Tue.Aug 09, 2022

article thumbnail

Shopic lands $35M to bring its item-scanning ‘smart cart’ tech to more stores

TechCrunch

Stores face new challenges in a world forever changed by the pandemic. Amazon and other tech giants are encroaching on their business. But perhaps more urgently, supply chain snarls haven’t gone away, presenting retailers with a host of inventory issues. In a March Retail Insights survey , seven in 10 (71%) shoppers said they felt that out-of-stocks — i.e. times when items aren’t available — are worse now compared to the start of the pandemic.

ventures 103
article thumbnail

SEED YOUR BIG IDEA AND WATCH IT GROW – YOU COULD WIN UP TO $25,000!

Ben Franklin Technology Partners

STATE COLLEGE, PA – Did you know Ben Franklin Technology Partners is an award-winning, tech-based economic development program? We’ve been investing in tech startups and small manufactures for nearly 40 years. And now, we’re looking for innovators with BIG IDEAS who are developing new products or processes in the agriculture (AG) and food/beverage industries.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

How investors can still get strong returns from late-stage tech startups

TechCrunch

Frederik Mijnhardt. Contributor. Share on Twitter. Frederik Mijnhardt is the CEO of Secfi , an equity planning platform for startup executives and employees. More posts by this contributor. Late-stage tech companies must do right by their employees: Reassess your 409A valuations. Inside Secfi’s 2021 state of stock options equity report. Last year was a record 12 months for the tech industry, with immense amounts of money flowing into both early- and late-stage companies as well as an all-t

startup 88
article thumbnail

This 7-Part Landing Page is Basically a (Legal) Money-Printing Machine

Entrepreneur's Handbook

And it’s surprisingly easy to build. Continue reading on Entrepreneur's Handbook ».

article thumbnail

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.

article thumbnail

Five Flute annotates hardware product development into the current millennium

TechCrunch

Product managers for software have a pretty thankless job — figuring out which features to put into a development sprint, how to prioritize what the developers work on and collecting requirements from internal teams, external customers and figuring out what the company can use in its marketing materials — it’s an endless game of balance and compromise.

More Trending

article thumbnail

TechCrunch+ roundup: Bridge round bingo, SaaS sales smarts, tracking monthly expenses

TechCrunch

I have limited boating experience, but I do know that being a few degrees off your desired heading can be the difference between enjoying a relaxing dinner with friends and waiting in the dark for a Coast Guard rescue. Similarly, in a down market, SaaS startups that help clients make incremental improvements to cash flow are in a much better position to ride things out.

SaaS 76
article thumbnail

The Scary Secret VC-Backed Founders Don’t Want You To Know

Entrepreneur's Handbook

The scarier part is what they’re planning to do about it. Continue reading on Entrepreneur's Handbook ».

VC 72
article thumbnail

ReturnLogic bags new capital to make returning items less of a nightmare

TechCrunch

Online sales reached $1 trillion last year, and of that, $218 billion of merchandise was returned , according to the National Retail Federation. What’s more is that for every $1 billion of items sold, retailers incur over $160 million in returns. We’ve seen companies get creative — for example, Amazon teaming up with Kohl’s in 2019 for returns and Happy Returns partnering with retailers like Staples last year.

capital 75
article thumbnail

GCUC Podcast: Jason Anderson, President of CoWorks

GCUC

After a big year of welcoming his second daughter into the world, acquiring Office Evolution, and Venture X, this veteran was just getting started. The post GCUC Podcast: Jason Anderson, President of CoWorks appeared first on GCUC Community.

article thumbnail

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.

article thumbnail

Daily Crunch: WhatsApp extends its unsend time limit to ‘a little over two days’

TechCrunch

To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. Whazzaaaaaaa, we’re back with another round of newsy goodness on this fine Tuesday. It’s a pretty wild news day today, with a bunch of startup high-jinx. Check out the site for all of it, of course, but we’ve selected some of the stories that piqued our attention today.

article thumbnail

Average People Are Making Money Online in 2022 with These Simple Strategies

Entrepreneur's Handbook

Expand your mind to expand your opportunities in life Continue reading on Entrepreneur's Handbook ».

article thumbnail

Egyptian startup Convertedin raises $3M, caters to e-commerce brands in MENA and Latin America

TechCrunch

Convertedin , an Egyptian startup that operates a marketing operating system for e-commerce brands, has raised $3 million in a seed round led by Saudi Arabia-headquartered Merak Capital. Other participating investors include 500 Global and MSAS. The company, in a statement, said it plans to utilize the funds for strategic hiring and further development of its platform.

startup 104
article thumbnail

Our Live AMA is Today. Join Us!

