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Folks, we’ve got some really sad news for you. The weekend is here, which means that you have to stop working for a couple days. We know, it’s a tragedy. But don’t worry, Monday is only two short weekend days away, and then you can get back to the grindstone.
Black History Month continues! Originally published in 1975, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf is a magnificent, passionate, and fearless story of what it meant to be a woman of color in the 20th century. Well worth a read — or seek it out onstage!
Much love and hugs and such, Christine and Haje
The TechCrunch Top 3
- Money, money, money…must be funny: Warner Bros. Discovery revealed that it lost another $2.1 billion in the fourth quarter. This is despite the success of shows like “The Last of Us” on HBO and games like “Hogwarts Legacy.” Lauren explains more.
- Fashion layoffs: Secondhand apparel marketplace Poshmark is now laying off employees just two months after being acquired by Naver, Kate reports.
- Another brick in the wall: Ron explains why a possible U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit over competition could derail the pending $20 billion Adobe-Figma deal.
Startups and VC
The truth of the matter is that Mobile World Congress (MWC) was never a consumer tech show, per se, but the participation of various smartphone makers transformed it into a handy launching pad. Brian explores in What we expect from MWC 2021.
In the face of conscripted co-founders and blacked-out bunkers, Ukraine’s tech industry marches on. Mike explores how, a year on from Russia’s invasion, Ukrainian startups show astounding resilience.
And we have five more for you:
- Pay, pay pay: Telecom giant Airtel eyes a stake in Paytm, by Manish.
- Buy, buy, buy: Rebuy is out to change the customer buying experience, one personalization at a time, Christine reports.
- Deb, dev, dev: Alchemy launches a tool that enables devs to start building dApps within 4 minutes, Jacquelyn reports.
- Ai, ai, AI: Natasha L reports how Voicemod tools up with $14.5 million to ride the generative AI (sonic)boom.
- Pic, pic, pic: South Africa’s Envisionit Deep AI gets $1.65 million to expand access to medical imaging, reports Annie.
5 questions emerging managers should ask before selecting LPs
Before an emerging manager can start backing startups, they’ll first need to earn the trust of limited partners who are willing to bet on their investment thesis.
“Each step up the decision-making ladder increases the risk of dismissal, lost information or miscommunication, which can be mitigated if you can get in front of the decision-makers early on,” says Linda Greub, co-founder and managing partner of Avestria Ventures.
Drawing from her own experience, Greub shares five questions emerging managers can use “to find the investors most likely to believe in you.”
Three more from the TC+ team:
- Pass the chips: Kate asks, How are global chipmakers preparing for the US-China chip war?
- RIP, unicorns: Alex wonders, When do we reach the unicorn death cliff?
- Moar chains: Jacquelyn explores how Coinbase’s layer-2 blockchain may help expand scaling on Ethereum.
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.
A new hacker group going by the name CH01 defaced Russian websites to have them display a video of the Kremlin on fire. Lorenzo has more.
Google One subscribers can rejoice over this news that they now have access to Google Photos’ new AI-powered “Magic Eraser” that will remove unwanted content from images, Sarah reports.
We have a treat for you: six stories instead of five:
- Break on through to the other side…of the world: Get ready, Australia and New Zealand, Meta Verified is coming your way, Ivan reports.
- Here comes the sun…tech: Kirsten writes that Sono Motors shut down its Sion EV and will instead focus on its solar tech business.
- Or I will attack, and you don’t want that…in your AI: Can AI really be protected from text-based attacks? That’s what Kyle wants to find out.
- Xiaomi killed the video star: Xiaomi, creator of the short-video app Zili, announced it was shutting down in March “due to an operational adjustment,” Jagmeet reports.
- Come together, right now…over e-commerce: Amazon joined an India-backed e-commerce initiative that interestingly enough was challenging the retail giant’s seeming monopoly in the market, Manish writes.
- You can’t do that: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission wrote a letter to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in New York stating that Elon Musk still needs a lawyer to approve his tweets. Rebecca has more.
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Christine Hall