Tue.May 24, 2022

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Daily Crunch: 7 months after raising $1B, grocery delivery Gorillas exits four countries and lays off 300

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. It’s the 24th of May, 2022, and today Amanda made us laugh with her “Welcome to Hell, we all drive Teslas,” subhead to her story about Everything you wanted to know about Elon Musk and Twitter (but didn’t want to ask).

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How Mentorship Gives Entrepreneurs a Competitive Edge

Smart Hustle Magazine

With many companies today struggling to attract and retain talent, a culture of mentorship will put your company ahead of the competition. Nearly 50 million workers resigned in 2021, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, including a record-breaking 4.5 million quitting last November. Even before The Great Resignation, an estimated 33 percent of new hires quit within the first three months, costing businesses one-half to two times each employee’s annual salary to replace them.

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Mayfield’s Navin Chaddha: I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now

TechCrunch

Navin Chaddha. Contributor. Share on Twitter. Navin Chaddha is managing partner at Mayfield , an inception and early-stage investor with more than 50 years of a people-first investing philosophy. More posts by this contributor. Survival tips for startup founders living through their first market correction. What is happening to risk-taking in venture capital?

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[Trellis in Calcalist] Microsoft announces third cycle of AI For Good Accelerator Program

OurCrowd

Microsoft for Startups Israel has announced 15 startups that have been selected for the third AI For Good Accelerator Program, in collaboration with Tech for Good. The startups, all working with artificial intelligence, come from the fields of sustainability, agritech, and healthcare. Microsoft for Startups has supported more than 1,000 startups to date.

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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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Hugging Face collaborates with Microsoft for new AI-powered Azure service

TechCrunch

Fresh off a $100 million funding round , Hugging Face, which provides hosted AI services and a community-driven portal for AI tools and data sets, today announced a new product in collaboration with Microsoft. Called Hugging Face Endpoints on Azure, Hugging Face co-founder and CEO Clément Delangue described it as a way to turn Hugging Face-developed AI models into “scalable production solutions.” “The mission of Hugging Face is to democratize good machine learning,” Delan

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Kim Kardashian lends her taste buds to Beyond Meat as first chief taste consultant

TechCrunch

Beyond Meat has some new star power behind its plant-based meat brand in Kim Kardashian. The entrepreneur and influencer extraordinaire came on as the company’s first “chief taste consultant” and will be featured in a new campaign touting her recipes for using Beyond Meat and other creative content. Kim Kardashian is Beyond Meat’s new chief taste consultant.

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Investing in Flowcarbon

Andreessen Horowitz

When I was 22, I spent several months working in the field in South Africa. I was there as a part of a research project funded by the National Science Foundation, whose aim was to better understand the role of … The post Investing in Flowcarbon appeared first on Andreessen Horowitz.

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Questions arise on Y Combinator’s role in startup correction

TechCrunch

A chill has descended onto the global startup market , albeit not evenly. Venture capital totals are sagging in most geographies, and falling share prices for tech companies large and small have soured sentiment on the future value of high-growth and often cash-hungry startups. The end of the lengthy startup boom that first formed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and largely powered through until the final months of 2021 is shaking out, changing how the market views certain entities.

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A Step-by-Step Guide to Ensure Your Marketing Efforts Aren’t Wasted

Entrepreneur's Handbook

If you aren’t seeing results, it’s worth resisting your marketing foundations Continue reading on Entrepreneur's Handbook ».

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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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Here are all of the companies presenting at Alchemist Accelerator’s 30th Demo Day today

TechCrunch

It’s Demo Day time! Today marks the 30th Demo Day for Alchemist , the enterprise-focused accelerator that helped grow companies like LaunchDarkly, Rigetti Computing and Privacera early on. As an enterprise accelerator, the companies Alchemist backs generally focus on selling things to other companies as opposed to selling straight to consumers.

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Four Lessons on Building Strong Corporate Cultures From Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh

Entrepreneur's Handbook

Start living your culture now — they cannot be reverse-engineered. Continue reading on Entrepreneur's Handbook ».

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Nowports streamlines LatAm’s shipping to deliver a $1.1B valuation

TechCrunch

Nowports , an automated digital freight forwarder in Latin America, has raised $150 million in a Series C funding round which values the company at $1.1 billion. For the unacquainted, digital freight forwarders use digital tools that improve communication and efficiencies in the shipping process, among other things, to help shipments get where they need to go in a timely manner.

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Three Keys to Managing Your Finances as a New Business Owner

Smart Hustle Magazine

If you’re considering starting a business, you’re probably really good at something. Maybe you make the best cupcakes, the most beautiful websites or give the best haircuts. Whatever it is – you have a skill or talent that you’ve carefully crafted over time and a tremendous amount of passion. For new and prospective entrepreneurs, however, skill and talent won’t be enough.

