TechCrunch Disrupt 2023
TechCrunch Disrupt 2023 is held in San Francisco from September 19-21, featuring speakers from Anthropic, Boston Dynamics, Airbnb, Greylock and yes, Shaq. The Startup Battlefield 200 competition makes its return with a new class of competitors, and there are plenty of events beyond the convention itself to keep you informed and entertained.
Travelsist hopes its air travel concierge will take off from Atlanta
Founded by a former flight attendant, Atlanta-based startup Travelsist and its Travelsistants provides assistance to travelers on behalf of airports and airlines.
US security remains paramount in the continued rise of AI, according to Treasury Department secretary
As investments grow globally, there’s still a concern stateside for security and making sure the U.S. protects its businesses.
Featured Article
Not everyone is fond of venture debt
To understand the issue with venture debt, it is important to note that the devil is often in the details — or in this case, in the contract terms.
Accessercise’s app makes it easier for people with disabilities to exercise
Accessercise, which developed a fitness app for people who want to exercise despite their disabilities, was one of the Startup Battlefield 200 finalists at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023.
Featured Article
How founders should approach TAM when venture capital is scarce
We’re definitely in a down market, but for entrepreneurs eager to build and scale, venture capital is always scarce.
If you haven’t found traction with customers and aren’t generating revenue, you should be in fundraising mode already.
3 VCs weigh in on when to follow the hype cycle — and when to ignore it
It’s OK for a founder to jump into an emerging hype cycle, but only if they have a genuine interest in that area that reaches back in time.
Employee liquidity isn’t a myth, but it isn’t easy to provide either
There are many ways startups can build a program to allow their staff to take some early liquidity.
TC Startup Battlefield master class with Flourish Ventures: Defining early-stage product-market fit
Flourish Ventures’ Emmalyn Shaw explains how early-stage startups can define, test, pivot and successfully figure out their product-market fit.
Featured Article
TechCrunch+ Roundup: SBF’s trial opens, Series A tips, how to roll out AI features
If someone wants to advise you on “storytelling,” you have my permission to skip that meeting and work on your data room instead.
Beams helps product teams shine a light on the work that matters most
Beams’ co-founders Jana Schellong and Mihri Minaz see a fundamental problem with how product teams work. While they have productivity tools that are supposed to help them work smarter, too…
Three investors shared their perspectives on what’s changed, what’s working today, and what advice they’re giving founders at this year’s TechCrunch Disrupt.
Featured Article
A tale of two research institutes
If you’re lucky, once a year you get to put together a panel built on pure kismet. Pairing Gill Pratt with Marc Raibert was exactly that for me. The two go back several decades, to the salad days of MIT’s Leg Lab. [A version of this story originally appeared in TechCrunch’s robotics newsletter, Actuator. Subscribe…
Ask Sophie: What are your top immigration tips from TechCrunch Disrupt 2023?
I wasn’t able to make it to TechCrunch Disrupt this year. What were your main immigration takeaways for founders and startups?
Pilot is a social travel hub that uses AI to help you plan, book and share trips
Pilot, a Vancouver-based startup, wants to become “the hub of global travel experience” and connect people via travel.
Being is an app that wants to help users map out and address mental health concerns
Being, a Delaware-based startup, is on a mission to scale its mental health app, which aims to help users create a map of their concerns to better navigate their everyday…
Blend uses generative AI to give you a personalized clothing guide
Shopping for clothing online has liberated us from the need to brave the endless aisles, fluorescent lights and sale-hungry crowds of the brick-and-mortar retail inferno. But anyone who has found…
KSOC says it’s tackling cloud-native security in a way that is Kubernetes-first
The take-up of Kubernetes, a tool for managing containerized workloads, is only expected to increase as demand for cloud-native architectures and containerization continues. In terms of security, this can mean…
This startup wants to verify your ID without storing your personal data
As government and banking services move away from verifying identities in the real world, moving toward online ID verification, several companies have entered the market to solve this problem. A…
TC Startup Battlefield master class with Canvas Ventures: Creating strategic defensibility as an early-stage startup
Canvas Ventures’ Mike Ghaffary outlines the important components of defensibility, the key strategic advantage buckets, and how startups can stay competitive.
Featured Article
Travel wheelchair Revolve Air launches on Kickstarter
Revolve Air, a travel wheelchair that can fold to cabin luggage size, is now available for pre-orders on Kickstarter at a cost of $4,999.
Atlassian CTO: We were late moving to the cloud, on the ball with AI
The goal of Atlassian’s CTO, Rajeev Rajan, and that of the two CEOs is to create one of the top tech companies at the world.
Open Robotics’ ROS is safe despite Alphabet buying OSRC, says Intrinsic
The acquisition of Open Robotics received a mixed reception across the industry. “The aim of Intrinsic is to democratize the access to robotics,” says Wendy Tan White, CEO of Intrinsic.
Featured Article
Why Solana, Polygon and Aptos expect the enterprise to drive mass adoption
As large enterprises enter the crypto space, there’s potential for “not only millions of users, but billions of users using web3 without even realizing it.”
Network or no, startup founders are increasingly having to figure out sources of financing that’s not venture capital.
Agility Robotics: Our robot won’t be armed or take your jobs
Agility Robotics will soon be able to make 10,000 bipedal humanoid robots per year and claims it is creating jobs rather than taking them from humans.
Featured Article
Why the public sector is an easy target for ransomware
We’re on track for 2023 to be a record-breaking year for ransomware attacks targeting the U.S. public sector. These attacks, which include both traditional encrypt-and-extort and newer data theft-only attacks, know the public sector is an easy target: It’s no secret that local governments have small IT budgets and limited cybersecurity resources. At the same…
Meta says separate account deletion for Threads will roll out by December
After launching its text-based social network Threads in July, Meta faced criticism as there was no way for users to delete their Threads account without deleting their Instagram account. The…
Rick Fox wants his concrete startup’s carbon credits to subsidize down payments for homeowners
Plenty of companies sell carbon credits, but Rick Fox wants to use them to help lower the cost of acquiring a home made of Partanna’s concrete blocks.
Signal’s Meredith Whittaker: AI is fundamentally ‘a surveillance technology’
Why is it that so many companies that rely on monetizing the data of their users seem to be extremely hot on AI? If you ask Signal president Meredith Whittaker…
