Tomasz Tunguz

FEBRUARY 26, 2025

Skimming is widespread in consumer hardware. Switching from the norm in your category introduces friction. Modern behavioral economics points toward three-part tariffs as potentially the optimal structure, especially when the number of vendors in a category is small. Application software companies typically sell seats.

SaaS 113

SaaS strategy enablement startup 113

This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 21, 2021

I do seem to be the absolute worst at figuring this out on my own as I can think of at least three founders that I’ve backed that turned out to fall into this category that I would not have assumed. This seems to be a trend in the rest of my life, too, not that one should ever make assumptions.

advice 429

advice pitching venture capital VC 429

TechCrunch

JANUARY 25, 2021

Though, like many companies primarily known for hardware solutions, Latch says it’s more, offering a connected security software platform for owners of apartment buildings. And the company has seen solid growth over the past year — not something every hardware or hardware adjacent company can say about the pandemic.

real estate 94

real estate incubation innovation accelerator 94

TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 24, 2020

Percepto , which makes drones — both the hardware and software — to monitor and analyze industrial sites and other physical work areas largely unattended by people, has raised $45 million in a Series B round of funding. ” “It gives us the ability to create a category leader,” Abuhasira said in an interview.

disruption 114

disruption collaboration technology energy 114

TechCrunch

SEPTEMBER 19, 2022

The highlighted showcase categories. These rising-star startups represent the innovation taking place across these tech categories: Hardware, Robotics, AI + ML. Literally months in the making, TechCrunch editorial staff read, vetted and debated every application.

disruption 95

disruption startup transportation pitching 95

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 5, 2010

cheap accessible digital hardware]. ones were enhanced because they coincided with hardware that allowed us to capture more content instantly – namely images and video – otherwide Web 2.0 This will take a few years but players such as Meebo are already innovating in this category though their toolbar.

networking 318

networking mix-use innovation development 318

TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 18, 2021

To software developers, the process of creating a hardware product can seem distinctly 1980s. I got frustrated with how much of my time was being spent managing the most fundamental elements of hardware development: CAD files, your bill of materials and your supply chain data,” explains Duro’s CEO Michael Corr.

development 86

development SaaS culture ventures 86

Tomasz Tunguz

JUNE 29, 2020

Shift to new categories? More time with computers drives server usage and entices users to dispense dollars on software and hardware. Consumer spending in the US accounts for 68% of GDP The question is then: how do consumers change their spending habits over the next quarter? Do they revert to the old patterns of purchasing?

accelerator 133

accelerator technology opportunity startup 133

TechCrunch

OCTOBER 27, 2020

Take these ideas as inspirational — they aren’t limits, nor should the borders of these categories be seen as anything but liminal. Exercise hardware like Peloton, Mirror and others along with platforms particularly around group classes have been a huge mainstay during this pandemic era.

health 142

health startup construction innovation 142

TechCrunch

APRIL 14, 2023

Let’s start with an obvious truth: Hardware is hard. The good news is such difficulties give us a lot to talk about — and as it happens, for the first time, hardware is getting its own stage at Disrupt 2023. As with any broad category, excitement tends to ebb and flow. We’re talking mobile. We’re talking AR/VR/MR.

disruption 95

disruption SaaS sustainability investing 95

Hunter Walk

FEBRUARY 20, 2022

“Attractiveness to VCs” might be one consideration that you consider, but what happens if after you get started building, the market turns and all of a sudden, you’re in a category that investors view skeptically? Before we launch into that playbook though, let me give some examples of how this ‘category chill’ plays out. Founder pain!

ventures 126

ventures pitching venture capital VC 126

Gust

DECEMBER 22, 2011

Having covered all the bases to ensure that your corporate name is available, the domain name can be acquired, and the name doesn’t infringe any existing trademarks (as we discussed last week ), now is a good time to look at the categories of intellectual property (IP) that are relevant to most startups. Instagram is a textbook example.)

startup 149

startup real estate consulting creativity 149

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 4, 2010

We discussed whether investing in the second largest player in a category makes sense given that Groupon is 10x the revenue, 3.5x If you want to run marketing campaigns you need to know who influences whom and in which product categories and geographies. eCommerce is hot again! the funding and market coverage.

