Author: TechBrunch

If you've ever wanted to apply to Y Combinator, here's the inside scoop on how the iconic accelerator selects companies from the person who knows it best: Y Combinator President and CEO Garry Tan. The Washington DC Economic Club hosted Tang Wednesday for a one-on-one interview with Theresa Carlson, Managing Director at General Catalyst. It's widely known that Y Combinator accepts less than 1% of applications—Tang says the last one was whittled down from 27,000—and recent cohorts tend to be around 250 companies. So, among other topics, Carlson wanted to know what the “secret sauce” was for getting accepted into…

Indian ride-hailing startup BluSmart has started operations in Dubai, TechCrunch has exclusively learned, with confirmation from a company executive. A move to Dubai, which has been rumored for months, could help him take on companies like Careem, Uber and Hala in the United Arab Emirates' most populous city. The Gurugram-based startup quietly launched a new service for Dubai through its app earlier this week, creating a dedicated Dubai subdomain on its website. Anmol Jaggi, co-founder of BluSmart, confirmed to TechCrunch that the trial began on Tuesday with 100 Audi E-Tron SUVs and 130 drivers in the city. The official launch…

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has put forward requirements for publishing AI-generated content in political ads, but has not banned it. Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel on Wednesday publicly proposed that the FCC study and seek comment on such a rule. (The FCC has already made robocalls made by AI illegal, but the problem was not so much the AI ​​part but the fact that they violated automated call rules.) “Consumers have a right to know when AI tools are being used in the political ads they see, and we want them to.” [the commissioners] We will act swiftly on this issue,”…

Want to make a founder's day, week, month, and maybe even career? Nominate them for Disrupt 2024's Startup Battlefield 200! Entries close on June 10th at 11:59pm PT. TechCrunch's Startup Battlefield 200 is the world's leading competition for early-stage startups, and it's also the absolute best way for entrepreneurs to get the most out of Disrupt 2024. When I say “early stage” I mean several things. Companies need an MVP, but it can be fully bootstrapped, pre-seed, seeded, or even Series A. The ideal candidate is an entrepreneur who brings something truly disruptive on stage. Do you know someone good?…

Bluesky, a social networking startup and X competitor, is officially launching direct messaging (DM), the company announced Wednesday. Bluesky then went on to say that it plans to “fully support end-to-end encrypted messaging in the future.” The announcement comes two weeks after the social network teased that it would soon introduce direct messaging features. Until now, all conversations on the platform were public, but with the launch of DM, users will be able to chat privately while remaining on their social networks. To access this new feature, users can start a private conversation with someone within Bluesky's “Chat” tab. DM…

There's a perception in Silicon Valley that every investor wants to do business with Peter Thiel. But the venture capital funding environment has become so difficult that even one of the VC firms he helped found, Valar Ventures, raised far less money this year than in previous years. Mr Thiel founded Valar in 2010 and appointed Andrew McCormack and James Fitzgerald as managers. The two previously worked at his family office, Thiel Capital, and Clarium Capital Management, a now-defunct hedge fund founded by Thiel. It's unclear how involved Tyr is with the Valar these days. His name was not listed…

At least three Wyndham hotels in the United States have been found to have consumer spyware apps running in their check-in systems, TechCrunch has learned. The app, called pcTattletale, secretly and continuously captured screenshots of hotel reservation systems containing guest details and customer information. Thanks to the spyware's security flaws, these screenshots become available to anyone on the Internet, not just the spyware's target users. This is the latest example of consumer-grade spyware leaking sensitive information due to security flaws in the spyware itself. This is also the second time, as far as he is aware, that pcTattletale has published…

Techstars の CEO、Malle Gavet 氏は LinkedIn で、健康上の理由から今月末に退社すると発表しました。 本日より、Techstarsの共同創設者兼取締役会長のDavid CohenがCEOに就任します。 ガヴェ氏は2021年にCEOに就任し、「世界のために過去3年半の努力を代償にするつもりはない」とLinkedInに書いた。 その後、彼女は自分のチーム、取締役会、従業員、投資家、そして当時一緒に働いていた創設者たちにエールを送りました。 「私は皆さんを側面から応援し、テックスターズのサポーターであり続けます。」 テックスターズはガベット氏の退任についてこれ以上のコメントを控えたが、同社のウェブサイトに掲載した声明文を指摘した。 ガベット氏はテックスターズで波乱に満ちた在職期間を過ごしてきた。 CEO在任中、ガヴェ氏のリーダーシップスタイルは物議を醸しており、従業員やマネージングディレクターらは、大規模な人員流出につながる緊張した職場環境を助長したとしてガヴェ氏を非難した。 関係者によると、テックスターズは規模拡大の野心と利益の必要性のバランスを取るのにも苦労しており、JPモルガン・チェースのような企業パートナーとの緊張関係が原因で顧客離れが高かったという。 ガベット氏の指揮下で、テックスターズのアクセラレータープログラムはオースティン、トロント、シアトル、スウェーデン、ボルダー、ノルウェーで廃止された。テックスターズとJPモルガンの関係が悪化したため、マイアミ、アトランタ、オークランドを含む、8000万ドルのパートナーシップによって資金提供された約8つのプログラムは、今後継続される可能性は低い。 ウェブサイトに掲載された別の声明の中で、コーエン氏はマレ氏の会社での滞在に感謝の意を表した。 「彼女は素晴らしいチームを築き、多くの難しい決断を下し、切実に必要とされていた複雑な変化を勇敢に実行した」とリリースには記されている。 「今、マエルは自分の健康に集中しなければなりません。 彼女がこれから起こることに取り組む彼女の強さと勇気を祈っていると言うとき、私はテックスターズ全員を代弁しているとわかっています。」 コーエン氏は、13年間にわたって断続的に務めてきたTechstarsのCEOに戻ることに「興奮している」と述べた。 「私はTechstarsを創業者にとってさらに良いものにすることに引き続き注力していきます」と彼は書いている。 Source link

Over the past four years, the connected fitness space has experienced some of the highest highs and lowest lows in the venture industry. Funding peaked in 2021, as expected, according to Crunchbase numbers. Overall, the fitness category has raised $6.4 billion in 376 rounds. In May 2021, Peloton announced $400 million in funding for an Ohio-based production facility. This is no big deal. The company's annual revenue was $4.13 billion, an increase of more than 40% compared to 2020. On Monday, the fitness company said it was looking to refinance its debt. It also closed a five-year, $1 billion loan…

The tech layoff wave is still going strong in 2024. Following significant workforce reductions in 2022 and 2023, this year has already seen 60,000 job cuts across 254 companies, according to independent layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi. Companies like Tesla, Amazon, Google, TikTok, Snap and Microsoft have conducted sizable layoffs in the first months of 2024. Smaller-sized startups have also seen a fair amount of cuts, and in some cases, have shut down operations altogether. By tracking these layoffs, we’re able to understand the impact on innovation across companies large and small. We’re also able to see the potential impact of businesses…