Latest and Hotest Technology Updates

As January is coming to a close, the TechCrunch team is firing on all cylinders (do we still say that, in a time of electric cars? What is a better expression these days?), with a wall of amazing content for you to download straight into your brain. We've picked the cream of the crop, even as we are further confused as to why there was cream on the crops in the first place. In summary, idiomatic English continues to confound even the biggest language nerds among us. — Christine and Haje

The TechCrunch Top 3

• Who's calling?: T-Mobile's data breach last week seems to have spilled over into Google Fi, which now says hackers accessed customers' information. Carly has more.
• Home sweet HomePod: Brian plugged in the 2023 Apple HomePod and shares what he likes and doesn't like about it.
• More layoffs: Cloud data management giant NetApp will lay off 8%, or around 960, of its employees across multiple geographies, Ingrid reports. And yes, it's citing the economic climate as the "why."

What's changed with ISO 27001? Join the webinar on Feb 1, 2023

Sponsored by Vanta

In late 2022, ISO 27001 rolled out multiple changes. Whether you have ISO 27001 and want to learn more about the updates, or are pursuing it for the first time, this webinar is for you. Join experts from Vanta and Insight Assurance on 2/1 to dig in.

Register Here

Startups and VC

There are some people on the internet who don't want to be found. That seems to be the case for the elusive, mysterious owner of Stripper Web, a 20-year-old forum for exotic dancers and sex workers. With just one week of advance notice, the forum's unknown owner announced that the website will shut down on February 1, erasing the decades-long digital footprint of a community on the margins. Amanda's feature story tries to get to the bottom of things and is fantastic — give it a read!

This January, Germany's largest vaccine maker, BioNTech, announced that it had agreed to acquire Tunisian-born and London-headquartered AI startup InstaDeep for up to £562 million, including a performance-tied £200 million tranche investment. Tage argues that InstaDeep's acquisition is a classic case of an African startup gone global.

Not enough to keep you busy? Well, here's another handful:

• At your cervix: Teal unwraps $8.8 million to build out a telehealth platform for women — starting with cervical cancer screening, Natasha L reports.
• Insects gettin' busy: Romain covers that Entocycle grabs $5 million for its insect breeding technology.
• Call me on my fair phone: Natasha L also covers that Fairphone nabs $53 million in growth capital for “sustainable” consumer electronics.
• Tele-sexual health: Haje reports that TBD Health is rolling out at-home sexual healthcare to all U.S. states, raising $4.4 million.
• Your brain in the fast lane: Precision Neuroscience is making brain implants safer, smarter and reversible, writes Devin.

When to build a freemium plan and how to get it right

SaaS pricing comes in three flavors: the classic sales-led model, free trials that eventually force users to make a decision, or freemium plans that hopefully deliver enough value to keep users coming back.

“Given the obvious differences between these models, choosing one should be fairly straightforward,” writes Konstantin Valiotti, product director of growth at PandaDoc. “However, current market conditions do not support having just a single model.”

In this TC+ article, he explains how to identify the right time to roll out a freemium plan and, equally importantly, when not to. He also includes a tactical framework for developing freemium products that includes use cases for limited and unlimited usage.

“Every strategy is unique and depends on the company's idea of how it wants to proceed,” writes Valiotti. “Therefore, you should consider freemium as an extension of your strategy and see if it is right for you."

Three more from the TC+ team:

• Teaming with good advice: Haje goes deep on the team slide, and why it is the most important slide in a startup pitch deck.
• Your bankruptcy crypto is probably gone: Jacquelyn writes that if you lost your crypto amid Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings, you're probably not getting it back.
• Let's roll that back a bit: Eldar Tuvey explains how you can cut your SaaS spending by 30% in 2023.

TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code "DC" for a 15% discount on an annual subscription!

Read More

Big Tech Inc.

Finally someone is turning tablets into something you can use other than surfing the internet or watching Netflix. Haje has your look at Plugable's new dock that turns your tablet or phone into a workstation.