Entrepreneur's Handbook

We’re holding a community event, and it’s today! It’s a chance to meet the editors and top writers of Entrepreneur’s Handbook and hear tips and stories about Medium. We’re also going recognize and award the top contributors to the pub from the last year. Medium is supporting us with some CASH for the winners. It will be casual, fun, interactive, and packed with tips and takeaways.

article thumbnail

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?

article thumbnail

She Matters app now helps Black women with a variety of postpartum health issues

TechCrunch

When She Matters co-founder Jade Kearney launched her company while a graduate student at NYU, she was looking to train psychologists to be culturally sensitive to the needs of Black women experiencing postpartum depression, women often left behind or ignored by the medical profession. Since taking the company to TechStars at the end of last year, she has expanded on that idea to include a variety of problems related to Black women and postpartum health, partnering with healthcare systems.

health 93
article thumbnail

Growth is No Longer the Best Predictor of a Software Company's Value

Tomasz Tunguz

In 2020, revenue growth was the most important factor explaining a public software company’s forward multiple. The formula has changed since then. Net income has surged to the highest correlate of a public software company’s multiple surpassing revenue growth. Narratives published in newspapers trumpeting the importance of profitability correctly assess investor sentiment on stock exchanges.

145
145
article thumbnail

Boulevard books $70M to help beauty and wellness salons with their bookings

TechCrunch

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but when it comes to getting ahold of an appointment for your hair or another treatment…that’s a different story: The bespoke nature of a lot of the work has meant that a large swathe of the professionals providing these services have stayed offline when it comes to interfacing with customers. But that is changing, and today, Boulevard — one of the wave of software companies that’s building a route to digitizing booking appointme

culture 89
article thumbnail

Leading With Software When Building A Lending Business

Andreessen Horowitz

As I reflect upon my experience building Bond Street (an SMB lending startup we sold to Goldman Sachs in 2017), one of the biggest challenges we faced was in scaling customer acquisition. In retrospect, there were two critical insights that … The post Leading With Software When Building A Lending Business appeared first on Andreessen Horowitz.

startup 115
article thumbnail

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!

article thumbnail

PreciTaste lands cash for tech that checks restaurant orders for accuracy

TechCrunch

The food service industry faces steep labor, quality control and sustainability challenges exacerbated by the pandemic. According to NSF International, a product testing and certification organization, more than half of quick-service restaurant (QSR) managers found staff turnover to be an issue for their business, with 20% saying that it had the biggest negative impact on operations within the past several months.

article thumbnail

How This Marketing Guru Enlisted Magic Johnson, Kevin Durant, Paolo Banchero and Some of the Biggest Names in Sports

Entrepreneur - Entrepreneurs Category

Hayes Grooms IV, Head of Athlete Marketing at Dapper Labs, on how to get the world's biggest stars to partner with your business.

104
104
article thumbnail

Privya helps companies protect data at code level before it goes into production

TechCrunch

As data privacy laws proliferate, it’s becoming increasingly important for companies to protect sensitive data in their applications. Privya was born with the idea that privacy protection should happen at the code level in development before the code goes into production. One of the founders, CEO Uzy Hadad, was working a company called VisualDNA, which was later acquired by Nielsen.

article thumbnail

Learnings of a CEO: Wade Foster, Zapier

Y Combinator

Welcome to the second edition of Learnings of a CEO. You can read the first edition here. Zapier was founded in 2012 by Wade Foster , Bryan Helmig , and Mike Knoop. The founders went through YC’s Summer 2012 batch and S18 Growth Program , and today, Zapier automates work by connecting with over 5,000 apps. The company has been profitable since 2014 and is valued at $5B – with 700 employees working remotely.

culture 98
article thumbnail

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.

article thumbnail

Truework, which helps lenders verify borrowers’ income and employment, raises $50M

TechCrunch

Truework , a company that builds technology for mortgage and consumer-centric lenders to instantly verify the income and employment of borrowers, has raised $50 million in a Series C round of funding led by G Squared. Founded in 2017, San Francisco-based Truework integrates with payroll providers including Gusto, Zenefits and BambooHR, and enables mortgage providers and lenders (e.g. automotive, personal loans, and student financing) to verify and approve borrowers quickly within their own appli

article thumbnail

Why Developers Are Building So Many Side Projects

Andreessen Horowitz

Over the last two years, I’ve built and launched eight tiny internet projects. From apps to websites, most of them have flopped — but together, my ragtag group of projects might be considered ramen profitable. My last project, Paper Website, lets you start a blog using pen and paper. It was a weird idea, but. Read More. The post Why Developers Are Building So Many Side Projects appeared first on Future.

article thumbnail

Founderpath secures $145M in debt and equity to help B2B SaaS startup founders avoid dilution

TechCrunch

In this challenging fundraising environment, more startups than ever are turning to alternative financial solutions such as debt. Despite the negative connotation associated with debt, a startup should not view it as an act of desperation during downturns, as TechCrunch’s Kyle Wiggers and Alex Wilhelm have recently noted. Companies that have high recurring revenue and visibility into future performance — such as SaaS startups — in particular can benefit from debt financings, Alex poi

SaaS 103
article thumbnail

In Defense of Stablecoins

Andreessen Horowitz

… The post In Defense of Stablecoins appeared first on Andreessen Horowitz.

88
article thumbnail

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.