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Beep boop, here we go again with another exciting week in tech. Next week is Disrupt, so the TechCrunch Slack watercooler is full of sartorial advice, much to our surprise and confusion.
Oh, and Haje has written more than 20 Pitch Deck Teardowns over on TC+ — and he’s running low on decks to review. Surely he hasn’t scared everyone away quite yet? Here’s a bit more info about what he’s looking for, and instructions for how you can submit your pitch deck for review!
See you tomorrow, dear friends! — Christine and Haje
Following suit: Today we have another installment of The OG App news. This time Ivan reports that Google also removed it from the Play Store. You might recall that The OG was promising an ad-free Instagram experience. After Meta said an app like that violated its policies, Apple made the first move and removed it a few weeks ago.
The day has finally come: Hulu raised its subscription prices today, reports Lauren.
It’s a trap!: “If risks to the software supply chain aren’t a boardroom priority yet, they soon will be,” Endor Labs’ co-founder Varun Badhwar told Kyle. The software supply chain startup emerged from stealth today with $25 million to continue developing its graph analysis tech for learning how dependencies are being used within an organization and creating the appropriate risk indicators.
“The crude analogy I’ve been using internally is last year was the party and this year is the hangover. That’s really how it feels to me — that we’re starting to understand the excesses of last year,” says Mark Goldberg of Index Ventures in an interview, featured in Mary Ann’s The Interchange newsletter. “We’ve seen now the retrenchment period after the fact. At Index, we’re probably more aggressively investing in what we think the next generation of fintech companies is going to be right now.”
Cloud kitchens became popular during the global pandemic as a way for restaurants to reach their communities when people were not going out as much. One of those was Foodology, a Colombia-based cloud kitchen and virtual restaurant company, which just raised $50 million, Christine reports.
And we have five more for you:
Hungry like the wolf ♬: The fates of agriculture and climate change are inextricably linked. Harri explores how the climate crisis is shaping investors’ strategies.
Seek and destroy ♬: Kyle reports that Meilisearch lands a $15 million investment to grow its “search-as-a-service” business.
I can see clearly now the rain is gone ♬: Kyle also reports that Trendsi secured $25 million to help sellers and manufacturers predict demand.
Remember what the dormouse said ♬: Clerkenwell Health raises £2.1 million to test the new wave of psychedelics treatments, reports Mike.
Our house, in the middle of our street ♬: And finally, Anita reports that real estate investing app Fintor raised $6.2 million at an $80 million valuation.
Image Credits: Guido Mieth (opens in a new window) / Getty Images
“Growth hacking” may not be the best phrase to describe the work required to fine-tune marketing campaigns and systems. In truth, successful marketers iterate constantly, measuring and testing efforts to minimize waste and maximize ROI.
“If each test can result in a 1% improvement, you’re well on your way to 100% improvement after running 100 tests,” writes Jonathan Martinez, a self-described “marketing nerd” who has driven growth at Uber, Postmates and Chime.
The best way to uncover marketing hacks is by using “stringent experimentation frameworks to run countless A/B tests,” advises Martinez, who shares a RICE (reach, impact, confidence and effort) scoring spreadsheet, along with his thoughts on acquisition and activation growth hacking.
“It’s important to remember there’s no such thing as hacking growth. Instead, you should be thinking about how you can run 100 tests to move the needle forward.”
Growth hacking is really just growth testing
Three more from the TC+ team:
The spice doth flow: Fears of climate tech underinvestment are probably overblown, writes Tim.
Facepalming pretty hard over here: If you can’t use your EV as an EV due to a recall, automakers shouldn’t get to count it toward fleetwide fuel economy, argues Tim.
Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match: Could corporates be good matchmakers for startups and VCs? Becca explores this question.
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!
When one Florida company demanded its employee turn on a webcam during the workday so said company could monitor their work, it learned the hard way that hiring someone from overseas and performing video surveillance was in violation of European human rights policies. Haje has more on what happened.
ICYMI over the weekend, Twitter locked Kanye West’s account following an antisemitic tweet, Taylor reported. And this was apparently after Elon Musk tweeted a welcome to Ye, who tweeted that he had been removed from Instagram.
