Wed.Sep 28, 2022

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Penpot inks $8M as signups for its open source spin on Figma jump 5600% after Adobe’s $20B acquisition move

TechCrunch

Adobe’s intention to acquire Figma for $20 billion , announced mid-September, sent shockwaves through the design industry, and not all of them positive. On a business level, it’s a no-brainer that Adobe has snapped up a rival whose design collaboration tools have picked up significantly more traction than Adobe’s home-grown XD platform.

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The Rise of the Rest: How Entrepreneurs in Surprising Places are Building the New American Dream

Revolution

A Glimpse Inside The Rise of the Rest: How Entrepreneurs in Surprising Places are Building the New American Dream Today, my second book, The Rise of the Rest: How Entrepreneurs in Surprising Places are Building the New American Dream , was released by Simon & Schuster?—?but its message has been more than a decade in the making. If you’ve followed my journey as an investor and advocate, it’s likely one you know well: Great companies can start and scale anywhere.

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Alchemist Accelerator announces new leadership alongside its latest class of companies

TechCrunch

Alchemist Accelerator , the enterprise-focused startup incubator, is hosting a demo day today for its 31st batch of companies. For many of these companies, it’s the first time they’ve shown their efforts to the world. The accelerator itself, meanwhile, has some news: new leadership. Rachel Chalmers, formerly the head of AlchemistX (a division of Alchemist that helps governments and companies like Siemens and NEC build incubators of their own), will become the new president and managi

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The Reason My Company Can Break Marketing Rules and Yours Can’t

Entrepreneur's Handbook

3-question rule-breaker test to determine whether or not your business can profitably break the rules of marketing and win. Continue reading on Entrepreneur's Handbook ».

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From Curiosity to Competitive Edge: How Mid-Market CEOs Are Using AI to Scale Smarter

Speaker: Lee Andrews, Founder at LJA New Media & Tony Karrer, Founder and CTO at Aggregage

This session will walk you through how one CEO used generative AI, workflow automation, and sales personalization to transform an entire security company—then built the Zero to Strategy framework that other mid-market leaders are now using to unlock 3.5x ROI. As a business executive, you’ll learn how to assess AI opportunities in your business, drive adoption across teams, and overcome internal resource constraints—without hiring a single data scientist.

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GlossGenius triples valuation, raises $25M to give beauty industry’s tech stack a makeover

TechCrunch

Danielle Cohen-Shohet developed a tech platform to help spa, studio and salon industry owners manage their operations. She had seen firsthand the challenges of running a small business as a freelance makeup artist, one of her jobs while she was a student at Princeton. So she taught herself how to code, launched in 2016, raised $2.8 million in pre-seed funding from Techstars and angel investors, and bootstrapped her company, GlossGenius , for five years before closing a $16.4 million round last N

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Cloudflare takes aim at AWS with promise of $1.25 billion to startups that use its own platform

TechCrunch

Cloudflare , the security, performance and reliability company that went public three years ago, said this morning that it will help connect startups that use its serverless computing platform to dozens of venture firms that have collectively offered to invest up to $1.25 billion in the companies out of their existing funds. It’s a smart, splashy incentive to entice more startups to use the now five-year-old product, which, according to Cloudflare, enables developers to build or augment ap

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a daily run

Derek Sivers

Every day you go on a long run through the forest. You picture a pot of gold at the end. It helps you finish when you feel like quitting. One day you pretend there’s a tiger right behind you. It makes you much faster, so you keep using this approach. A running expert suggests you try acting like you’re running on hot coals , to keep you on the front of your feet.

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TechCrunch+ roundup: Dot-com crash lessons, reducing CAC, product-led sales

TechCrunch

During a recent Twitter Space, M13 Partner Anna Barber and I looked back at the dot-com crash in search of lessons operators can use to avoid missteps founders have made in past downturns. In our chat, Barber spoke about how founders can better align with investors and employees while managing uncertainty, the dangers of growing too quickly and the economic, social and emotional impacts created when so many companies close their doors at once.

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Did We Overeat on Software?

Andreessen Horowitz

It’s been a little over a decade since Marc Andreesen famously declared that software was eating the world. He was right. Now, we’re in a new phase: There is powerful software everywhere we look, and we’ve been consuming it without much regard for the long-term effects. So much so that, today, we’re faced with an. Read More. The post Did We Overeat on Software?

