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Today we are mostly listening to acoustic covers of songs we love (a surprise Iron and Wine cover, perhaps?), and mentally preparing ourselves for TechCrunch Disrupt. Which reminds us — did you know you can get 15% off passes with the DC discount code for being a Daily Crunch reader? Don’t say we never did anything for you, dear reader! — Christine and Haje
The TechCrunch Top 3
- Simple crypto: Cryptocurrencies are still complex, or that’s the viewpoint of Solvo, a new app that is making crypto investment simpler, Romain reports. What’s different is that instead of being offered dozens of currencies to choose from, Solvo has curated a list of 10 so you don’t get lost in all the names.
- Well that didn’t last long: On Monday we brought you news that “the OG app is out to bring Instagram back to its glory days.” Today, Ivan has an update that the app was removed from the Apple App Store after Meta said the OG was Instagram in “an unauthorized manner.”
- Long live IPOs!: Travel is back and with it news that TripActions was making a possible play for an initial public offering, which would value the company at $12 billion, Mary Ann reports. Catch Alex’s take on the matter down in the TC+ section.
Startups and VC
Eviation’s Alice electric aircraft took off for the first time yesterday, teasing a future in which regional flights of hundreds of miles will be done with zero emissions and a lot less noise. It’s still a ways off, but today’s demonstration shows it’s at least just a matter of time and money, Devin reports.
Apropos electric vehicles, Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn has (finally!) begun production of Lordstown Motors’ electric pickup truck. The news is a milestone for both companies, Rebecca reports. Foxconn as it diversifies from manufacturing consumer electronics like iPhones to electric vehicles, and Lordstown as it finally gets its much-anticipated Endurance truck off production lines and, hopefully, into customers’ hands.
We have more, of course. Because that’s what we do:
- Hustlin’ up an additional $46.1 million: Hustle Fund’s just closed a third fund, Natasha M reports.
- This one is ripe for the plucking: Anna reports that Stockholm-based Ripe helps product-led B2B companies find the ripest leads in their customer base.
- The whitest of white hats: Kyle reports that Detectify secures an additional $10 million more to expand its ethical hacking platform.
- It’s all clicking into place: Lunio raises $15 million to combat click fraud with its algorithms, Kyle reports.
- Are we humans, or are we dancers?: Better.com has seen wave after wave of layoffs. In “Inside the human cost of Better.com’s brutal layoffs,” Christine and Mary Ann explore how that impacted the employees who were ejected.
How to make coaching work for your sales team
A strong sales organization is the tip of the spear for every SaaS startup, but because so few founders have meaningful experience in this arena, they don’t know how to set their teams up for success.
In this TC+ article, contributor Kevin Varadian explains how to chart a sales coaching journey that boosts retention and increases revenue.
“It’s important to recognize that today’s sales teams are more problem-solvers than deal-closers — soft skills are more important here than technical capabilities,” he says.
Three more from the TC+ team:
- Roller-coaster stocks, but potential galore: UiPath co-CEO Rob Enslin still sees plenty of potential despite stock turbulence by Ron.
- MoCap money tap: Haje is back with another Pitch Deck Teardown, this time of Rokoko’s $3 million strategic extension deck.
- An IPO at last!: Alex explains why he’s excited about the upcoming TripActions IPO.
TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription!
Big Tech Inc.
Google’s Stadia is donezo, Brian reports. Stadia, the company’s game streaming service, was young, just under three years old, but just wasn’t getting the expected traction. However, based on Stadia’s remarks, there may be something new brewing.
We had a rather long Big Tech section for you yesterday, so enjoy these five shorter snippets:
- Make amends: Amnesty International’s new report is calling for Meta to pay reparations for Facebook’s role in promoting content that led to the Rohingya genocide in 2017, Natasha L reports.
- Pick up and go: Amazon quietly acquired India-based Just Walk Out as the company aims to expand its Amazon Go play in the country, Jagmeet writes.
- Tap tap: Square users can now use their iPhones to collect payments with the “tap to pay” feature, Ivan reports.
- Making a static waterfall dynamic: Wait until you see what Adobe will enable you to do with your photos, Kyle writes.
- Poppin’ bottles: TikTok broke records for all the dough it brought in during the third quarter as App Store revenue declined overall, Sarah reports.
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