VC 236

VC venture capital ventures support 236

Andreessen Horowitz

MAY 6, 2024

Software may have eaten the world , but today it gets choked up any time high complexity meets little room for error — when interacting with safety-critical hardware, for example. It’s also, ironically, a problem uniquely suited for AI to help solve.

energy 128

energy transportation VC support 128

Haystack

NOVEMBER 3, 2019

2/ Consolidating Hardware And Time – Another watch-enthusiast brand — Pebble — was unceremoniously folded into Fitbit after launching in 2012 to rabid fanfare. Pebble was one of the first-movers in the category, creating loyal fans and producing real innovation in the frontier days of this space.

venture capital 100

venture capital disruption innovation technology 100

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

And I would rather, even before the executive summary, have something to play with (a demo)…” It falls in the category of show don’t tell. And I think that is because the actual challenge of dealing with a lot of this stuff is very software and compute intensive and not sort of hardware trickery.

venture capital 288

venture capital pitching communities entrepreneurs 288

TechCrunch

MARCH 30, 2023

Disrupt will have six industry tracks , each with its own stage, including AI , fintech , hardware , SaaS , security and sustainability. In fact, storied venture firms Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) invested more in fintech than any other category in 2022.

disruption 98

disruption sustainability SaaS accelerator 98

TechCrunch

FEBRUARY 4, 2021

However, that is just one side of the business: Tovala’s ovens, Rabie said, are a central part of the vertical integration that the company has built, and even with the stories you might hear about how “hardware is hard”, they are here to stay as part of the proposition. Fiedler is joining the board with this round.

incumbents 111

incumbents incubation enablement capital 111

TechCrunch

NOVEMBER 21, 2023

There’s no doubt the STEM toys category has lost a bit of its magic.

creativity 89

creativity pitching startup 89

TechCrunch

SEPTEMBER 29, 2022

For the most part, highly capable systems are relegated to the cloud because they’re too complex to run on edge devices with weaker hardware and limited connectivity. He’s the CEO of Femtosense , a startup developing edge hardware designed to make AI processing viable for low-cost consumer electronics.

capital 78

capital enablement development ventures 78

TechCrunch

OCTOBER 27, 2021

Answering that question in this TC-1 is Brian Heater , TechCrunch’s hardware editor. Heater has been writing about hardware and robotics for more than a decade and also hosts our annual TechCrunch Sessions: Robotics conference. As we’ll see shortly, hardware and robotics are key to making the Bowery model work at scale, profitably.

venture capital 87

venture capital innovation accelerator finance 87

TechCrunch

DECEMBER 14, 2021

I knew the organization primary through its consumer hardware companies — a primary focus when it was founded, back in 2014. Seems it’s set to continue expanding its reach, going forward with eyes on categories like web3 and NFTs. Hong Kong-based Animoca Brands appears to be playing a big role in the move.

accelerator 80

accelerator startup accelerator health sustainability 80

TechCrunch

OCTOBER 15, 2020

The company’s goal is to develop software that can identify almost any kind of sound and be used in a wide range of smart hardware, including phones, speakers and cars, co-founder and chief executive Yoonchang Han told TechCrunch.

startup 99

startup SaaS enablement technology 99

TechCrunch

AUGUST 24, 2023

Bringing Modular’s total raised to $130 million, the proceeds will be put toward product expansion, hardware support and the expansion of Modular’s programming language, Mojo, CEO Chris Lattner says. ” Ambitious much? But none of what roughly-70-employee Modular is proposing is out of the realm of possibility.

frameworks 79

frameworks accelerator sustainability communities 79

TechCrunch

MAY 9, 2023

Hardware Stage: Uncovers the mechanics and code powering our smart world, featuring topics like articulated robots, autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), commercial hardware, humanoids, IoT hardware, and interstellar technologies. Sessions will include Google and Citizen Lab. Sessions will include Alphabet and Magic Leap.