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State of AI in Sales & Marketing 2025

AI adoption is reshaping sales and marketing. But is it delivering real results? We surveyed 1,000+ GTM professionals to find out. The data is clear: AI users report 47% higher productivity and an average of 12 hours saved per week. But leaders say mainstream AI tools still fall short on accuracy and business impact. Download the full report today to see how AI is being used — and where go-to-market professionals think there are gaps and opportunities.

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Tatsumeeko strikes partnership with Immutable X to enhance its gameplay

TechCrunch

Tatsumeeko , a role-playing game on Ethereum and Solana created by the team behind Discord chatbot Tatsu.GG, announced today it has struck a partnership with Immutable X (IMX). The partnership’s goal is to enhance Tatsumeeko’s gameplay experience by focusing on trackable ownership and transfer of in-game assets. Immutable X is a layer-2 Ethereum scaling solution that powers Web3 games.

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The Moment I Decided to Quit My Job and Do My Own Thing Forever

Entrepreneur's Handbook

It can help you rethink your career. Continue reading on Entrepreneur's Handbook ».

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Unravel Data lands $50M to make sense of complex data stacks

TechCrunch

IT systems are becoming increasingly complex, what with the mass move to the cloud during the pandemic. The modern data stack consists of hundreds of tools for app development, data capture and integration, orchestration, analysis and storage. And it’s getting bigger and more convoluted by the day. According to Productiv, a software-as-a-service app management startup, the average company had 254 internal tools as of last September, with most departments wrangling 40 to 60 each.

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Weekly 16: Lessons From the Hypergrowth Playbook

Entrepreneur's Handbook

ICYMI: We’re holding another community event on Oct 11! Meet the editors and top writers of Entrepreneur’s Handbook. Hear tips and stories about Medium. We will recognize top writers with four Writer Awards ($100 bonuses). And give away two courses worth a total of $400 to the most engaged attendees. It will be casual, fun, interactive, and packed with tips and takeaways.

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15 Modern Use Cases for Enterprise Business Intelligence

Large enterprises face unique challenges in optimizing their Business Intelligence (BI) output due to the sheer scale and complexity of their operations. Unlike smaller organizations, where basic BI features and simple dashboards might suffice, enterprises must manage vast amounts of data from diverse sources. What are the top modern BI use cases for enterprise businesses to help you get a leg up on the competition?

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AmazeVR wants to scale its virtual concert platform with $17M funding

TechCrunch

AmazeVR , a Los Angeles-based virtual concert platform, said Tuesday it has raised a $17 million funding round to create immersive music experiences through virtual reality (VR) concerts. Like other industries, the entertainment sector was affected by the coronavirus lockdown. Many music artists had to cancel or push back their live events during the pandemic.

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Roundtable wants to bring AngelList-style syndicates to Europe

TechCrunch

Meet Roundtable , a new startup backed by eFounders that wants to bring community-driven angel investments to European startups. The company has built a platform that simplifies the administrative, legal and financial challenges that come with angel investments. Roundtable could be particularly useful for existing angel investors who want to unlock some additional capital for their portfolio companies.

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Is Silicon Valley really losing its crown?

TechCrunch

Where is the heart of the technology industry ? The simple answer is “Silicon Valley,” a term that now generally means the San Francisco-San Jose-Oakland area of California. There are other options: The two largest public cloud providers, Microsoft and Amazon, are based in the state of Washington. Europe’s tech scene has been busy in recent years , meaning that it can’t be ignored in any such conversation.

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Arthur.ai machine learning monitoring gathers steam with $42M investment

TechCrunch

It’s widely understood that after machine learning models are deployed in production, the accuracy of the results can deteriorate over time. Arthur.ai launched in 2019 with the goal of helping companies monitor their models to ensure they stayed true to their goals. Since then, the company has also added explainability and bias mitigation to the array of services.

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The GTM Intelligence Era: ZoomInfo 2025 Customer Impact Report

ZoomInfo customers aren’t just selling — they’re winning. Revenue teams using our Go-To-Market Intelligence platform grew pipeline by 32%, increased deal sizes by 40%, and booked 55% more meetings. Download this report to see what 11,000+ customers say about our Go-To-Market Intelligence platform and how it impacts their bottom line. The data speaks for itself!

