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Hello and welcome to Hump Day! We have tons of amazing stories for you. Some are even about you.
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The TechCrunch Top 3
- Is there room for another search engine?: You.com seems to think so. Ron writes that the company wants to compete with Google and Microsoft with its multimodal chat search, which goes beyond text to answer a question more precisely. For example, if you ask about a stock price, you will actually be presented with a stock chart and not just a text-based answer.
- A Tesla in every driveway: The Biden administration has another ally to help build electric vehicle chargers across the United States: Kirsten reports that Tesla has agreed to double its Supercharger network and open it up to all electric vehicles. Yes, we’ve heard this before, but now we’ll hopefully see it.
- Anything to move the needle: kyle writes that it may seem strange for a developer-oriented company to receive a lot of seed capital in this economy; However, one company’s challenging environment is another company’s windfall. Passwordless authentication startup Descope raised $53 million in a seed round amid what company co-founder and CEO Slavik Markovich said companies are changing their software development strategies to free up their development teams for other opportunities.
Startups and VCs
According to former employees of staffing startup Free Agency, CEO Sherveen Mashayekhi’s leadership style is holding the startup back as he seems more concerned with demanding loyalty and controlling his employees than building a business. becca reports. The New York-based startup started in 2019 with the innovative idea of transferring the talent agency model popular in Hollywood and sports to other professions.
While there are numerous dating apps on the market, there aren’t many apps that aim to keep the spark alive after you start a relationship. aisha writes about Flamme, which wants to change this by renaming it (from Sparks) and adding a new AI tool.
And we have five more for you:
On the road to Series B, strategy is more important than metrics
Photo credit: miguelangelortega (opens in a new window) /Getty Images
If all goes well, the funds raised in a Series A will last long enough to generate steady income. But not everything is going smoothly.
SaaS founders are under pressure to maintain growth and achieve profitability while maintaining the runway, but those goals are not diametrically opposed, according to Blossom Capital’s Ophelia Brown and Imran Ghory.
“Forget planning your business based on metrics over the last decade,” they write. “We live in a new world order.” In this article, they ask themselves three questions every software startup faces:
- How aggressively should we grow this year?
- How should we plan our expenses?
- How should we think about runway and capital preservation?
Three more from the TC+ team:
TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and start-up teams stay ahead of the competition. Here you can sign up. Use code “DC” for 15% off an annual subscription!
BigTech Inc.
Sprinklr, a customer experience company, is shedding more of its global workforce — 4% this time — with a company spokesperson confirming that it was a “strategic business decision” affecting employees in specific targeted geographies, segments and support functions, Jagmeet writes.
Meanwhile, Adobe’s proposed $20 billion acquisition of Figma continues to draw fans. The European Commission will look at the deal, like this Paul uses the term evaluate more appropriately to ensure that it does not eliminate competition in any of its markets.
And we have five more for you:
- There’s nothing in here but breadcrumbs: aria has looked at Intuitive Machines’ post-SPAC filing and reported that lunar technology has completed the merger with less cash than originally thought, thanks to shareholders.
- Mikey likes this: Roblox stock surges 25% after reporting strong fourth-quarter gains, proving kids like the metaverse, just not “the” metaverse, Sarah writes.
- Don’t make me leave the app: Google has some new features to improve in-app browsing on Android, including automatically saving passwords and other details without leaving the app. Ivan reports.
- Shop till you drop: Instacart offers new features to its buyers, including more ways to earn and a more flexible schedule. aisha writes.
- Get out of the circular saw: In an effort to cut costs while managing pressure from activists, Salesforce is introducing some tough new policies for engineers and salespeople. Ron has more.