And we have five more for you:
License to grow: Paul reports that Samsung confirmed a licensing agreement with Tizen OS and the first smart TV products birthed from the deal will come out in Europe and Australasia this year.
Crash detected: We enjoyed Brian’s deep dive into how Apple tested its crash-detection feature. Good news, if you drop the phone, it won’t register as a crash. Now, roller coasters, that’s a different story.
Quick find: YouTube introduced @username handles so that creators could more easily direct viewers to their channels, reports Sarah.
It’s time to take a photo: Sarah also reported that BeReal’s installs topped 53 million installs since the beginning of the year, but only 9% open the app every day.
Going in blind: If you want a taste of the “Ted Lasso” blind-dating experience, Bumble is bringing it to you with its new Bantr feature, Lauren writes.
'The Late Late Show' host James Corden has been accused of 'nasty behavior' toward staff at New York's Balthazar. The restaurant's owner had enough.
"I strongly believe in second chances," Keith McNally wrote on Instagram, explaining that James Corden will no longer be banned from his restaurant
The list of critics and detractors of Mark Zuckerberg is growing day by day. There is, of course, the financial community, analysts and investors, who are merciless about Meta Platforms , the entrepreneur's empire of social networks. Zuckerberg's strategy is what unites all these critics.
As I Lay Dying frontman Tim Lambesis reflects on hiring a hitman to kill his ex-wife: "I lost myself, I lost my way, and I sat there in a cell being, like, How did I become this person?"
Disbelief colors Kim Petras’ voice when asked about her reaction to the global success of “Unholy.” After searching for the right words, she lands on “fever dream.” While the reality of having the biggest song in the world might not have sunk in yet, the numbers don’t lie. In addition to being No. 1 on […]
Yeah…queen.View Entire Post ›
Heidi Klum is celebrating a big milestone on Instagram, but she’s not doing it with balloons or confetti. She found a much sexier way to honor hitting 10 million followers on the social media platform: hot-pink lingerie. The 49-year-old supermodel posted an Instagram Reel that might take the cake for being one of her popular […]
As Cuomo tried to explain to Ye what was wrong with his rhetoric, the rapper broke out into a childish, “La la la la la la,” to avoid hearing what Cuomo had to say.
Country icon Loretta Lynn died Tuesday in her home in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee, at the age of 90, according to an Associated Press report. Find Out: How Rich Is Meghan Markle?Explore: Your Biggest…
A video of a 12-year-old boy crying in frustration as his 9-year-old sister refuses to let him teach her math has gone viral on Chinese social media. According to Chinese news outlets, the viral moment occurred on Oct. 11 in the siblings’ home in Anshan, China. Zhong shares that her son volunteered to help his younger sister with her math homework after seeing their mother grow upset with her.
Jason Aldean spurred on his feud with Maren Morris at a concert over the weekend.
The Duchess of Sussex welcomed Paris Hilton to break down the "bimbo" stereotype in a new episode of her Archetypes podcast
Nearly a week after taking a dig at Texas Senator Ted Cruz during her set at the festival's first weekend, Musgraves welcomed the Lone Star State's current gubernatorial candidate to the stage
Heidi Klum celebrated 10 million Instagram followers by eating cake from her crotch, because why wouldn't you?
Elon Musk reportedly believed that ex-partner Grimes (real name: Claire Elise Boucher) was a "simulation" that he'd created in his mind.
Kai Gerber donned a sheer turtleneck top and long draped skirt by Alaïa at the event — and had fans doing a double take
Twitter user @MikeBradleyMKE shared a now-viral video in which he pushes his cart through a Wisconsin grocery store's never-ending frozen pizza section.
Dua Lipa attended the Vogue Forces of Fashion Conference with British Vogue and wore a strapless top, long tailored pants, and long, sheer opera gloves.
It’s clear that in the past year, Denise Richards has really shown off her confident spirit and toned body at any chance she has. We love seeing her embrace her sexuality, and sharing show-stopping photos for her fans to see. We’ve seen her rock super colorful swimsuits and plunging gowns, all of which have made […]
Oscar winner Will Smith served as producer in the 2010 remake of "The Karate Kid." It starred his son Jaden Smith, as well as Jackie Chan and Taraji P. Henson.