Latest and Hotest Technology Updates

In today's top story, Three Arrows Capital's Su Zhu was arrested in Singapore while attempting to leave the country. The co-founder of the now-defunct crypto hedge fund was sentenced to four months in prison. Zhu is not the only one investigators want to arrest.

Meanwhile, Apple has been busy revamping and updating much of its operating system lately, and now it’s iCloud.com's turn. See what's new in features for Drive, Mail and Notes.

And Discord resolved a widespread outage caused by "unusual traffic spikes." Wonder what you all were doing . . . 

More top reads

A chip off the old butcher's block: Meal kits were where it was at for a lot of people who didn't want to stress about what to make for dinner. Now one of the biggest ones in the sector was just sold. So what happened to Blue Apron? (TC+)

More people or more impressions?: X, formerly Twitter, has paid almost $20 million to creators, according to its CEO. We break down what that could mean. Meanwhile, Twitter's former head of trust and safety says X is headed for a "rule of law" clash with the European Union. Read on.

Discounted: It's rumored that WestBridge Capital is in the advanced stages of inking a deal to buy a stake in India's Meesho. Get the scoop.

Google Pixel Event: Next week, Google unveils its new Pixel products. See what's on tap.

Pitch Deck Teardown: I point, you point, let's all point at point.me's $10 million Series A deck and learn what Haje liked and didn't like. (TC+)

No fakers here: BeReal pushes back at a report claiming the social media app is losing steam by saying it now has 25 million daily users. Find out why BeReal objects.

Europe's got capital: Two large equity funds launched out of Europe this week. What are we to make of this?

VC Office Hours: Pivotal Ventures' Erin Harkless Moore discusses how data can help improve social impact investing. Learn how. (TC+)

Off balance: Startups may have trouble finding their enterprise footing, even with the software market softening. Here's why. (TC+)

How to pitch me: 7 investors discuss what they're looking for in September 2023

This week, Walter Thompson surveyed seven venture capitalists about what early-stage investors are currently looking for in a new investment. You're also in luck — six out of the seven listed below included their contact details.

Now the only hard part is crafting a story about your startup that's so convincing, they'll recognize the value in your idea and wire you some cash.

Read how the following investors prefer to be approached and which questions they're most likely to ask once you're in the room:

• Maria Buitron, principal, Piva Capital
• Karl Alomar, managing partner, M13
• Raja Ghawi, partner, Era Ventures
• Anamitra Banerji, managing partner, Afore Capital
• Mukaya (Tai) Panich, CIO and CEO, SCB 10X
• David Phelps, founder, chairman and CEO; Merlin Ventures and Merlin Cyber
• Kavita Gupta, founder and general partner, Delta Blockchain Fund

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

On the pods

Equity has the update on the writers strike’s implications on AI, deals of the week from OpenAI and Arc, YC and the role of accelerators in the startup world, and shifts in the tech labor market as layoffs subside. Listen here.

Read More

• Senior Full Stack Developer at Nylon Technology (New York, NY, USA)
• Lead Software Engineer at Industrial Data Labs (Houston, TX, USA)
• Senior Analyst, IT at Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies (New York, NY, USA)
• Network Administrator – Senior/Specialist at Washington State Department of Natural Resources (Olympia, WA, USA)
• Chief Technology Officer at The Chronicle of Philanthropy (Anywhere)

See more jobs on CrunchBoard

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

In today's top story, Three Arrows Capital's Su Zhu was arrested in Singapore while attempting to leave the country. The co-founder of the now-defunct crypto hedge fund was sentenced to four months in prison. Zhu is not the only one investigators want to arrest.

Meanwhile, Apple has been busy revamping and updating much of its operating system lately, and now it’s iCloud.com's turn. See what's new in features for Drive, Mail and Notes.

And Discord resolved a widespread outage caused by "unusual traffic spikes." Wonder what you all were doing . . . 

More top reads

A chip off the old butcher's block: Meal kits were where it was at for a lot of people who didn't want to stress about what to make for dinner. Now one of the biggest ones in the sector was just sold. So what happened to Blue Apron? (TC+)

More people or more impressions?: X, formerly Twitter, has paid almost $20 million to creators, according to its CEO. We break down what that could mean. Meanwhile, Twitter's former head of trust and safety says X is headed for a "rule of law" clash with the European Union. Read on.

Discounted: It's rumored that WestBridge Capital is in the advanced stages of inking a deal to buy a stake in India's Meesho. Get the scoop.

Google Pixel Event: Next week, Google unveils its new Pixel products. See what's on tap.

Pitch Deck Teardown: I point, you point, let's all point at point.me's $10 million Series A deck and learn what Haje liked and didn't like. (TC+)

No fakers here: BeReal pushes back at a report claiming the social media app is losing steam by saying it now has 25 million daily users. Find out why BeReal objects.

Europe's got capital: Two large equity funds launched out of Europe this week. What are we to make of this?

