Equity transcribed: Slack’s IPO, the VCs behind Facebook Libra, founder salaries and trouble in scooter-land

Welcome back to this week’s transcribed edition of Equity. This week, TechCrunch’s Danny Crichton filled in for co-host Alex Wilhelm – who was out in preparation for his wedding this weekend – joining Kate to cover the big news of the week. Kate and Danny dive straight into Slack’s IPO and the implications of its direct listing strategy, before shifting gears to discuss the launch of Facebook’s new ‘Libra’ cryptocurrency and the VCs backing the initiative. The duo then took a look at Lime’s latest fundraising efforts and the potential headwinds...

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Startups Weekly: The scooter cash desert

Hello and welcome back to Startups Weekly, a newsletter published every Saturday that dives into the week’s noteworthy venture capital deals, funds and trends. Before I dive into this week’s topic, let’s catch up a bit. Last week, I noted my key takeaways from Recode + Vox’s Code Conference. Before that, I explored the bull versus bear arguments in regards to Peloton’s upcoming IPO. Remember, you can send me tips, suggestions and feedback to kate.clark@techcrunch.com or on Twitter @KateClarkTweets. If you don’t subscribe to Startups Weekly...

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Slack and Zoom are flying high; they’re also being chased already by upstarts

Two of the highest-flying now-public enterprise companies of the year — Slack and Zoom — are different in many ways, besides the fact that one is focused on workplace messaging while the other is centered around video conferencing. Slack began life as a very different startup; Zoom founder Eric Yuan knew from the outset that he wanted to take on his former employer, WebEx. Slack raised a lot of money from many sources before hitting the public market — roughly $1.4 billion over 10 rounds; Zoom raised $160 million across five rounds, including a...

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Ray Dalio is coming to Disrupt SF

When it comes to the gods of finance, few people reach the stratosphere of Ray Dalio. The founder of Bridgewater, the investment firm that has grown to manage $150 billion in assets, Dalio is one of the most successful financial entrepreneurs of his generation, and indeed, of all time. While Dalio and Bridgewater are known for their pathbreaking analysis of the world economic machine that have reaped them billions in returns, they aren’t just known for their financial results. Rather, Bridgewater is also widely known for its unique culture shaped...

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Daily Crunch: Google’s not making any more tablets

{rss:content:encoded} Daily Crunch: Google’s not making any more tablets https://tcrn.ch/2ZAzoJ6 https://tcrn.ch/31HSYFm June 21, 2019 at 07:42PM The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here. 1. Google says it’s not making any more tablets “For Google’s first-party hardware efforts, we’ll be focusing on Chrome OS laptops and will continue to support Pixel Slate,” the company said in statement. Google SVP...

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Apply to Startup Battlefield for a shot at TC fame and fortune

What would a $100,000 cash infusion do for your early-stage startup? Don’t just imagine it. Apply to compete in Startup Battlefield at Disrupt San Francisco 2019 on October 2-4. Our premier pitch competition has launched hundreds of startups on an exponential success trajectory, attracts massive media and investor attention and, yeah, it offers a fat $100K prize — equity free. But listen up founders, the application deadline expires on June 25th at 11:59 p.m. (PT). Don’t miss your shot at TC fame and fortune. Fill out an application to Startup...

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‘This is Your Life in Silicon Valley’: Nomiku Founder CEO Lisa Fetterman on why Silicon Valley doesn’t care about female founders

Welcome to this week’s transcribed edition of This is Your Life in Silicon Valley. We’re running an experiment for Extra Crunch members that puts This is Your Life in Silicon Valley in words – so you can read from wherever you are. This is your Life in Silicon Valley was originally started by Sunil Rajaraman and Jascha Kaykas-Wolff in 2018. Rajaraman is a serial entrepreneur and writer (Co-Founded Scripted.com, and is currently an EIR at Foundation Capital), Kaykas-Wolff is the current CMO at Mozilla and ran marketing at BitTorrent. Rajaraman...

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Nowports raises $5.3 million to become Latin America’s digital shipping answer to Flexport

Nowports, a developer of software and services to track freight shipments from ports to destinations across Latin America, has aims to become the regional answer to Flexport’s billion dollar digital shipping business. Almost 54 million containers are imported and exported from Latin America each year, and nearly half of them are either delayed or lost due to mismanagement. Nowports is pitching shippers on its digital management software to keep track of each container, and has signed on a number of leading venture capital firms to fulfill its mission. The...

