Sat.Sep 17, 2022

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Most fintechs partner with banks; Varo became one, and says it’s paying off

TechCrunch

Last month, Varo Bank celebrated the two-year anniversary of obtaining its national bank charter. The move made Varo the first-ever all-digital nationally chartered U.S. consumer bank. The startup launched its banking services in 2017, aimed at making younger consumers comfortable doing all their banking online. It has raised nearly $1 billion since its 2015 inception and was valued at $2.5 billion at the time of its last raise in 2021.

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The State of Web3 in 2022 through Data

Tomasz Tunguz

At the inaugural DuneCon , Dune ’s first conference, I shared a presentation on the state of crypto in 2022. I aimed to characterize the health of the crypto ecosystem at the most basic level. For example, quantifying the number of active wallets, the population of active developers, & other dynamics within the ecosystem. The slides are embedded here with summary commentary below and linked here.

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VC Ann Miura-Ko is looking to help more students answer the question: Is this idea big enough?

TechCrunch

One could probably argue that Floodgate , the Bay Area-based seed-stage venture firm, punches above its weight. The roughly 15-year-old firm has just around $500 million in assets under management — including a $150 million fund that it quietly closed in January — and it makes just a handful of new investments each year. Yet with investments in Okta, Lyft and Starkware, which was valued at $8 billion in May, among others, its concentrated approach appears to be paying off.

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Answering Your Questions #11

OkDork

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?. Subscribe: Apple Podcasts / Spotify. What’s up, you beautiful bastards. We are back with Q&A round 11! In this conversation, you’ll enjoy 3 BIG things: How to grow your service business after getting your first 3 clients. What are some expensive mistakes that shaped the way you make decisions later on.

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The Big Payoff of Application Analytics

Outdated or absent analytics won’t cut it in today’s data-driven applications – not for your end users, your development team, or your business. That’s what drove the five companies in this e-book to change their approach to analytics. Download this e-book to learn about the unique problems each company faced and how they achieved huge returns beyond expectation by embedding analytics into applications.

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Adobe makes $20B bet on a collaborative future with Figma acquisition

TechCrunch

Prior to announcing its intent to buy Figma for $20 billion on Thursday, Adobe’s largest deal was its $4.75 billion Marketo acquisition in 2018. Why go so far outside of its pricing comfort zone and pay twice as much as Figma’s most recent private valuation? The easy answer is that it’s about taking a potential rival off the market. Yes, Adobe XD is a similar product, but there could be more to this deal than simply playing defense.

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Launch House holds private town hall, says investigation is underway

TechCrunch

In a town hall with some members of their community, Launch House addressed the harassment and assault allegations surfaced by a Vox Investigation earlier this week. The startup, backed by a16z and Flybridge as well as a bevy of top investors, said that an independent investigation is underway. “We’ll let the investigation speak for itself, but we’re confident that it will show that we do not retaliate against women,” the co-founders said, specifically referring to an incident highli

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TechCrunch+ roundup: Growth activation metrics, 3 keys to Series B, pitch deck teardown

TechCrunch

In his latest TC+ post, growth expert Jonathan Martinez looks at the grim realities of user acquisition. The plain fact is, few people who are motivated enough to make it all the way through a registration flow ever create any value. “Approximately 95.87% of iOS users drop off after day 30,” writes Martinez. “As a startup founder, how do you prevent leakage after spending significant resources to acquire people at the top of the funnel?

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This robot crossed a line it shouldn’t have because humans told it to

TechCrunch

Video of a sidewalk delivery robot crossing yellow caution tape and rolling through a crime scene in Los Angeles went viral this week, amassing more than 650,000 views on Twitter and sparking debate about whether the technology is ready for prime time. It turns out the robot’s error, at least in this case, was caused by humans. The video of the event was taken and posted on Twitter by William Gude, the owner of Film the Police LA , an LA-based police watchdog account.

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Lynk may beat Starlink and Apple to the punch as FCC approves its space-based texting

TechCrunch

SpaceX and T-Mobile may have hogged the headlines with their flashy pre-announcement about Starlink connectivity last month, and Apple last week , but Lynk has been putting in the work and may very well steal their lunch with a satellite-to-phone connection that already works — with any device out there. In fact, they just got FCC approval for it , meaning it’s just a matter of selecting a mobile network partner to bring it to market here in the States.

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PE Mastery: CAPTARGET's Playbook for Quality Lead Flow

CAPTARGET presents a masterclass in M&A deal sourcing. Learn to cast a wide net, embracing seller self-identification. Consistency is the linchpin: keep the origination process steady for a reliable flow of opportunities. Diversify your tactics, employing various tools and vendors. Tech matters! Understand DNS settings, domain authority, and brand presence for optimal outreach.

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Chain Reaction x Equity talk the Ethereum Merge

TechCrunch

If you are into web3, the biggest news of the week in tech was not the massive Figma-Adobe deal. No, the leading story of the last few days — arguably even the last few weeks — has been the Ethereum Merge. The Merge, an upgrade to the Ethereum blockchain that moved it from a proof of work (PoW) to a proof of stake (PoS) system of consensus was a long-awaited shift that finally took place this week.

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TC Sessions: Crypto is in Miami — and 5 more reasons students should go

TechCrunch

If you’re a university- or college-level student who believes the future of finance is crypto — or even if you’re just crypto curious — pack a bag and head to Miami for TC Sessions: Crypto on November 17. Why? Well, for starters, TechCrunch (of Disrupt and Startup Battlefield fame) brings its considerable talent for attracting the top technology founders, CEOs, investors and unicorn makers to focus on the cryptoverse — blockchain, cryptocurrency, NFTs and web3.

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Grocery delivery startups with low margins might drop IPO dreams for M&A reality

TechCrunch

Getting a bunch of bananas and avocados from your favorite 15-minute grocery delivery company at 3 a.m. might be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but some of these companies are finding themselves in somewhat of a cost-related pickle in such a low-margin business. While covering the recent news of Misfits Market acquiring Imperfect Foods , Misfits Market founder and CEO Abhi Ramesh noted it was difficult to reach profitability in the industry as sales leveled off in the past two years.

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How to create a due diligence road map for Series B investors

TechCrunch

Gaetano Crupi. Contributor. Gaetano Crupi is a partner at venture capital firm Prime Movers Lab. He serves on the boards of OCEANIX, Atom Computing, Conscious Cultures and MycoWorks. More posts by this contributor. Getting serious about Series B: 3 documents that will help founders control the narrative. Use chronological scenario planning to help your startup get through a potential recession.

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Monetizing Analytics Features

Think your customers will pay more for data visualizations in your application? Five years ago, they may have. But today, dashboards and visualizations have become table stakes. Turning analytics into a source of revenue means integrating advanced features in unique, hard-to-steal ways. Download this white paper to discover which features will differentiate your application and maximize the ROI of your analytics.