Author: TechBrunch

HUSSLUP founder and CEO H. Schuster notified users on Wednesday that the company would be going on an “indefinite hiatus,” starting Friday, according to an email reviewed by TechCrunch. The job-search and networking app for the entertainment industry launched to the public in January after being in invite-only beta for the past three years and has 15,000 members. In an email to users, Schuster said the entertainment industry is going through “incredibly challenging times.” “I am deeply committed to HUSSLUP's mission and am heartbroken that we will not be able to help you through this difficult time for the entertainment…

The Bay Area's coolest startup isn't building AI robots or self-driving taxis. It's actually a baseball team. With his beloved Oakland Athletics planning to leave the Bay Area, serial entrepreneur Paul Friedman sought out a different kind of venture: What if he could use what he'd learned from leading edtech startups to create a baseball team worthy of Oakland? And so Friedman founded the Oakland Ballers, or Oakland Bees for short. With the mindset of a startup founder, Friedman and co-founder Brian Karmel are taking on a huge challenge: The B's can't fully make up for the loss of an…

Google on Wednesday announced that it's adding a new “audio summary” feature to its AI note-taking and research app, NotebookLM, which gives users another way to digest and understand the information in documents they upload to the app, such as course readings or legal summaries. Since its launch, NotebookLM has used text to summarize and explain material, but now it can use audio to explain it to you. This feature is made for people who understand material better by hearing an explanation rather than reading it. An AI-generated virtual host uses your conversational voice patterns to provide an overview of…

Following Apple's iPhone 16 event earlier this week, the company on Wednesday announced to developers the launch of “win-back” offers, a new type of offer for auto-renewing subscriptions in App Store Connect. The company first announced the solution at WWDC in June, which allows app developers to deliver special offers to dormant subscribers. Apple explains that these offers are designed to reach previous subscribers of an app or game and encourage them to return. Offers will only be shown to customers that the developer determines are eligible to target. They will appear across the app's product page, in editorial selections…

Venture capital firm Fearless Fund and the American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER) have entered into a settlement agreement that will result in the company shutting down its Strivers Grants program. The program, originally sponsored by Mastercard, was meant to provide $20,000 to small businesses owned by black women. But AAER, run by conservative activist Edward Blum, sued Fearless Fund, alleging that the program discriminated against non-black founders and violated the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which bans the inclusion of race in contracts. In June of this year, a court ruled that Fearless Fund's contracts likely violated the law…

Stefanos Loukakos, former director of Meta's business-focused Messenger division and briefly head of its blockchain division, noticed a few years ago that online retailers were struggling to connect with potential shoppers. In his opinion, the problem was that their marketing campaigns weren't customized enough. Retailers were using generic social media, text and email mass messaging that didn't resonate with buyers and didn't lead to conversions. “Businesses need solutions that help them create effective messaging campaigns and automate conversations with both prospects and customers,” says Loukakos. “Ideally, they can also customize offers to help customers find products they'll love and help…

After making multiple job cuts in 2022 and 2023, Nuro plans to shift its business strategy to focus on the startup's core self-driving technology rather than owning and operating a fleet of slow-moving roadside delivery robots. The company said Wednesday it will begin licensing its self-driving car technology to automakers and mobility providers such as ride-hailing and delivery companies. Nuro was a darling of the AV industry, having raised more than $2 billion from prominent investors, but its previous business model was quickly running out of cash. As the company's founders noted during layoffs last year, the race to deploy…

Users will have their first chance to try out Adobe's video-generating AI model in just a few months: Features powered by Adobe's Firefly Video model will be available in the Premiere Pro beta app and on the free website by the end of 2024, according to the company. Adobe says the three features — Generative Extend, Text to Video, and Image to Video — are currently in private beta but will be generally available soon. Generative Extend, which can extend input video by two seconds, is expected to be built into the Premiere Pro beta app later this year, and…

Verse, a new AI-powered creative app, aims to empower Gen Z users to create hyper-visual, expressive content. The iOS app allows users to design and publish multimedia content on an interactive canvas with the help of an AI assistant. It allows users to create mini-websites called Verses that can feature mood boards, greeting cards, invitations, storefronts, fan pages, blogs, etc. Verses also provide content creators and influencers with a creative way to connect and share with their audience through a link-in-bio format. Verse was founded by Bobby Pinkney, a former management consultant at PwC, and Michelle Yin, a former engineer…

The British startup wants to do for utilities what neobanks have done for the financial sector for more than a decade: use technology to disrupt and streamline old industries and cut out middlemen. London-based Tem is building a marketplace and platform that connects companies directly to renewable energy sources, working with existing Ofgem-regulated utility partners rather than applying for supply licences themselves. Ultimately, Tem aims to help companies avoid so-called “big energy” and their high prices, making it easier to meet climate targets. “We see ourselves as the UK's first 'new utility company,'” Tem co-founder and CEO Joe McDonald told…