VC Office Hours: Pivotal Ventures' Erin Harkless Moore discusses how data can help improve social impact investing. Learn how. (TC+)

Off balance: Startups may have trouble finding their enterprise footing, even with the software market softening. Here's why. (TC+)

How to pitch me: 7 investors discuss what they're looking for in September 2023

This week, Walter Thompson surveyed seven venture capitalists about what early-stage investors are currently looking for in a new investment. You're also in luck — six out of the seven listed below included their contact details.

Now the only hard part is crafting a story about your startup that's so convincing, they'll recognize the value in your idea and wire you some cash.

Read how the following investors prefer to be approached and which questions they're most likely to ask once you're in the room:

• Maria Buitron, principal, Piva Capital
• Karl Alomar, managing partner, M13
• Raja Ghawi, partner, Era Ventures
• Anamitra Banerji, managing partner, Afore Capital
• Mukaya (Tai) Panich, CIO and CEO, SCB 10X
• David Phelps, founder, chairman and CEO; Merlin Ventures and Merlin Cyber
• Kavita Gupta, founder and general partner, Delta Blockchain Fund

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

On the pods

Equity has the update on the writers strike’s implications on AI, deals of the week from OpenAI and Arc, YC and the role of accelerators in the startup world, and shifts in the tech labor market as layoffs subside. Listen here.

Read More

• Senior Full Stack Developer at Nylon Technology (New York, NY, USA)
• Lead Software Engineer at Industrial Data Labs (Houston, TX, USA)
• Senior Analyst, IT at Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies (New York, NY, USA)
• Network Administrator – Senior/Specialist at Washington State Department of Natural Resources (Olympia, WA, USA)
• Chief Technology Officer at The Chronicle of Philanthropy (Anywhere)

See more jobs on CrunchBoard

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

In today's top story, Fortnite maker Epic Games said it is laying off about 870 people, or 16% of its workforce. Learn more. Meanwhile, the company asks the Supreme Court to weigh in on its beef with Apple. Not to be outdone, Apple also asked the Supreme Court to reconsider one of its rulings in favor of Epic.

The Raspberry Pi 5 is here, and it looks yummier than ever. Get your fork ready.

And Reddit is making some changes, chiefly to remove the ability to opt out of ad personalization based on your activity on the platform. Find out what this means.

More top reads

Ads are safe for now: Amazon wins interim stay on delivering a public ads archive in early challenge to the EU's Digital Services Act. Read more. Meanwhile, the company launches its Bedrock generative AI service in general availability and gives CodeWhisperer an enterprise tier.

Your photos, but better: Adobe launches Photoshop's web version with Firefly-powered AI tools. Go ahead, play around.

AI boom: What products and services are poised to benefit from this generative AI boom we keep reading about? Well, for starters, Alex Wilhelm says it could make the OS cool again. (TC+)

Speaking of AI: Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd shares how AI will "supercharge" love and relationships. The power of love . . . and technology.

In the nick of time: Google rushes to patch a zero-day vulnerability exploited by some commercial spyware vendor. Read more.

Not that much of a stretch: Fitbit brings Pixel Watch features to the Charge 6. Learn more.

Time to get social: Artifact co-founder Mike Krieger says there's a "flavor" of Twitter in the app’s latest release. Here's why.

For the founders: African VC firm Enza Capital launches founder partner program as it closes $58 million across funds. Read on.

More for your Thursday:

Worldcoin doubles down on emerging markets amid wider criticism (TC+)

Blend uses generative AI to give you a personalized clothing guide

Zapier launches Canvas, an AI-powered flowchart tool

Mercury Fund closes largest fund to invest in SaaS startups between the coasts

Google patches zero-day exploited by commercial spyware vendor

Creating strategic defensibility as an early-stage startup

In the first column of a four-part series, Startup Battlefield editor and director of community Neesha Tambe hosted a master class on strategic defensibility with Mike Ghaffary, general partner at Canvas Ventures.

"In this session, Ghaffary outlined the important components of startup defensibility, the key strategic advantage buckets, and what startups can do to stay competitive as they build and scale," she writes.

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

On the pods

For this week's episode, Jacquelyn interviewed Tiago Sada, head of product for Tools for Humanity and core contributor to Worldcoin, at TechCrunch's Disrupt 2023 in San Francisco.

Tools for Humanity, which is the team building Worldcoin, raised $115 million in a Series C round back in May with investors like Blockchain Capital, a16z, Bain Capital Crypto and Distributed Global. In March 2022, Worldcoin raised $100 million at a $3 billion valuation. We dive into why someone would scan their eyes, as well as alternate options and privacy concerns some skeptics have about the project. Listen here.

Read More

• Senior Full Stack Developer at Nylon Technology (New York, NY, USA)
• Lead Software Engineer at Industrial Data Labs (Houston, TX, USA)
• Senior Analyst, IT at Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies (New York, NY, USA)
• Network Administrator – Senior/Specialist at Washington State Department of Natural Resources (Olympia, WA, USA)
• Chief Technology Officer at The Chronicle of Philanthropy (Anywhere)

See more jobs on CrunchBoard

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