Author: TechBrunch
Almost seven years after announcing its first fund, Sapphire Sport, a venture fund focused on sports, media and entertainment, has been spun out of Sapphire Ventures. The fund will be rebranded as an independent venture company, 359 Capital. The company's new name pays homage to the feat of breaking the four-minute mile, once thought to be impossible by humans, but ultimately accomplished through sheer dedication and perseverance. Spirito said the name reflects the company's core principle of helping portfolio founders achieve the impossible. Michael Spirito, managing partner and co-founder of 359 Capital, said the separation from Sapphire Ventures, an investment…
For more than a decade, makers of government spyware have defended themselves from criticism by insisting that their surveillance technology is intended to be used only against serious criminals and terrorists and in limited cases. However, evidence gathered from dozens, if not hundreds, of documented cases of spyware abuse around the world shows that none of these arguments are true. Journalists, human rights defenders, and politicians have been repeatedly targeted in both repressive regimes and democracies. The latest example is a political consultant working for a left-wing politician in Italy, who has been revealed as the country's most recently identified…
This week, Slow Ventures hosted a three-hour “Etiquette Polishing School,” covering topics like the perfect handshake, public speaking, and office etiquette. There was a fashion show where models showed off different looks in different scenes, followed by a closing lesson on caviar and wine. Hundreds of founders applied to the free program, held at the Four Seasons in San Francisco's financial district, and 50 were accepted, the San Francisco Standard reported. Most of the participants were men. Apparently the idea started as a joke, with Slow Ventures expressing interest at Y Combinator's Demo Day. YC CEO Garry Tan also reportedly…
Start-ups couldn't offer the same high salaries as big tech companies. Now, with companies like Meta and OpenAI willing to pay multi-million dollar salaries in the midst of the AI race, the compensation gap has become even wider. However, early-stage startups are not doomed. Founders and experts speaking at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 say creating a generous, fair and flexible compensation strategy will allow you to offer a competitive compensation package and give you room to adjust your approach as you grow. In any case, startups shouldn't try to compete with big tech companies, Yin Wu, co-founder and CEO of stock…
In this episode recorded live at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, TechCrunch Editor-in-Chief Connie Loizos speaks with Vinod Khosla about entrepreneurship in the age of AI and the massive disruptions ahead. Loizos and Khosla discuss why he believes every job is a startup opportunity, his investment thesis of building AI workers rather than tools, and first and foremost why he challenges entrepreneurs to imagine their companies in 2030. Khosla also talked about his prediction that the rate of extinction of Fortune 500 companies will triple by 2035, the controversial idea of sharing corporate wealth through a national pool, and why he thinks…
The Washington Post reported that the company was one of the victims of a hacking campaign related to Oracle's suite of enterprise software apps. Reuters first reported the news on Friday, citing a statement from the paper that said the company was affected “by a breach of the Oracle E-Business Suite platform.” A spokesperson for the Post did not immediately respond to TechCrunch's request for comment. Reached via email, Oracle spokesperson Michael Egbert told TechCrunch he mentioned two previously published advisories, but did not respond to our questions. Last month, Google announced that the ransomware group Clop was targeting businesses…
SoftBank and OpenAI this week announced a new 50-50 joint venture to sell enterprise AI tools in Japan under the “Crystal Intelligence” brand. In theory, this is a simple international expansion deal. But SoftBank's role as a major investor in OpenAI raises questions about whether the biggest AI deals are creating real economic value or just circulating capital. On TechCrunch's Equity podcast, Kirsten Kolosek, Anthony Ha, and AI editor Russell Brandom explain why people are skeptical about this deal and what it suggests about the sustainability of AI's current investment model. Listen to the full episode to hear: What Box…
The US Congressional Budget Office has admitted that it was hacked. CBO spokesperson Caitlin Emma told TechCrunch on Friday that the agency is investigating the breach and has “identified the security incident, took immediate action to contain it, and implemented additional monitoring and new security controls to further protect the agency's systems going forward.” The CBO is a nonpartisan agency that provides economic analysis and cost estimates to members of Congress during the federal budget writing process, including after a bill is approved at the committee level in both the House and Senate. On Thursday, the Washington Post, which first…
Security researchers have discovered Android spyware targeting Samsung Galaxy phones during a nearly year-long hacking campaign. Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 researchers said the spyware, called Landfall, was first detected in July 2024 and relied on exploiting a security flaw in Galaxy phone software that Samsung didn't know about at the time, a type of vulnerability known as a zero-day. Unit 42 said the flaw could be exploited by sending a maliciously crafted image to a victim's phone, possibly delivered through a messaging app, and the attack may not have required any interaction from the victim. Samsung patched this security…
As reported by Bloomberg, Chris Sacca's venture firm Lower Carbon Capital is raising a second round of funding to back fusion energy hopefuls, the firm announced Thursday at the SOSV Climate Technology Summit. The company has supported nuclear fusion giants Commonwealth Fusion Systems and Pacific Fusion, among others. The company raised $250 million in fusion-related funds in 2022. Fusion believers, including many prominent climate venture investors in addition to Sacca (such as Vinod Khosla), believe that the breakthrough needed to make it commercially viable is just around the corner. And some advances show promise for making that a reality. On…