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Friday, September 30, 2022

It’s AI day for Tesla, but we’re here for the cringey texts 

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By Christine Hall and Haje Jan Kamps

Friday, September 30, 2022

Happy Friday! We don't know about you, but we are both ready for some R&R after ploughing through a wall of deep-cringe texts from the Musk/Twitter trial. We hope you get some, too, this weekend.

This afternoon, Tesla is running its second AI day. Last year's was a hoot, and we have some predictions for what's coming down the pipe today, too. — Christine and Haje

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Image Credits: Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images

The TechCrunch Top 3

  • Under attack: Microsoft confirmed that it "is aware" of some attacks to its Exchange server. Carly is staying on top of the story and reports that there is "no immediate fix."
  • Eyeing that sweet capital: Manish has a scoop that Uniswap Labs, a decentralized exchange, is going after over $100 million in new funding.
  • Stream on: YouTube TV is offering a new à la carte option that enables subscribers to purchase stand-alone networks without subscribing to the full channel lineup in its Base plan, Lauren reports.

Startups and VC

When insurtech company Metromile went public via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) in February last year, it was valued at over $1 billion. A year and five months later, Lemonade acquired the company for less than $145 million. And yet, things aren't as bleak as they might seem, Anna reports.

This year, 40% of the world's population will play games, with total spending nearing $200 billion. The purveyors of web3 want a slice of this gargantuan market, Rita reports. She writes that criticisms of the first generation of crypto games have been well documented, so the question for developers now is what decentralized games should look like.

Let's do a few more, shall we? Go on, then:

8 investors weigh in on the state of insurtech in Q3 2022

Some services are in such demand, it can insulate their providers against the vagaries of the market. During an economic downturn, consumers don’t cut back on pet food or toilet paper. Similarly, everyone needs some form of insurance.

Between 2016 and 2022, insurtech startups received around $43 billion in funding, and despite the downturn, most of the investors that reporter Anna Heim recently surveyed are still positive about the sector’s prospects:

  • Martha Notaras, general partner, Brewer Lane Ventures
  • David Wechsler, principal, OMERS Ventures
  • Stephen Brittain and Rob Lumley, directors and co-founders, Insurtech Gateway
  • Florian Graillot, founding partner, Astorya.vc
  • Clarisse Lam, associate, NewAlpha Asset Management
  • Hélène Falchier, partner, Portage Ventures
  • Adam Blumencranz, partner, Distributed Ventures

“We are simply seeing a reality check happen,” said Wechsler. “Unfortunately, there are many companies that should not have raised as much as they did, or perhaps don’t have sustainable business models. These companies will struggle to survive.”

Three more from the TC+ team:

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!

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Big Tech Inc.

SoftBank has been doing some readjusting to company valuations lately, but the latest adjusting is happening with its own company. Kate reports that SoftBank's Vision Fund is reportedly laying off 30% of its workforce even as it considers a third fund.

Here are five more for you:

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Thursday, September 29, 2022

Google to sunset Stadia in January 2023, will refund hardware purchases

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By Christine Hall and Haje Jan Kamps

Thursday, September 29, 2022

Today we are mostly listening to acoustic covers of songs we love (a surprise Iron and Wine cover, perhaps?), and mentally preparing ourselves for TechCrunch Disrupt. Which reminds us — did you know you can get 15% off passes with the DC discount code for being a Daily Crunch reader? Don't say we never did anything for you, dear reader!  — Christine and Haje

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The TechCrunch Top 3

  • Simple crypto: Cryptocurrencies are still complex, or that's the viewpoint of Solvo, a new app that is making crypto investment simpler, Romain reports. What's different is that instead of being offered dozens of currencies to choose from, Solvo has curated a list of 10 so you don't get lost in all the names.
  • Well that didn’t last long: On Monday we brought you news that "the OG app is out to bring Instagram back to its glory days." Today, Ivan has an update that the app was removed from the Apple App Store after Meta said the OG was Instagram in "an unauthorized manner."
  • Long live IPOs!: Travel is back and with it news that TripActions was making a possible play for an initial public offering, which would value the company at $12 billion, Mary Ann reports. Catch Alex's take on the matter down in the TC+ section.