Meanwhile, Rita ponders what would happen if China-based Baidu developed an answer to ChatGPT. Would it make a difference? And what kind of limitations would it have?

Now here's five more:

• Extra extra, read all about it…on a personalized news reader: Sarah writes that Instagram's co-founders are connecting the past and present of news content with a new social app for news reading.
• General Motors — Raw: GM is reaching into its pocketbook to the tune of $650 million to lock down lithium supply for its electric vehicles, Kirsten reports.
• Big changes for Big Tech: Natasha L writes that changes are coming for GDPR enforcement on Big Tech in Europe.
• Clipping jobs: In a second round of job cuts, Groupon laid off another 500 employees, Ivan reports.
• Exposed!: Taiwan-based automotive giant Hotai Motor enabled thousands of iRent customer documents to be accessible via the internet. Zack and Rebecca have more on how this happened.

• Senior Manager, Development and Events at CodePath (Anywhere)
• Senior DevOps Engineer at GitKraken (Scottsdale, AZ, USA)
• Business Analyst at Human Rights Watch (New York, NY, USA)
• Network Engineer - Remote at Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic (Toppenish, WA, USA)
• Technical Lead, Data Engineering (Data Lake/Snowflake) at Universal Orlando Resort (Orlando, FL, USA)

See more jobs on CrunchBoard

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

As January is coming to a close, the TechCrunch team is firing on all cylinders (do we still say that, in a time of electric cars? What is a better expression these days?), with a wall of amazing content for you to download straight into your brain. We've picked the cream of the crop, even as we are further confused as to why there was cream on the crops in the first place. In summary, idiomatic English continues to confound even the biggest language nerds among us. — Christine and Haje

The TechCrunch Top 3

• Who's calling?: T-Mobile's data breach last week seems to have spilled over into Google Fi, which now says hackers accessed customers' information. Carly has more.
• Home sweet HomePod: Brian plugged in the 2023 Apple HomePod and shares what he likes and doesn't like about it.
• More layoffs: Cloud data management giant NetApp will lay off 8%, or around 960, of its employees across multiple geographies, Ingrid reports. And yes, it's citing the economic climate as the "why."

What's changed with ISO 27001? Join the webinar on Feb 1, 2023

Sponsored by Vanta

In late 2022, ISO 27001 rolled out multiple changes. Whether you have ISO 27001 and want to learn more about the updates, or are pursuing it for the first time, this webinar is for you. Join experts from Vanta and Insight Assurance on 2/1 to dig in.

Register Here

Startups and VC

There are some people on the internet who don't want to be found. That seems to be the case for the elusive, mysterious owner of Stripper Web, a 20-year-old forum for exotic dancers and sex workers. With just one week of advance notice, the forum's unknown owner announced that the website will shut down on February 1, erasing the decades-long digital footprint of a community on the margins. Amanda's feature story tries to get to the bottom of things and is fantastic — give it a read!

This January, Germany's largest vaccine maker, BioNTech, announced that it had agreed to acquire Tunisian-born and London-headquartered AI startup InstaDeep for up to £562 million, including a performance-tied £200 million tranche investment. Tage argues that InstaDeep's acquisition is a classic case of an African startup gone global.

Not enough to keep you busy? Well, here's another handful:

• At your cervix: Teal unwraps $8.8 million to build out a telehealth platform for women — starting with cervical cancer screening, Natasha L reports.
• Insects gettin' busy: Romain covers that Entocycle grabs $5 million for its insect breeding technology.
• Call me on my fair phone: Natasha L also covers that Fairphone nabs $53 million in growth capital for “sustainable” consumer electronics.
• Tele-sexual health: Haje reports that TBD Health is rolling out at-home sexual healthcare to all U.S. states, raising $4.4 million.
• Your brain in the fast lane: Precision Neuroscience is making brain implants safer, smarter and reversible, writes Devin.

When to build a freemium plan and how to get it right

SaaS pricing comes in three flavors: the classic sales-led model, free trials that eventually force users to make a decision, or freemium plans that hopefully deliver enough value to keep users coming back.

