If it were an issue for you, what would you pay to get rid of stress, anxiety, loneliness, sadness, physical and mental pain, or depression? Or conversely, what would you pay to be happy, feel connected, feel understood, change bad habits into better ones, have a healthy brain as you age, or to fulfill your full potential and really thrive? Read More
Germany’s Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) has asked Tesla to stop using the term ‘Autopilot’ to refer to its driver assistance technology because of the risk of misleading consumers about the capabilities of the technology. Read More
It was long-rumoured that Sebastian Diemer, who co-founded credit scoring and loans company Kreditech, was doing another startup in the fintech space and today that new venture de-cloaks. Bezahlt.de, which, along with Diemer, counts numerous other ex-Kreditech employees as part of its founding team, is taking aim at the German ‘factoring’ market. Read More
Paris-based VC firm Daphni is announcing its inaugural fund for seed and Series A investments. The team will manage a $165 million fund (€150 million) and try some new things when it comes to venture capital in Europe. On paper, Daphni looks like many other funds. A bunch of limited partners have given a big pile of money so that a team of tech-savvy people can invest everything in startups.… Read More
Joining the likes of Kibo Ventures, Seaya Ventures, Nauta Capital, and JME Ventures, Spain has a new VC on the block. K Fund is a €50 million fund that will invest in Spanish startups with an international outlook, making lead investments at both the seed and Series A stages, writing checks of between €100,000 to €2 million. I’m also told it will do follow-on rounds with a maximum… Read More
You can’t go to a developer conference today and not hear about software containers: Docker, Kubernetes, Mesos and a bunch of other names with a nautical ring to them. Microsoft, Google, Amazon and everybody else seems to have jumped on this bandwagon in the last year or so, but why is everybody so excited about this stuff? To understand why containers are such a big deal, let’s… Read More
For better or for worse, Chile is often held up as the economic model for Latin America. More so even than other up-and-coming tech centers, the story of startup entrepreneurialism in Chile is a story of concerted government policy. That policy is formulated by the Corporación de Fomento de la Producción de Chile, which is tasked with promoting economic growth in the country. Read More
With nearly 8 million Americans unemployed and looking for work while nearly 6 million jobs remain unfilled, it’s fair to say that technology has not disrupted the labor market in a good way. Read More
This weekend in Baghdad, tech entrepreneurs and local government officials gathered at the Fikra Fair to network, demo their apps and show the world that Iraq has more to offer than oil. According to the Human Rights Watch, challenging realities of daily life for many people in Iraq include sky-high food prices, cash shortages, a lack of communications infrastructure, and restricted access… Read More
The danger is taking the election for granted and then being sucker punched by a vast undercurrent of populist anger against the establishment. Read More
Japanese telecoms firm SoftBank recently acquired British microchip manufacturer ARM Holdings. ARM’s shareholders approved the $32 billion deal at the end of August, and the company was delisted from the London Stock Exchange on September 5. The deal represents the largest acquisition of a European technology company. Ever. Read More
Peter Thiel surprised Silicon Valley enough when he endorsed controversial Presidential candidate Donald J. Trump at the Republican National Convention earlier this year. Valley investors and entrepreneurs — the vast majority of whom do not support Trump — are likely to be even more taken aback by the news that Thiel has chosen this point to donate $1.25 million to his campaign.… Read More
Despite murmurs of tumult and slowdown in the Chinese economy, the fact remains that China’s economic engine has been on a tear — at roughly 6.5 percent or more for the last six years. Much of this growth has been fueled by China’s emergent tech industry, as even in Silicon Valley, China’s BAT companies (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent) and hot startup scene have become part… Read More
Investigative reporter and co-founder of Democracy Now!, Amy Goodman, is now facing riot charges in the state of North Dakota after her report on a Native American-led pipeline protest there went viral on Facebook. Democracy Now! issued a statement about the new charges against Goodman late Saturday. The news organization, which spun out of WBAI-FM, creates programming which is syndicated… Read More
I learned a shocking statistic recently: Less than 1 percent of venture capital funding goes to black founders. This must change. When funders fail to give entrepreneurs of color a fair chance, it’s everyone’s loss. Read More
Venture capital is a hell of a drug. Used properly, it’s like adrenaline energizing many of the greatest companies of the past fifty years. Used incorrectly, it creates toxic dependencies.
The conventional wisdom in the startup community is that when building the very best companies, more capital can be leveraged to accelerate even greater growth. But does this “go big or go… Read More
The Gillmor Gang — A Conversation with Bret Taylor and Steve Gillmor. Recorded live at Dreamforce 16 Thursday, October 7, 2016. As CEO of Salesforce acquisition Quip, Bret Taylor returns to the Gang for a chat about his early work on Google Maps, co-founder of the legendary FriendFeed social network, CTO of Facebook, and his new role at Salesforce.
@stevegillmor, @btaylor
Directed by… Read More
Tech investing isn’t what it used to be — even compared to six months ago. Investors are applying greater scrutiny to deals. Founders are realizing they can’t favor growth over profitability, or vice-versa — both are crucial to success. There’s a reason VCs are calling for “a return to fundamentals” — they don’t want to see newly minted… Read More
Our latest video series explores the world of bitcoin and the blockchain, and you can now watch all six episodes on YouTube and TechCrunch.com. The series features Nathaniel Popper, a New York Times reporter and the author of the book on which the series is based, along with several bitcoin developers, influencers and scholars tracing the history of bitcoin and analyzing its future.… Read More