Startups and VC

Eviation's Alice electric aircraft took off for the first time yesterday, teasing a future in which regional flights of hundreds of miles will be done with zero emissions and a lot less noise. It's still a ways off, but today's demonstration shows it's at least just a matter of time and money, Devin reports.

Apropos electric vehicles, Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn has (finally!) begun production of Lordstown Motors' electric pickup truck. The news is a milestone for both companies, Rebecca reports. Foxconn as it diversifies from manufacturing consumer electronics like iPhones to electric vehicles, and Lordstown as it finally gets its much-anticipated Endurance truck off production lines and, hopefully, into customers' hands.

We have more, of course. Because that's what we do:

How to make coaching work for your sales team

A strong sales organization is the tip of the spear for every SaaS startup, but because so few founders have meaningful experience in this arena, they don’t know how to set their teams up for success.

In this TC+ article, contributor Kevin Varadian explains how to chart a sales coaching journey that boosts retention and increases revenue.

“It's important to recognize that today's sales teams are more problem-solvers than deal-closers — soft skills are more important here than technical capabilities,” he says.

Three more from the TC+ team:

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!

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How to make coaching work for your sales team image

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Big Tech Inc.

Google's Stadia is donezo, Brian reports. Stadia, the company's game streaming service, was young, just under three years old, but just wasn't getting the expected traction. However, based on Stadia's remarks, there may be something new brewing.

We had a rather long Big Tech section for you yesterday, so enjoy these five shorter snippets:

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Wednesday, September 28, 2022

Fast Company hacker sends 2 'obscene and racist' notifications to Apple News users

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By Christine Hall and Haje Jan Kamps

Wednesday, September 28, 2022

With almost a hundred new stories on the site since the last Daily Crunch, we're having a hard time picking the cream of the crop, but that's what we dooooo. It's been an Amazon and Google extravaganza over the past 24 hours, in addition to all the regular news stories our crack team of tech news sleuths have been ferreting out from the underbrush. There shall be no further ado — let's do this! — Christine and Haje

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Image Credits: TechCrunch

The TechCrunch Top 3

  • News you don't want to use: Apple News users got some interesting — read "offensive" — notifications thanks to a hacker that breached Fast Company's systems. Carly has more.
  • Well, that went downhill fast: We feel like we were just hyping all things Apple iPhone 14, but now Ivan reports that the tech giant is "readjusting its production targets" after not seeing as much rah-rah from customers.
  • Fewer fees please: Ingrid covers payment network Satispay's €320 million funding round that values the company at over €1 billion and also puts it in the hearts and minds of customers in Europe seeking better budget control.

Startups and VC

First up is Romain, who invites you to meet Roundtable. It's a new startup backed by eFounders that wants to bring community-driven, AngelList-style angel investments to European startups. The company has built a platform that simplifies the administrative, legal and financial challenges that come with angel investments.

Money continues to flow into new venture capital funds. In the past month, Runa Capital, Lerer Hippeau, Razor's Edge Ventures, First Star, OurCrowd, Northzone, Janngo Capital and Kapor Capital all announced new funds. Now it's Scale Venture Partners' turn, announcing it secured $900 million in committed capital for its eighth fund, also its largest since forming in 2000, Christine reports. The fund was raised in 120 days over the summer, partner Rory O'Driscoll said.

More more more, always more:

The unbearable lightness of being asset-light

Investors have embraced “asset-light” companies like Rent the Runway, Uber and Airbnb that don’t own the hardware that generates their revenue.

Companies that generate billions from assets they don’t own “typically require less capital — and therefore less dilution for their investors,” writes Daniel Hoffer, managing director of Autotech Ventures.

“But some asset-light marketplaces struggle to satisfy their customers because not all the assets they can make available are equally appreciated by their demand-side customers.”

Three more from the TC+ team:

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

The unbearable lightness of being asset-light image

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Big Tech Inc.

Boy, do we have a treat for you today: Our team was busy covering both Google's Search On event and Amazon's fall event, which means we have all the Amazon and Google news that's fit to print, er, post. There's a lot to choose from, but here are some of our favorites:

And we have four more for you:

Read more stories on TechCrunch.com

Newest Jobs from Crunchboard

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

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