Hello, and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. This week we recorded at Early Stage, TechCrunch’s event for founders who are building startups from the ground up. Sadly, our dear friend Natasha Mascarenhas took ill, and we had to lean on…
Founders Pledge is a London-based charitable initiative, where entrepreneurs enter a legally binding commitment to donate a portion of their personal proceeds on liquidity to charity when they exit. Launched all the way back in 2015 the initiative was designed to help social entrepreneurs build and scale their efforts. The minimum commitment for entrepreneurs is…
The blue checkmarks that once christened an echelon of elite Twitter users as trustworthy — or at least probably themselves — are no more. It’s only been a few hours since the so-called legacy blue checks flickered and eventually disappeared, but chaos already reigns. Prior to the great unchecking, Twitter check havers and have-nots were…
Autotech Ventures will use its newly closed $230 million fund to expand beyond its foundation of early-stage ground transportation startups and invest in what the firm believes are the next big opportunities in automotive and mobility. Fintech, logistics, supply chain and the circular economy are at the top of the list. The $230 million fund,…
In March, Discord announced that it had integrated OpenAI’s technology into its bot named Clyde, turning into an AI-powered chatbot. Just like with any other chatbot launched in the last few months, users have been trying to trick Clyde into saying things it’s not supposed to say, a process colloquially known as a “jailbreaking.” This…
Google Meet is rolling out a new feature that will you to pause the video streams for individual tiles to improve focus on frequent speakers or presenters. To turn off individual feeds, you can tap the three-dot menu next to the person’s name in the sidebar on the web, and click on “Don’t watch.” On…
At the Snap Partner Summit, one thing is clear: The company is pulling out all the stops to woo its Gen Z userbase and keep them on the platform. Like literally every other social media app, Snapchat responded to the pressure of TikTok’s massive growth by rolling out its own short-form video feed and creator…
Oxenfree II: Lost Signals, the follow up to supernatural thriller Oxenfree, will launch on July 12 on Netflix, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PS5 and Steam. The game was developed by Night School Studio, a gaming studio that Netflix acquired back in 2021. Night School Studio originally planned to launch Oxenfree II: Lost Signals in 2022,…
Today, fourteen years after the company introduced its first smart scale, health gadget startup Withings is introducing the Body Smart scale. The $100 scale is the baby brother in the company’s smart scale line, which also includes the $200 Body Comp and the $400 Body Scan scales. The scale includes a color screen (snazzy!) and…
While Generative AI is buzzy right now, what OpenAI, Microsoft and Google are doing may be only part of the story. There is also the process of using biology: the idea of using stem cells to create biocomputers that could potentially be smarter and more energy efficient than what we are used to today. Australian…
