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Hi there, and welcome to another Daily Crunch, this time for Tuesday June 7, 2022. The past 24 hours have had a lot of Apple news in them, and we’ve got comprehensive coverage on that front — but we also have a veritable cornucopia of other news from across the startup-o-sphere, so let’s get right into it! — Haje and Christine
The TechCrunch Top 3
- Oracle’s done deal: Oracle quietly wrapped up its acquisition of Cerner, which goes into effect Wednesday. Electronic health records is big business, and while this merger gives Oracle a major seat at the table, it is not yet known how these companies will mesh or whether Cerner will be lucrative for Oracle. Whatever happens, can this be a step closer to enabling medical records to be more easily accessible and transferrable for patients?
- One thing to rule them all, one thing to find them, one thing in the darkness to charge them: As fans of climate and the environment, and as people with an infinite number of chargers in drawers, we’re all for EU’s new rules that dictate that most devices need to be able to use the USB-C charging standard. We’re curious how this will affect startups in particular; different chargers and giving users the option not to receive a charger with their device is going to make supply chains and SKUs a lot more complex.
- Grab the Wite-Out: Alex and Anna look at venture capital activity in Latin America and sense that a decline is in the cards for the second quarter, alluding to a possible correction.
Startups and VC
Best known for its open source microcontrollers that have been wildly embraced by the developer community, Arduino now has its sights firmly set on the enterprise world, Brian reports. Specifically, the company believes it’s well positioned to gain a foothold among Gen Z and millennial engineers in the workforce.
Let’s check out what else there is:
- Ain’t but a number: It’s often wrong to think of silver tech as being just for the aging. Primeline Partners wants to flip than on its head and refocus on quality of life instead, Catherine reports.
- Fly like a butterfly, sting like a taxi: Volocopter’s drone taxi is one step closer to entering service. The German firm has revealed that its four-seat electric VTOL aircraft, the VoloConnect, completed its first flight in May, reports Jon.
- Don’t call us; we’ll call you: Kyle reports that Take Blip, an online messaging platform for businesses, today announced that it raised $70 million.
- Not today, neighbor: Haje covered how Ergeon enables anyone to order construction projects like fences, driveways and more.
- Whoa, it’s like I’m right there, man: Haje also wrote about Looking Glass’s brand-new 65-inch holographic screen.
- Yeah, but what about second breakfast: As many millennials struggle to come up with the cash to buy their first home, plenty of other folks are looking to buy their second. Summer is squarely aimed at the latter group, Jordan reports.
The guide to great metrics: Product-led principles
Imagine a world where founders boasted about how much growth they’ve driven, as opposed to their fundraising prowess.
The ability to raise capital is less impressive than finding sustainable ways to build a growing base of paying customers. The right coaching and a strong network can help many founders land a sizable seed round, but that money reflects investor confidence, not market demand.
In a post for TC+, Curtis Townshend, senior director of growth at OpenView, shares 11 product-led growth tactics that foster “customer acquisition, retention and expansion.”
After surveying 14 public B2B software companies, Townshend says firms that built for discoverability and deployed usage-based pricing had a median growth rate of 141%, compared to 21% for traditional SaaS.
These companies were also much more efficient with regard to the Rule of 40 and retaining revenue. “Across the board, the variance in metrics is stark,” says Townshend.
(TechCrunch+ is our membership program, which helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can sign up here.)
Big Tech Inc.
With WWDC in full swing, let’s take a bite out of some Apple news first, shall we? Some interesting new security features for macOS 13 Ventura (or as we dubbed it “Mace Ventura”) are coming down the pipeline here; for example, when you plug a device into the USB-C port, it will automatically be blocked until you give it the green light. Apple is also fixing an annoying “tapback” problem when an iPhone user dares to text with an Android user. Some developers are probably rejoicing, too, as some restrictions are being loosened on what can be published on the App Store. Meanwhile, iOS 16 brings with it some redesigned and reimagined features, like better photo-sharing abilities and editing tools.
Next, we reported on a little shake-up happening over at Peloton, which tapped Amazon Web Services executive Liz Coddington as its new chief financial officer, effective next week. She takes over for Jill Woodworth, Peloton’s first CFO, who is leaving the company. As you might recall, earnings were not so good, which has the company “pedaling” to manage its supply-and-demand issues.
In money news, PayPal took a hint from its crypto-enthused users and unveiled a way for them to move their cryptocurrency from PayPal to other users, wallets or exchanges.
Here is some more news to gobble up:
- Two heads are better than one: Waymo Via, aka Alphabet’s self-driving unit, and Uber Freight, aka Uber’s logistic spinout, are calling shotgun. Rebecca writes that the partnership involves a few phases, including Waymo Via’s technology going into Uber Freight’s network. Speaking of Uber and moving things, the company has a new service that will deliver specialty food items from certain merchants in New York, Miami and Los Angeles across the U.S. Sorry, Alaska and Hawaii, not to you.
- For the ’gram: Instagram users can now pin up to three posts on their profile. This was something the Meta-owned unit was testing, so go forth and pin!
- To hear you better, my dear: Devin gives a review of the new Sonos Ray soundbar.
- Finance me, please: Luxury electric vehicle maker Lucid Group joined with Bank of America to offer financing to customers.
- Polestar does some teasing: The company released images of its first battery-electric SUV, the Polestar 3, expected to come out in October.
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