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Prices increase tonight on passes to Disrupt SF 2019

This is it, the final day the super-early-bird is hanging out at TechCrunch dispensing serious savings on passes to Disrupt San Francisco 2019. Once the clock ticks onto 11:59 p.m. (PT) tonight, the bird flies off to parts unknown. The known part? Ticket prices go up. Disrupt events provide outstanding ROI at any price. But seriously folks, why pay more? Prices start at $145 and, depending on the pass you buy, you can save up to $1,800. Buy your pass today — before the deadline hits. One more thing about money. We, like most startuppers, are seriously...

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LTE flaws let hackers ‘easily’ spoof presidential alerts

{rss:content:encoded} LTE flaws let hackers ‘easily’ spoof presidential alerts https://tcrn.ch/2Iwsfnv http://bit.ly/2ZBgSjN June 21, 2019 at 06:46PM Security vulnerabilities in LTE can allow hackers to “easily” spoof presidential alerts sent to mobile phones in the event of a national emergency. Using off-the-shelf equipment and open-source software, a working exploit made it possible to send a simulated alert to every phone in a 50,000-seat football stadium with little effort, with the potential of causing “cascades of panic,” said researchers...

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Ethiopia’s bid to become an African startup hub hinges on connectivity

Ethiopia is flexing its ambitions to become Africa’s next startup hub. The country of 105 million with the continent’s seventh largest economy is revamping government policies, firing up angel networks, and rallying digital entrepreneurs. Ethiopia currently lags the continent’s tech standouts—like Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa—that have become focal points for startup formation, VC, and exits. To join those ranks, the East African nation will need to improve its internet environment, largely controlled by one government owned telecom. Last week...

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YouTube confirms a test where the comments are hidden by default

{rss:content:encoded} YouTube confirms a test where the comments are hidden by default https://tcrn.ch/2IwgXQj https://tcrn.ch/31QrvRA June 21, 2019 at 06:01PM YouTube’s comments section has a bad reputation. It’s even been called “the worst on the internet,” and a reflection of YouTube’s overall toxic culture where creators are rewarded for outrageous behavior — whether that’s tormenting and exploiting their children, filming footage of a suicide victim, promoting dangerous “miracle cures” or sharing conspiracies, to name a few high-profile examples....

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Early-bird pricing ends tonight for TC Sessions: Mobility 2019

The robotaxi’s blowin’ its horn and zooming autonomously down the home stretch. At 11:59 p.m. (PT) on June 21 — that’s tonight, people — we hit the brakes on early-bird pricing for TC Sessions: Mobility 2019. Don’t miss your chance to join us in San Jose, Calif. on July 10 and save a smooth $100. Get your ticket now. Innovations across multiple technologies — AI, robotics, electric batteries, digital platforms and manufacturing — are transforming mobility and transportation. Join the leading experts, technologists, founders and investors as they...

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Space startup Wyvern wants to make data about Earth’s health much more accessible

The private space industry is seeing a revolution driven by cube satellites, which are affordable, lightweight satellites that are much easier than traditional satellites to design, build and launch. It’s paving the way for new businesses like Wyvern, an Alberta-based startup that provides a very specific service that wouldn’t even have been possible to offer a decade ago: Relatively low-cost access to hyperspectral imaging taken from low-Earth orbit, which is a method for capturing image data of Earth across many more bands than we’re able to...

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Northzone’s Paul Murphy goes deep on the next era of gaming

As the gaming market continues to boom, billions of dollars are being invested in new games and new streaming platforms vying to own a piece of the action. Most of the value is accruing to the large incumbents in a space, however, and the entrance of Google and other big tech companies makes it difficult to identify where there are compelling opportunities for entrepreneurs to build new empires. TechCrunch media analyst Eric Peckham recently sat down with Paul Murphy, Partner at European venture firm Northzone, to discuss Paul’s view of the market...

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eBay and Facebook told to tackle trade in fake reviews

Facebook and eBay have been warned by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to do more to tackle the sale of fake reviews on their platforms. Fake reviews are illegal under UK consumer protection law. The CMA said today it has found “trouble evidence” of a “thriving marketplace for fake and misleading online reviews”. Though it also writes that it does not believe the platforms themselves are intentionally allowing such content to appear on their sites. The regulator says it crawled content on eBay and Facebook between November...

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