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YC-backed fintech Numida raises $12.3M led by Serena Ventures to extend loans to MSMEs beyond Uganda

TechCrunch

Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) across Africa make up the bulk — over 90% — of businesses in the continent but are still marginalized in accessing credit from formal institutions because of the nature of their operations; for instance, many often lack the kind of collateral that is acceptable by banks. To bridge the gap, Uganda-based fintech Numida , has opted to focus its digital lending business on small enterprises as part of its strategy for driving financial in

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What can the 2000 dot-com crash teach us about the 2022 tech downturn?

TechCrunch

During a recent Twitter Space, M13 Partner Anna Barber and I looked back at the dot-com crash in search of lessons operators can use to avoid missteps founders have made in past downturns. In our conversation, Barber spoke about how founders can better align with investors and employees while managing uncertainty, the dangers of growing too quickly, and the economic, social and emotional impacts created when so many companies close their doors at once.

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Firehawk’s rocket engines and 3D-printed fuel hit testing milestones ahead of first launch

TechCrunch

Although today’s rocket engines are advanced and powerful, they tend to rely on traditional — and naturally volatile — fuels like hydrazine or liquid oxygen and kerosene. Firehawk Aerospace has a safer and more stable new fuel, new engines, and millions in new funding to take it through the next round of tests to its first launch. Firehawk appeared on the scene two years ago with a fresh take on hybrid engines — those that use a fuel with both solid and liquid qualities.

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Cloud storage startup Wasabi raises $250M to reach unicorn status

TechCrunch

The cloud services sector is still dominated by Amazon and the other so-called “hyperscalers” — e.g. the Microsoft Azures, Google Cloud Platforms and IBM Clouds of the world. According to Synergy Group , an IT market research firm, Amazon, Microsoft and Google together held a 65% share of the global cloud services market as of Q2, up 61% year-over-year.

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How Top Tech CFOs Solve Annual Planning’s Biggest Challenges

Gearing up for 2025 annual planning? Our latest eBook from the Operators Guild is your ultimate guide. Discover real-world solutions and best practices shared by top CFOs, drawn directly from discussions within OG’s vibrant online community. Learn from senior executives at high-growth tech startups as they outline financial planning strategies, align CEO and board goals, and coordinate budgets across departments.

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VRAI wants to tackle the energy crisis by bringing VR simulation training to offshore wind sector

TechCrunch

Virtual Reality (VR) has struggled to transition too far beyond gaming circles and specific industry use-cases such as medical training , but with the burgeoning metaverse movement championed by tech heavyweights such as Meta , there has been a renewed hope (and hype) around the promise that virtual worlds bring. Just yesterday, Los Angeles-based AmazeVR announced a $17 million tranche of funding to scale its virtual concert and “music metaverse” platform.

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Stockly raises another $12 million to sell out-of-stock items via other retailers

TechCrunch

French startup Stockly is raising a $12 million Series A round (€12 million) from Eurazeo, Daphni and several business angels. The company pools together the inventory of several e-commerce websites. When a retailer is out-of-stock on a popular item, they can still accept the order and process the order through a different retailer’s inventory. This startup is a network play.

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Document onboarding startup Flatfile nabs $50M from investors, including Workday

TechCrunch

Data cleansing — prepping data for applications like predictive analytics — takes time. In fact, data scientists spend an estimated 60% of their time cleaning and organizing data, according to one recent survey. It’s not just time that’s lost. According to Experian, “dirty data” costs the average business 15% to 25% of their revenue and the U.S. economy $3 trillion annually.

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Livin Farms’ investors are betting $5.8M on powdered fly larvae

TechCrunch

In a world of climate change-fueled food shortages, insect-based proteins are being viewed as an increasingly valuable potential alternative food service. Livin Farms has put insect larvae at the center of its own alternative protein play. The Vienna-based firm produces Hive Pro, a modular system designed to automate the process of rearing and processing black soldier flies.

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5 Ways You Can Win Faster with Gen AI in Sales

Incorporating generative AI (gen AI) into your sales process can speed up your wins through improved efficiency, personalized customer interactions, and better informed decision- making. Gen AI is a game changer for busy salespeople and can reduce time-consuming tasks, such as customer research, note-taking, and writing emails, and provide insightful data analysis and recommendations.