunch transportation desk with an undertone of “the power of great pivots.”

Raisin' money, raisin' hell:

• Looking beyond the matrix: Ron reports on CodeSee's latest product, which helps organizations visualize their code base.
• Turning coaching into a team sport: Natasha M reports that the founder of Human Q disagrees with some of the biggest and most valuable competitors out there. Instead of one-to-one coaching, Human Q wants to make group coaching an impactful alternative. This founder wants to take on the biggest coaching startups with a group-focused approach.
• Stretching the chains: Supply chain firm NFI inks a $10 million deal to deploy Boston Dynamics' Stretch robots, reports Brian.
• Fintech, that's like fly-fishing, right?: Christine reports that Solid raised a $63 million Series B round of funding to continue providing its fintech-as-a-service offering for companies wanting to launch and scale their own fintech products. 
• Like twitch3: Rita reports that Stacked raised $13 million to be the Twitch for web3 gamers.

Crafting a XaaS customer success strategy that drives growth

Giving users better service than they expected could literally save a software startup. In one study, companies that spent 10% of yearly revenue on customer success attained peak net recurring revenue.

“Companies mostly deploy two or more customer success archetypes,” according to TC+ contributors Rachel Parrinello and John Stamos. “They usually vary by customer segment, business versus technical focus and sales motion focus: adopt, renew, upsell and cross-sell.”

If you’re interested in optimizing revenue through CS, read the rest for a full overview of job design methodology, because “companies should not design their customer success roles in a vacuum.”

(TechCrunch+ is our membership program, which helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can sign up here.)

Read More

Big Tech Inc.

Social media and privacy don't often go hand in hand, especially when children can see a lot on the internet already. Twitter got caught up in this when it reportedly tried to monetize adult content in an effort to compete with OnlyFans. It later scrapped the program when it was found that its system couldn't "detect child sexual abuse material and non-consensual nudity at scale," Amanda writes. Meanwhile, California lawmakers wasted no time moving ahead to put in place statewide online privacy protections for children where there are none at the federal level, Taylor reports.

• Stepping on the gas, er, EV pedal: Toyota is accelerating its investment in U.S. electric vehicles, and will park some $3.8 billion into that initiative, up from an initial $1.3 billion, Jaclyn writes.
• Cashing in on NFTs: Event organizers working with Ticketmaster can now issue NFTs tied to tickets on Flow, Ivan reports.
• It's almost fall and that means another Apple event: Brian has the skinny on all the things you should know about Apple's iPhone 14 event on September 7.
• New satellite on the block: Royal Caribbean is going "all-in on satellite service," and will outfit its fleet of ships with Starlink internet, Devin writes.

• Information Systems Analyst I/II/III (Infor CloudSuite Systems Analyst) at Valley Water (San Jose, CA, USA)
• Quality Assurance Engineer Lead at American Prison Data Systems (New York, NY, USA)
• Marine Robotics Research Engineer at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (Moss Landing, CA, USA)
• Software Developer at Simplify Compliance (Dallas, TX, USA)
• Senior Software Engineer (REMOTE ROLE) - Graphql, Node, React, AWS at EVgo (Santa Monica, CA, USA)

See more jobs on CrunchBoard

Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $200 per month.

Midweek? More like mid-weak! Okay, terrible pun, but we're a little low energy in this heat wave today, so it kinda made sense.

Oh! And good news, btw, we're offering 15% off Disrupt tickets (excluding online or expo tickets) for you, our trusty Daily Crunch readers. Use promo code “DC” to claim your discount!

See you tomorrow!  — Christine and Haje

The TechCrunch Top 3

• Slumdog $5-illonnaire: Landa is the latest startup to attract venture capital, in this case $33 million, to democratize real estate ownership, Mary Ann writes. Its approach enables people to invest in the real estate sector, which is known for providing generational wealth, but in a less expensive, more fractional way, and in some cases, for as little as $5 initially.
• Snap, crackle and . . . fizzle: Despite the myriad of news and new revenue streams we've reported about Snap right here in this newsletter, Evan Spiegel said the words no tech employee wants to hear right now: "restructuring our business." Amanda reports that this unfortunately means cutting 20% of staff.
• Obstacles abroad: Amazon faces some tough competition in India, and Manish reports that has presented some challenges in the e-commerce giant's ability to gain a more prominent foothold in the country.

