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TechCrunch+ roundup: Revisit your marketing stack, pitch deck teardown, after the acquisition

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Last month, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the economy is “in a period of transition,” on the grounds that “we have a very strong labor market. When you are creating almost 400,000 jobs a month, that is not a recession.”

Today, we learned that the U.S. added 528,000 new jobs last month and the unemployment rate has fallen to 3.5%, but for many people in tech, this is a distinction without a difference: according to layoffs.fyi, 467 startups have let go of 64,518 employees so far in 2022.

Marketing can’t cure everything that ails a company, but it is the easiest channel to make iterative changes that produce immediate results.


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In his latest TechCrunch+ column, Jonathan Martinez says it’s time to “re-forecast, re-prioritize and refine” strategies to move key growth metrics like ARPU and LTV.

Using multiple examples, he shares a few ways companies can project revenue using shorter time intervals, along with exercises to help fine-tune their marketing stack.

“If new channels and major experiments were in the picture, it’s probably best to shelve those for when the markets recover,” he advises.

Thanks very much for reading,

Walter Thompson
Editorial Manager, TechCrunch+
@yourprotagonist

How to run growth marketing during a recession

From NDA to LOI: What really happens when your startup is being acquired?

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On Tuesday, VP and managing director of Dell Technologies Capital, Yair Snir, shared an article explaining why founders should plan to get acquired, particularly since their odds of going public are so long.

In a follow-up, he takes readers inside the post-acquisition integration period/process:

  • The shopping sprint
  • The road to an LOI
  • Bring in bankers?
  • Diving into due diligence
  • Defining “day one”
  • You’ve been acquired!

“While IPOs may get more headlines, a well-timed, well-planned acquisition can mean even larger opportunities for you, your team and the technologies you’ve built,” says Snir.

From NDA to LOI: What really happens when your startup is being acquired?

How to approach building your first employee benefits package

Woman dropping gift into outstretched hand; employee benefits startup
Image Credits: We Are (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

When I worked at a startup located near a wall-climbing gym, a manager proudly announced that they’d negotiated a discount for our entire staff as a company perk.

But once it was explained that this benefit was only valuable to the employees who were already gym members, it seemed somewhat exclusionary. To restore parity, employees who declined a gym membership were offered ride-hailing credits.

“Founders need to ask themselves what really matters to their business, and which benefits best align with their cultural values,” says Anitra St. Hilaire, vice president of People at ThreeFlow.

How to approach building your first employee benefits package

Dear Sophie: How long am I required to stay at my current job after I get my green card?

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Image Credits: Bryce Durbin/TechCrunch

​​Dear Sophie,

I’m a software engineer currently on an H-1B. My employer sponsored me for an EB-2 green card, and my application has been approved, but I’m still waiting for a decision on my application to register for permanent residence.

I want to leave my employer and do something completely different. Can I transfer my green card to another employer in a different field and position, or should I stick it out in my current position until I receive my green card?

If I should stick it out, how long should I stay with my current employer after I receive my green card?

— Craving Change

Dear Sophie: How long am I required to stay at my current job after I get my green card?

Will a weaker euro lead to greater US investment in European startups?

Image Credits: Nigel Sussman (opens in a new window)

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, pandemic supply chain issues, and the looming recession are dragging down the euro’s value, but there could be a silver lining for European startups.

Besides helping them make more money from selling to the U.S., a stronger dollar could encourage U.S. investors on the fence to invest across the pond, suggest Alex Wilhelm and Anna Heim in The Exchange.

“U.S. dealmakers on the fence may find a stronger dollar to be a nudge toward conviction, if not enough to truly change behavior.”

Will a weaker euro lead to greater US investment in European startups?

6 first-time fund managers detail how they’re preparing to thrive during the downturn

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Image Credits: Stephen Swintek (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

According to PitchBook, 270 new venture funds raised a total of $16.8 billion in 2021. Twelve months later, the managers of those funds are trying to make sense of a changed landscape where the old rules no longer apply.

To learn more about how their strategies and tactics have evolved, Rebecca Szkutak interviewed these first-time fund managers:

  • Giuseppe Stuto, co-founder and managing partner, 186 Ventures
  • Ariana Thacker, solo GP and founder, Conscience VC
  • Leslie Feinzaig, founder and CEO, Graham & Walker
  • Tom Ferguson, GP and managing partner, Burnt Island Ventures
  • Rex Salisbury, GP and founding partner, Cambrian
  • Marco DeMeireles and Allan Jean-Baptiste, co-founders and GPs, Ansa Capital

https://techcrunch.com/2022/08/04/6-first-time-fund-managers-detail-how-theyre-preparing-to-thrive-during-the-downturn/

Pitch Deck Teardown: Glambook’s $2.5 million seed deck

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Image Credits: Glambook (opens in a new window)

This summer, Glambook, a booking platform that aims to become the “Uber for the beauty industry” raised $2.5 million at a $12 million valuation.

To help TechCrunch+ readers understand why Glambook’s pitch helped seal the deal, Haje Jan Kamps tears down their 19-slide deck, depicting a company that’s rapidly gaining traction in a “market that is bigger than you think.”

Pitch Deck Teardown: Glambook’s $2.5 million seed deck

More TechCrunch

TechCrunch Disrupt, our flagship startup event held annually in San Francisco, is back on October 28-30 — and you can expect a bustling crowd of thousands of startup enthusiasts. Exciting…

Startup Blueprint: TC Disrupt 2024 Builders Stage agenda sneak peek!