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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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Berlin’s Gorillas lays off 300, explores ‘strategic options’ in 4 countries as funds dry up for its $3B instant grocery play

TechCrunch

It’s crunch time in the world of instant grocery delivery, with the latest turn representing a big blow specifically in Europe. Berlin-based Gorillas , which raised nearly $1 billion dollars at around a $3 billion post-money valuation only seven months ago — today announced that it would be laying off some 300 employees and exiting four markets — Italy, Spain, Denmark and Belgium — as it seeks to shift from “hyper growth” (read: burning tons of cash to win new

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5 Toxic Personality Traits That Will Doom Your Next Venture To Failure

Entrepreneur's Handbook

The least attractive traits founders and aspiring entrepreneurs need to banish before it’s too late Continue reading on Entrepreneur's Handbook ».

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SoftBank leads $150M round for Firework’s shoppable video

TechCrunch

Firework , a San Mateo livestreaming commerce company, secured $150 million in Series B funding led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. The company says it is now valued at $750 million. In 2021, Firework raised $55 million to value it at $230 million. Firework has now taken in more than $235 million in funding since it was founded in 2017 by co-founders Vincent Yang and Jerry Luk.

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A few of the best sustainable startups out there in 2022 that could weather a recession

Founder Bounty

Founderbounty has put together a bunch of upcoming and new sustainable startups that have great potential in 2022 to solve real climate problems and are recession proof. Instagrid One of our favorite startups of 2022. A great team with a fantastic vision solving a huge problem. We interviewed Andreas from Instagrid that just closed that 45M$ series B about what it takes to be a founder and how to build a portable battery company from scratch.

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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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Moka.care raises $16 million for its corporate mental health service

TechCrunch

French startup moka.care has raised a new $16 million Series A funding round (€15 million). The company is focused on mental well-being in the workplace. It offers a full-fledged service that sits in between employees and HR departments. Left Lane Capital is leading today’s funding round. Existing investor Singular is participating once again. VC firm Origins (co-founded by Blaise Matudi, Ilan Abehassera and Salomon Aiach) as well as Antoine Griezmann are investing in the company for the first t

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Strategic Partners: Winning As a Team

Secure Docs

Strategic partnerships are a powerful driver of company growth, innovation, and efficiency. These partnerships tend to be comprised of market-distinct yet compatible companies. There may be some exchange of equity, such as a company buying a stake in another one, or a shared project in the case of a joint venture. Strategic partnerships can unlock tremendous value for both firms, but their success depends ?

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Parallel Learning expands remote special education assessment and tutoring with $20M round

TechCrunch

If a kid is having trouble at school, one of the standard steps is to schedule an assessment for conditions like dyslexia, ADHD or anything else that might require a special approach. But with teachers and psychologists overworked and in short supply, Parallel Learning is hoping that remote options can help get kids back on track with less delay, and has raised $20 million to expand its reach to new states.

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[Mermades Seafood in NoCamels] Israeli Firm Reveals Innovative Process To Commercialize Lab-Grown Seafood

OurCrowd

The COVID-19 pandemic has given the alternative food industry a significant boost as consumers have become more interested in meat and seafood solutions that are sustainable and safer to eat. But even as lab-grown meat and other products have obtained significant backing from investors in the past few years, creating a cultured product requires ingredients, technologies, and processes that are just not cost effective.

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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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Your investor has an investment thesis. Here’s why you should care

TechCrunch

I work with a bunch of founders who have incredible stories, great pitch decks and solid businesses — and they get confused when investors turn them down anyway. A lot of the time, it doesn’t matter how good your company is. What matters is whether it matches up with your investor’s investment thesis. An investment thesis is sometimes a detailed document, sometimes a deck and sometimes something as vague as “we know it when we see it.” What it has in common, though

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[DreaMed Diabetes in Calcalist] Did you know code can kill??

OurCrowd

We have all become accustomed to the fast pace of technology. Every developer and product manager has a duty to push forward at all times, to release the latest innovation everyone will talk about even though it may not be ready. The mentality is to bring the idea to market first and improve it later, bringing developers to the forefront. For years, the common practice in tech has found development and product teams working and building products together.

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Cribl raises $150M to beat back rival observability tools

TechCrunch

In software development, observability refers to keeping watch over all of an app’s components, from mobile and web clients to backend infrastructure. Given how critical this sort of visibility into a system can be for developers, not to mention a broader organization, it’s unsurprising that tools to help achieve greater observability remain in high demand.

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[Orbital Insight in Yahoo Finance] Orbital Insight Joins AWS Public Sector Partner Program

OurCrowd

PALO ALTO, Calif., May 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Orbital Insight, a leader in geospatial intelligence, announced today that it has joined the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Partner Network (APN) Public Sector Partner Program (PSP), which recognizes APN Partners with cloud-based solutions and experience across government, space, education, and nonprofits around the world.

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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.