This startup got a meeting with Mark Suster by getting clever with Google ads

Startups have done some wild things to get the attention of VCs. In fact, Instacart founder Apoorva Mehta sent YC partner (at the time) Garry Tan a six-pack of beer through the service after missing the deadline for Y Combinator by two months. Yesterday, the ingenuity of startups struck again. Tadabase.io, an enterprise startup that offers no-code tools to help businesses automate their processes, has had an ad running that was… well, hyper targeted. ProductHunt founder and WeekendFund investor Ryan Hoover discovered the ad and shared it on Twitter. I...

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This Week in Apps: WWDC goes online, coronavirus leads to more cancellations, sneaky spy apps exposed

{rss:content:encoded} This Week in Apps: WWDC goes online, coronavirus leads to more cancellations, sneaky spy apps exposed https://ift.tt/2QfQ32C https://ift.tt/2WeMGg6 March 14, 2020 at 04:55PM Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the Extra Crunch series that recaps the latest OS news, the applications they support and the money that flows through it all. The app industry is as hot as ever, with a record 204 billion downloads in 2019 and $120 billion in consumer spending in 2019, according to App Annie’s recently released “State...

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ZTE is being investigated over possible bribery

{rss:content:encoded} ZTE is being investigated over possible bribery https://ift.tt/2QemOND https://ift.tt/2Q8FEWj March 13, 2020 at 11:11PM ZTE’s struggles with the U.S. government generally haven’t been as high-profile as fellow Chinese mobile giant Huawei, but the company has still had its share of issues in recent years. The latest wrinkle, first reported by NBC and later confirmed by The Wall Street Journal, finds it under investigation over bribery charges. The issues stem from a 2017 settlement with the U.S. government, which found ZTE...

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Three travel startups tell us how they’re responding to the coronavirus crisis

With the globalized world going into partial or complete lock down over the Covid-19 pandemic, startups in the travel sector are facing a huge stress test and immediate disruption to business as usual as public health concern spirals and entire populations are encouraged or even forced not to travel. The traditional travel hub of Europe has emerged as a secondary hotspot for the virus, after SARS-CoV-2 first emerged in China late last year. Italy, France and Spain have all reported thousands of cases apiece, with the latter declaring a state of...

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Glisten uses computer vision to break down fashion photos to their styles and parts

It’s amazing that in this day and age, the best way to search for new clothes is to click a few check boxes and then scroll through endless pictures. Why can’t you search for “green patterned scoop neck dress” and see one? Glisten is a new startup enabling just that by using computer vision to understand and list the most important aspects of the clothing in any photo. Now, you may think this already exists. In a way, it does — but not a way that’s helpful. Co-founder Alice Deng encountered this while working on a fashion search project of her...

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FitnessAI races past $1M ARR heading into YC Demo Day

Y Combinator’s Demo Day is a key soirée on the startup calendar. This year, however, instead of a packed room replete with short pitches and lackluster catering, Demo Day has gone virtual. Even more, it was moved up by a week, pushing the public debut of a host of companies to this coming Monday. TechCrunch will be covering it closely, so make sure to stick around the site for notes and interviews. But who wants to wait that long? I’ve gotten to know one of the pitching startups, FitnessAI, over the past few weeks. Let’s take a look at its business. FitnessAI FitnessAI...

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Instagram uses its power to put Coronavirus tips atop feed

Instagram is embracing its potential as a news source, employing its ubiquity to distribute Coronavirus prevention techniques through a new call-out at the top of its homescreen feed. In some countries, Instagram will show a link to information from the World Health Organization and local health ministries along with a message like this: “Help Prevent the Spread of Coronavirus: See the latest information from the World Health Organization so you can help prevent the spread of COVID-19. — Go to who.int” An Instagram spokesperson tells TechCrunch...

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Instagram uses its power to put Coronavirus tips atop feed

{rss:content:encoded} Instagram uses its power to put Coronavirus tips atop feed https://ift.tt/2WacmKL https://ift.tt/2QeAkk3 March 13, 2020 at 08:04PM Instagram is embracing its potential as a news source, employing its ubiquity to distribute Coronavirus prevention techniques through a new call-out at the top of its homescreen feed. In some countries, Instagram will show a link to information from the World Health Organization and local health ministries along with a message like this: “Help Prevent the Spread of Coronavirus: See the latest information...

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n8n, a ‘fair code’ workflow automation platform, raises seed from Sequoia as VC firm steps up in Europe

When concerns about the novel coronavirus — and subsequent changes in activity — are not bringing productivity to a halt (and perhaps especially in times of needing to be as efficient as possible), one of the bigger IT trends has been a push to streamline how people work by creating better integrations between the different apps that they use. Today, a startup out of Berlin, Germany is announcing seed funding to help it enter the fray of those that are helping make those integrations happen seamlessly and more reliably. n8n, a Berlin-based company...

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Handle.com helps independent construction workers get paid on time

From long payment cycles to antiquated processes on how to bill workers, the hefty inefficiencies of the construction industry are long overdue for innovation.  Enter startups such as the large venture-backed Katerra and recently public companies such as Procore. Still, independent contractors or workers from small family businesses often can’t afford hefty fees from SaaS platforms promising better management. Or, they don’t have a parent company behind them to foot the bill.  To help the Bob’s Plumbings and Nicky Roofings of the world...

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Startup founders are building companies on WhatsApp

Lisa Enckell Contributor Share on Twitter Lisa Enckell is a partner at Antler, an early-stage venture capital firm and startup generator. In Asia, where I work as a partner at an early-stage VC, startups are regularly rolling out a minimum viable product (MVP) and then transacting on messaging apps. Companies like shoe brand Portblue, AI e-commerce company Sorabel and Sama, an online recruitment platform for migrant workers, all started life using WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger to communicate with customers, onboard users and raise brand...

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Raising money in a bear market, and what happened with Sequoia and Finix?

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. Today was something a bit special. We’d originally hoped to have this episode in person, as a group, but the world isn’t flying as much right now so we had to make do. Regardless, please say hello and welcome Natasha Mascarenhas to the Equity crew. Natasha has worked for the Boston Globe, the SF Chronicle, and, most recently, covering venture capital for Crunchbase News. TechCrunch is lucky to have her, and the...

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Russian trolls are outsourcing to Africa to stoke US racial tensions

With tech companies wise to many of the tactics that Russia’s now-infamous troll farms used to seed disinformation during the 2016 election, those campaigns are getting creative. According to a pair of reports out from Facebook and Twitter, a disinformation campaign run by individuals with links to Russia’s Internet Research Agency (IRA) is back and focused on the U.S., but this time it’s being run out of Africa. “This network was in the early stages of building an audience and was operated by local nationals — some wittingly and some unwittingly...

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