Automate compliance, drive growth, & get free food

Sponsored by Vanta

Compliance doesn't have to be complicated. With Vanta, it can be super simple. Trusted by 3,000+ companies, Vanta automates the pricey, time-consuming process of obtaining SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, and more. Attend a demo and lunch is on us!

Let's go!

Startups and VC

This week, Haje went deep with a founder who's building digital license plates. He mused that building an easy-to-copy hardware product in an incredibly tightly regulated industry where winner-takes-all would be an utter nightmare, but when it works, it works, and it's fascinating to see Reviver build a company, one license plate at the time.

Populus, the San Francisco–based transportation data startup, got its start as shared scooter mania took hold and cities tried to make sense of how infrastructure was being used by fleets of tiny vehicles. Now, Populus co-founder and CEO Regina Clewlow is repositioning the company to take advantage of another hot opportunity: curbs and congestion, Rebecca writes. It's a really good read from the TechCrunch transportation desk with an undertone of “the power of great pivots.”

Raisin' money, raisin' hell:

• Looking beyond the matrix: Ron reports on CodeSee's latest product, which helps organizations visualize their code base.
• Turning coaching into a team sport: Natasha M reports that the founder of Human Q disagrees with some of the biggest and most valuable competitors out there. Instead of one-to-one coaching, Human Q wants to make group coaching an impactful alternative. This founder wants to take on the biggest coaching startups with a group-focused approach.
• Stretching the chains: Supply chain firm NFI inks a $10 million deal to deploy Boston Dynamics' Stretch robots, reports Brian.
• Fintech, that's like fly-fishing, right?: Christine reports that Solid raised a $63 million Series B round of funding to continue providing its fintech-as-a-service offering for companies wanting to launch and scale their own fintech products. 
• Like twitch3: Rita reports that Stacked raised $13 million to be the Twitch for web3 gamers.

Crafting a XaaS customer success strategy that drives growth

Giving users better service than they expected could literally save a software startup. In one study, companies that spent 10% of yearly revenue on customer success attained peak net recurring revenue.

“Companies mostly deploy two or more customer success archetypes,” according to TC+ contributors Rachel Parrinello and John Stamos. “They usually vary by customer segment, business versus technical focus and sales motion focus: adopt, renew, upsell and cross-sell.”

If you’re interested in optimizing revenue through CS, read the rest for a full overview of job design methodology, because “companies should not design their customer success roles in a vacuum.”

(TechCrunch+ is our membership program, which helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can sign up here.)

Read More

Big Tech Inc.

Social media and privacy don't often go hand in hand, especially when children can see a lot on the internet already. Twitter got caught up in this when it reportedly tried to monetize adult content in an effort to compete with OnlyFans. It later scrapped the program when it was found that its system couldn't "detect child sexual abuse material and non-consensual nudity at scale," Amanda writes. Meanwhile, California lawmakers wasted no time moving ahead to put in place statewide online privacy protections for children where there are none at the federal level, Taylor reports.

• Stepping on the gas, er, EV pedal: Toyota is accelerating its investment in U.S. electric vehicles, and will park some $3.8 billion into that initiative, up from an initial $1.3 billion, Jaclyn writes.
• Cashing in on NFTs: Event organizers working with Ticketmaster can now issue NFTs tied to tickets on Flow, Ivan reports.
• It's almost fall and that means another Apple event: Brian has the skinny on all the things you should know about Apple's iPhone 14 event on September 7.
• New satellite on the block: Royal Caribbean is going "all-in on satellite service," and will outfit its fleet of ships with Starlink internet, Devin writes.

• Information Systems Analyst I/II/III (Infor CloudSuite Systems Analyst) at Valley Water (San Jose, CA, USA)
• Quality Assurance Engineer Lead at American Prison Data Systems (New York, NY, USA)
• Marine Robotics Research Engineer at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (Moss Landing, CA, USA)
• Software Developer at Simplify Compliance (Dallas, TX, USA)
• Senior Software Engineer (REMOTE ROLE) - Graphql, Node, React, AWS at EVgo (Santa Monica, CA, USA)

See more jobs on CrunchBoard

Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $200 per month.