Mike Krieger, one of the co-founders of Instagram and, more recently, the co-founder of personalized news app Artifact (which TechCrunch corporate parent Yahoo recently acquired), is joining Anthropic as the…

Anthropic hires Instagram co-founder as head of product

Seven orgs so far have signed on to standardize the way data is collected and shared.

Venture orgs form alliance to standardize data collection

As cloud adoption continues to surge towards the $1 trillion mark in annual spend, we’re seeing a wave of enterprise startups gaining traction with customers and investors for tools to…

Alkira connects with $100M for a solution that connects your clouds

Charging has long been the Achilles’ heel of electric vehicles. One startup thinks it has a better way for apartment dwelling EV drivers to charge overnight.

Orange Charger thinks a $750 outlet will solve EV charging for apartment dwellers

So did investors laugh them out of the room when they explained how they wanted to replace Quickbooks? Kind of.

Embedded accounting startup Layer secures $2.3M toward goal of replacing Quickbooks

While an increasing number of companies are investing in AI, many are struggling to get AI-powered projects into production — much less delivering meaningful ROI. The challenges are many. But…

Weka raises $140M as the AI boom bolsters data platforms

PayHOA, a previously bootstrapped Kentucky-based startup that offers software for self-managed homeowner associations (HOAs), is an example of how real-world problems can translate into opportunity. It just raised a $27.5…

Meet PayHOA, a profitable and once-bootstrapped SaaS startup that just landed a $27.5M Series A

Restaurant365, which offers a restaurant management suite, has raised a hot $175M from ICONIQ Growth, KKR and L Catterton.

Restaurant365 orders in $175M at $1B+ valuation to supersize its food service software stack 

Venture firm Shilling has launched a €50M fund to support growth-stage startups in its own portfolio and to invest in startups everywhere else. 

Portuguese VC firm Shilling launches €50M opportunity fund to back growth-stage startups

Chang She, previously the VP of engineering at Tubi and a Cloudera veteran, has years of experience building data tooling and infrastructure. But when She began working in the AI…

LanceDB, which counts Midjourney as a customer, is building databases for multimodal AI

Trawa simplifies energy purchasing and management for SMEs by leveraging an AI-powered platform and downstream data from customers. 

Berlin-based trawa raises €10M to use AI to make buying renewable energy easier for SMEs

Lydia is splitting itself into two apps — Lydia for P2P payments and Sumeria for those looking for a mobile-first bank account.

Lydia, the French payments app with 8 million users, launches mobile banking app Sumeria

Cargo ships docking at a commercial port incur costs called “disbursements” and “port call expenses.” This might be port dues, towage, and pilotage fees. It’s a complex patchwork and all…

Shipping logistics startup Harbor Lab raises $16M Series A led by Atomico

AWS has confirmed its European “sovereign cloud” will go live by the end of 2025, enabling greater data residency for the region.

AWS confirms will launch European ‘sovereign cloud’ in Germany by 2025, plans €7.8B investment over 15 years

Go Digit, an Indian insurance startup, has raised $141 million from investors including Goldman Sachs, ADIA, and Morgan Stanley as part of its IPO.

Indian insurance startup Go Digit raises $141M from anchor investors ahead of IPO

Peakbridge intends to invest in between 16 and 20 companies, investing around $10 million in each company. It has made eight investments so far.

Food VC Peakbridge has new $187M fund to transform future of food, like lab-made cocoa

For over six decades, the nonprofit has been active in the financial services sector.

Accion’s new $152.5M fund will back financial institutions serving small businesses globally

Meta’s newest social network, Threads, is starting its own fact-checking program after piggybacking on Instagram and Facebook’s network for a few months.

Threads finally starts its own fact-checking program

Looking Glass makes trippy-looking mixed-reality screens that make things look 3D without the need of special glasses. Today, it launches a pair of new displays, including a 16-inch mode that…

Looking Glass launches new 3D displays

Replacing Sutskever is Jakub Pachocki, OpenAI’s director of research.

Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI co-founder and longtime chief scientist, departs

Intuitive Machines made history when it became the first private company to land a spacecraft on the moon, so it makes sense to adapt that tech for Mars.

Intuitive Machines wants to help NASA return samples from Mars

As Google revamps itself for the AI era, offering AI overviews within its search results, the company is introducing a new way to filter for just text-based links. With the…

Google adds ‘Web’ search filter for showing old-school text links as AI rolls out

Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket will take a crew to suborbital space for the first time in nearly two years later this month, the company announced on Tuesday.  The NS-25…

Blue Origin to resume crewed New Shepard launches on May 19

This will enable developers to use the on-device model to power their own AI features.

Google is building its Gemini Nano AI model into Chrome on the desktop

It ran 110 minutes, but Google managed to reference AI a whopping 121 times during Google I/O 2024 (by its own count). CEO Sundar Pichai referenced the figure to wrap…

Google mentioned ‘AI’ 120+ times during its I/O keynote

Firebase Genkit is an open source framework that enables developers to quickly build AI into new and existing applications.

Google launches Firebase Genkit, a new open source framework for building AI-powered apps

In the coming months, Google says it will open up the Gemini Nano model to more developers.

Patreon and Grammarly are already experimenting with Gemini Nano, says Google

As part of the update, Reddit also launched a dedicated AMA tab within the web post composer.

Reddit introduces new tools for ‘Ask Me Anything,’ its Q&A feature

Here are quick hits of the biggest news from the keynote as they are announced.

Google I/O 2024: Here’s everything Google just announced