“Given the obvious differences between these models, choosing one should be fairly straightforward,” writes Konstantin Valiotti, product director of growth at PandaDoc. “However, current market conditions do not support having just a single model.”

In this TC+ article, he explains how to identify the right time to roll out a freemium plan and, equally importantly, when not to. He also includes a tactical framework for developing freemium products that includes use cases for limited and unlimited usage.

“Every strategy is unique and depends on the company's idea of how it wants to proceed,” writes Valiotti. “Therefore, you should consider freemium as an extension of your strategy and see if it is right for you."

Three more from the TC+ team:

• Teaming with good advice: Haje goes deep on the team slide, and why it is the most important slide in a startup pitch deck.
• Your bankruptcy crypto is probably gone: Jacquelyn writes that if you lost your crypto amid Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings, you're probably not getting it back.
• Let's roll that back a bit: Eldar Tuvey explains how you can cut your SaaS spending by 30% in 2023.

TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code "DC" for a 15% discount on an annual subscription!

Read More

Big Tech Inc.

Finally someone is turning tablets into something you can use other than surfing the internet or watching Netflix. Haje has your look at Plugable's new dock that turns your tablet or phone into a workstation.

Meanwhile, Rita ponders what would happen if China-based Baidu developed an answer to ChatGPT. Would it make a difference? And what kind of limitations would it have?

Now here's five more:

• Extra extra, read all about it…on a personalized news reader: Sarah writes that Instagram's co-founders are connecting the past and present of news content with a new social app for news reading.
• General Motors — Raw: GM is reaching into its pocketbook to the tune of $650 million to lock down lithium supply for its electric vehicles, Kirsten reports.
• Big changes for Big Tech: Natasha L writes that changes are coming for GDPR enforcement on Big Tech in Europe.
• Clipping jobs: In a second round of job cuts, Groupon laid off another 500 employees, Ivan reports.
• Exposed!: Taiwan-based automotive giant Hotai Motor enabled thousands of iRent customer documents to be accessible via the internet. Zack and Rebecca have more on how this happened.

• Senior Manager, Development and Events at CodePath (Anywhere)
• Senior DevOps Engineer at GitKraken (Scottsdale, AZ, USA)
• Business Analyst at Human Rights Watch (New York, NY, USA)
• Network Engineer - Remote at Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic (Toppenish, WA, USA)
• Technical Lead, Data Engineering (Data Lake/Snowflake) at Universal Orlando Resort (Orlando, FL, USA)

See more jobs on CrunchBoard

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

Kicking off the week, we've been thoroughly enjoying Runa Sandvik's story about how U.S. police use digital data to prosecute abortions in our post-Roe-v.-Wade world. The TL;DR is that healthcare in the U.S. is a weird world, and you should use end-to-end encrypted messages if you're going to DM your friends about things that are potentially illegal.  — Christine and Haje

The TechCrunch Top 3

• "Power"ing up Marqeta's portfolio: Marqeta made its first acquisition, securing Power Finance in a $275 million all-cash deal, Mary Ann reports. She writes that this move gives Marqeta, which focuses on debit and prepaid cards, some new capabilities in the way of credit products.
• What was the intent?: In this week's The Station newsletter, Rebecca and Kirsten have the latest on Tesla, writing about what happened when Elon Musk took the stand related to that class-action securities fraud trial.
• Here's "One Piece" of a new Netflix series you shouldn't ignore: If you are a fan of the anime series "One Piece," you might enjoy Netflix's attempt at making it a live-action series. Lauren has more.

What's changed with ISO 27001? Join the webinar on Feb 1, 2023

Sponsored by Vanta

In late 2022, ISO 27001 rolled out multiple changes. Whether you have ISO 27001 and want to learn more about the updates, or are pursuing it for the first time, this webinar is for you. On 2/1, join experts from Vanta and Insight Assurance to dig in.