Hey, hey, hey! Good to have you back with us again. Today, we're mostly amazed at how quiet Twitter gets during Burning Man, and excited that we're doing a Labor Day sale for TechCrunch Plus, if you've been wanting to read our subscription site but you've been holding off for whatever reason. — Christine and Haje

The TechCrunch Top 3

• Embed that finance: Pezesha, a Kenyan-based fintech startup, is flush with $11 million in new capital as it seeks to bridge the gap between access to financial products and what is a "$330 billion financing deficit for the small enterprises that make up 90% of Africa's businesses," Annie reports.
• We’re all connected: If you haven't yet seen yourself in one of your Twitter connection's Circles, you may soon. The social media giant is launching the "Close Friends" features globally, Ivan reports. Add a bunch of people to your Circle and get tweeting.
• No delivery for you: Delivery platform Gopuff has only been in Europe since November 2021, but Natasha L writes it made the decision to discontinue its service in Spain. She cites that perhaps this is to focus more on the United Kingdom market where revenue there is increasing 30% month over month.

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Startups and VC

Initialized Capital was VC Garry Tan's answer to a need first highlighted by Y Combinator. As a partner at the accelerator from 2010 to 2015, Tan spent time working with companies to better understand what they needed from investors after they graduated. This week, he announced he's back at the helm at YC, and Natasha M interviewed him about what's next for Y Combinator.

The company behind last summer's hot social app, Poparazzi, appears to be readying a round two following its $15 million Series A announced in June. A new listing in the App Store under the developer's account, TTYL, is teasing a pre-release app called Made with Friends, Sarah reports.

When the news hits your eye, like a big pizza pie, that's a-more-news:

• Notification bubbles: Devin reports that, at long last, there's an underwater messaging app.
• Money for laundering: Flush with fresh funds, U.K. “eco laundry” startup Oxwash raised $12 million to spin up its growth plans, Natasha L reports.
• Faster when further afield: The U.K.'s £5 billion Project Gigabit gives out its first contract to connect rural areas to high-speed broadband, Paul reports.
• PriceOye gets the Thiel seal of approval: Islamabad-based startup PriceOye offers a range of electronics products, including smartphones, TVs and home appliances. It just closed a round of funding from investors, including Peter Thiel, reports Jagmeet.
• Dodging the SPAC bullet: Alex and Anna wrote a really interesting piece on TC+ (use “DC” for a 15% discount if you're not a subscriber yet) about SPACs, how they are falling apart, and how Europe may have dodged a bullet on that front.

How to communicate to your crypto community when things aren't going well

Because it’s a nascent industry that’s largely unregulated, crypto companies are not generally skilled at crisis communications. (We're being generous here.)

When a bank or financial services company experiences a massive security failure or a volatility shock, federal laws dictate how it must communicate with its customers. Crypto startups, however, must rely on their own best judgment.

“There's little benefit in declaring that the sky is falling and begging your community for investment, but an overly rosy outlook won't fool anyone either,” says Tahem Verma, co-founder and CEO of Mesha.

(TechCrunch+ is our membership program, which helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can sign up here.)

Read More

Big Tech Inc.

Last chance to get your game on in the Facebook Gaming app. The social media giant said it is shutting down its stand-alone app at the end of October, Aisha reports. Don't worry, you can still find your games in Gaming on actual Facebook. When launching the separate app two years ago, it seemed to be more difficult than Facebook bargained for, so it decided to join 'em instead of beating 'em.

• Data duh!: Millions of faces and vehicle license plates were leaked online in China, Zack writes.
• Ghosts can drive?: A Tesla Model 3 owner filed a class action lawsuit against the electric vehicle maker alleging the car keeps "phantom braking," Jaclyn reports. 
• New security regime: Broadband and mobile carriers in the United Kingdom could face fines of up to $117,000 per day or 10% of their sales if they don't abide by some new cybersecurity rules, Ingrid writes.
• More Elon: Taylor has the 411 on Elon Musk's new strategy for getting out of the Twitter deal — hint, it involves the company's whistleblower. Meanwhile, Paul goes over the new subpoena related to the ongoing battle.

• Marine Robotics Research Engineer at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (Moss Landing, CA, USA)
• Software Developer at Simplify Compliance (Dallas, TX, USA)
• Senior Software Engineer (REMOTE ROLE) - Graphql, Node, React, AWS at EVgo (Santa Monica, CA, USA)
• Systems Administrator - Tyler Munis at Tualatin Hills Park and Recreation District (Beaverton, OR, USA)
• IT Technician at Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority (San Jose, CA, USA)

See more jobs on CrunchBoard

Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $200 per month.