disruption 96

disruption funders peer-to-peer networking 96

TechCrunch

SEPTEMBER 16, 2021

Tile has also formed partnerships focused on integrating its finding network into over 40 different third-party devices, including those across audio, travel, wearables, and PC categories. Notable brand partners include HP, Dell, Fitbit, Skullcandy, Away, Xfinity, Plantronics, Sennheiser, Bose, Intel, and others.

mix-use 99

mix-use incumbents networking financing 99

TechCrunch

JULY 28, 2022

In a statement shared with TechCrunch, Qwili said it would use the investment for app development, new hires (improvement in operations and development capabilities) and hardware production. The company’s hardware is a low-cost NFC-enabled smartphone called Qwili Pula that allows merchants to send and receive payments.

enablement 86

enablement startup communities venture capital 86

TechCrunch

OCTOBER 26, 2022

Others in the same category include Standard Cognition (last year valued at over $1 billion), Shopic , Caper , Zippin , and Grabango , to name a few. The plan will be to use the funding to expand its engagement with these, and to add more to the roster, amid a strong slate of competition in the market.

technology 90

technology real estate enablement disruption 90

TechCrunch

JUNE 30, 2022

Modular stands in contrast to the emerging MLOps category of vendors, delivering tools for gathering, labeling and transforming the data needed to train AI systems as well as workflows for authoring, deploying and monitoring AI. .

development 91

development frameworks communities accelerator 91

TechCrunch

SEPTEMBER 3, 2021

The barrier to entry for launching hardware startups has fallen; if you can pull off a successful crowdfunding campaign, you’re likely savvy enough to find a factory overseas that can build your widgets to spec. All the reasons why you should launch a credit or debit card. 6 tips for establishing your startup’s global supply chain.

pitching 95

pitching accelerator startup ventures 95

TechCrunch

DECEMBER 5, 2022

Existing investors LAUNCHub Ventures, Hoxton Ventures, HCVC (Hardware Club) and Change Ventures also participated. Giraffe360 was a no-brainer, and is really well suited to meet the needs of the market from both the hardware and software front.”. To date, the company has raised $22 million in equity and $9 million in venture debt.

real estate 97

real estate founder VC ventures 97

TechCrunch

MARCH 21, 2023

Yet we have also seen a significant increase in [average contract value] from purchase to renewal in mission-critical and sticky software categories, like CRM or email.” 10 tips for de-risking hardware products Thinking about pulling the plug on your startup?

pitching 86

pitching SaaS startup innovation 86

TechCrunch

JULY 19, 2022

Back when we started, around 2012, there was a lack of VC investors who [were] willing to invest very early stage in hardware technology, particularly in 3D printing. We have four categories that we’re scouting for. They are hardware, software, materials, and applications. Today we are a team of 10 people.

support 84

support ventures VC sustainability 84

Andreessen Horowitz

NOVEMBER 9, 2023

We demonstrate the overlap below: Real-Time Music Streaming Thus far, most of the emerging generative streaming products have been in the functional music category: apps like Endel , Brain.fm , and Aimi.

mix-use 28

mix-use creativity enablement pitching 28

TechCrunch

MARCH 3, 2021

But 90% of its business today surrounds the smartphone category, explained Mandeep Manocha, founder and chief executive of Cashify, in an interview with TechCrunch. In fact, Cashify says it’s the market leader in its category in India. For consumers, our proposition is that we make it easy for you to sell your devices.

capital 105

capital financing finance startup 105

TechCrunch

OCTOBER 12, 2021

I was super immersed in the category and working at a fitness company, but found that I did not have a lot of time for fitness myself,” she said. “I I was underwhelmed by some of the apps, which were not premium products and had so many barriers to entry, like expensive bikes or hardware equipment.

capital 81

capital health communities culture 81

TechCrunch

AUGUST 8, 2023

Image Credits: F-Prime Capital VC excitement for hardware businesses is higher than ever In the U.S. AI is making hardware much smarter, which is enabling companies to generate the kind of high-margin recurring revenues typically associated with software businesses. F-Prime State of Robotics Report.

founder 75

founder disruption VC opportunity 75