Register Here

Startups and VC

"I can't explain it. It's weird," Alphonzo "Phonz" Terrell said to Amanda. After losing his job at Twitter when Elon Musk took over, the former global head of Social and Editorial didn't want to rest — he wanted to build. "Coming straight out of it, I was just like, 'Oh, it's time. It's time to build, whether we get support or not.’" Now he’s raised just short of $3 million to build a competitor to Twitter.

Speaking of alternatives to Twitter, Aisha and Taylor took to the internet to find the best Twitter alternatives worth checking out. Ultimately they conclude that there isn't, and will probably never be, a one-for-one replacement for Twitter.

Oh, and good news for gaming nerds after a lot of really silly missteps: Amanda writes how the 403-page Dungeons & Dragons game system is now licensed under Creative Commons.

And here's a handful more, because we love ya:

• That's a lot of walls, y'all: Connie reports that Fifth Wall, focused on real estate tech and managing $3.2 billion, looks to eat up even more of its market.
• Chaining blocks to other blocks: Jacquelyn had two back-to-back crypto stories today — Crypto security startup Hypernative raises $9 million, and Sovereign Labs collected $7.4 million to help scale blockchains.
• Lemme send myself a note: Ivan explores Stashpad, a notepad for devs with a "DM to yourself" interface.
• To da moon: Manish reports that Walmart-backed PhonePe's nine-month 2022 revenue surged to $234 million.
• Sharing is caring: Raylo raises $136 million to build out its gadget lease-and-reuse “fintech” platform, reports Ingrid.

What do recent changes to state taxes mean for US SaaS startups?

For SaaS startups, tax time can create a conundrum.

Some states regard software-as-a-service products as, um, services, while others classify them as, er, products.

“There's also the issue of bundling on its own,” according to startup tax accountant Ardy Esmaeili. “SaaS might not be taxed, but it will be when paired with hardware.”

To help founders better understand their liability, Esmaeili shares tips on how to identify a company’s physical nexus and lists multiple SaaS categories that states are likely to tax.

“Engage an expert as early as you can,” he writes. “Don't think you won't have to worry about it yet, because waiting can have big consequences down the line.”

Three more from the TC+ team:

• Don't call it a comeback: Connie wonders whether venture funding is already back.
• You're welcome, I'm late: Natasha M explores the latecomer advantage in startups.
• For you, special price: Where should sales sit in product-led companies? wonders Anna.

TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code "DC" for a 15% discount on an annual subscription!

Read More

Big Tech Inc.

Manish reports that Manu Jain is the latest Xiaomi executive to leave. This might sting a bit for the company because Jain was the one who set up and scaled the smartphone maker's presence in India.

All right, now here you are, checking all the security boxes, getting your two-factor authentication set up, and along comes a hacker — albeit paid by Meta — that finds a bug, which allows someone to bypass that two-factor authentication on Facebook and Instagram. I guess it's good they caught it, but ugh! Lorenzo has more.

And we have five more for you:

• Grocery game: Amazon raised the threshold for free grocery delivery, now charging fees on Fresh orders under $150, Aisha reports.
• Activating investors: Ron writes that some Salesforce board changes may be a signal that the company is okay with all of the recent activist investor moves.
• EV to EV: Ford is not going to let Tesla have all the fun. The carmaker is meeting Tesla's electric vehicle price reduction with its own discounts for the all-electric Mustang Mach-E, Kirsten writes.
• Sparking new layoffs: Electric vehicle company Arrival is cutting its workforce by 50% in what Kirsten reports is a third restructuring effort.
• Take Note: Instagram's Notes feature, which are short posts of up to 60 characters that include text and emojis and appear above your profile photo, is expanding to Europe and Japan. Aisha has more.

• Senior Manager, Development and Events at CodePath (Anywhere)
• Senior DevOps Engineer at GitKraken (Scottsdale, AZ, USA)
• Business Analyst at Human Rights Watch (New York, NY, USA)
• Network Engineer - Remote at Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic (Toppenish, WA, USA)
• Technical Lead, Data Engineering (Data Lake/Snowflake) at Universal Orlando Resort (Orlando, FL, USA)

See more jobs on CrunchBoard

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