So, true story. Over the weekend I was talking to someone about restaurant robotics. It’s a concept people often have trouble visualizing — and understandably so. Among other things, there’s really no commonly accepted form factor in a category that sometimes is literally a robot arm flipping hamburgers. My short response was, “they’re large kiosks […]
Google has explored storefronts for a while now. Here’s a pop-up in Manhattan’s SoHo district that we took a trip to some four+ years back. But the company’s own branded retail experience has been fairly limited — unsurprising, given that it has always been a software company first. This summer, however, the company is joining […]
Alongside news that Twitter is relaunching its account verification system to the public, the company previewed a slate of changes that will soon come to Twitter profiles. In addition to your name, photo, banner, bio and other features available today, the new Twitter profile will include an “About” tab that appears to the left of […]
The coveted blue badge may soon be within your reach. Twitter announced today it will begin rolling out its new verification application system, which allows public figures and other accounts of high public interest to distinguish themselves with a checkmark that indicates they are who they say they are — like a government official, journalist, […]
Firefly Aerospace may be developing rockets of its own, but it’s also simultaneously building Blue Ghost, its first lunar lander. Blue Ghost will hop a ride with a rocket from a different launch company — SpaceX — in 2023, the companies announced today. While Firefly Aerospace is in the process of developing its own launch […]
Spotify is further expanding into audiobooks — but not in the way you may think. The company today announced a new partnership with audiobooks platform Storytel, which will allow existing Storytel subscribers to connect their account through Spotify to access their audiobooks within Spotify’s app. The partnership is the first notable example of what’s possible […]
Local news has been battered over the past two decades. The rise of the internet shredded some of the long-held monopolies of newspapers and local TV stations on news and classified ads, while social networks like Facebook, Nextdoor and Citizen have increasingly pulled in reader attention for neighborhood updates. Newspapers have closed, journalists have been […]
Don’t let an imagined future state of regret drive a decision to launch or fund a new venture. Trends present real opportunities, but founders and investors should engage with caution.
Workrise, which has built a workforce management platform for the skilled trades, announced today that it has raised $300 million in a Series E round led by U.K.-based Baillie Gifford that values the company at $2.9 billion. New investor Franklin Templeton joined existing backers — including Founders Fund, Bedrock Capital, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Moore Strategic […]
Trees, those deciduous entities you can occasionally see outdoors when not locked down or strapped down at a desktop ruminating on a video call, have long been the inspiration for fresh new ideas. Stories abound of how founders built companies while walking the foothills in Silicon Valley or around parks in San Francisco, and yet, […]
Ford Motor Company and Seoul, South Korea-based SK Innovation signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a joint venture to domestically manufacture batteries for electric vehicles, the two companies said Thursday. The new venture, dubbed BlueOvalSK, will produce around 60 GWh annually starting mid-decade. The MOU is the latest sign that Ford intends to vertically develop […]
Powerpoint may still dominate the landscape for presentations in many people’s minds, but some might say that legacy status also makes Microsoft’s software ripe for disruption. Now, a startup out of Berlin called Pitch has just picked up a substantial Series B of $85 million to take it on with what it believes is a […]
Maven, a startup that helps professionals teach cohort-based classes, has raised $20 million in a Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz. The round places A16z general partner Andrew Chen on Maven’s board – and is his latest lead check in a creator-focused company, similarly pouring millions into recent rounds for Clubhouse and Substack. The […]
HP today announced a series of ambitious goals aimed at driving “a more diverse, equitable and inclusive” tech industry. The tech giant, of course, is not the first company to have made strong claims about its intentions around diversity. As former TC reporter Megan Rose Dickey reported extensively, diversity and inclusion as an idea has […]
If you’ve ever been self-employed you know what a pain it is to keep up with the hassles of running a business. From bookkeeping to invoicing to paying taxes — it’s one big headache. Freelancers and self-employed people often turn to a number of different solutions to try and address different aspects of running their […]
Pour one out for Internet Explorer, the long-enduring internet browser that’s been the butt of countless jokes about its speed, reliability, and probably most notable of all, security, which will retire next year after more than 25 years of service. Microsoft said it will pull the plug on the browser’s life support in June 2022, […]
When Privacy.com was founded in 2014, the company’s focus was to let anyone generate virtual and disposable payment card numbers for free. The goal was to allow those users to keep users’ actual credit card numbers safe while allowing the option to cut off companies from their bank accounts. In an age of near-constant data […]
TikTok today is introducing a feature that will allow creators to deal with online abuse in an easier way. The company is launching new tools that will allow creators to bulk delete comments and block users, instead of having to moderate comments one-by-one. The update may be somewhat controversial, as it allows creators to curate […]
GPS is one of those science fiction technologies whose use is effortless for the end user and endlessly challenging for the engineers who design it. It’s now at the heart of modern life: everything from Amazon package deliveries to our cars and trucks to our walks through national parks are centered around a pin on […]
