Category: Apps

The potential value a celebrity investor can bring to a consumer company, beyond just writing a check, is obvious: marketing and promotion. But that value is less clear when it comes to backing B2B startups. Alex Pall and Drew Taggart, also known as the Chainsmokers, think their VC fund Mantis VC can bring a value…

Startups are 16-times more likely to get acquired than to IPO. Here’s how to decide when o cash out. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. ​ Part of the mythology of Silicon Valley is the committed founder driving the company to a blockbuster IPO. In reality, startups are 16 times more…

Perplexity, the AI-powered search engine, might hallucinate from time to time. But the company wants to show that it’s trustworthy enough to use for tracking election results. Today, Perplexity announced a dedicated hub for U.S. general election information. Populated by data from The Associated Press and Democracy Works, the company described it in a blog…

SpaceX will attempt to transfer propellant from one orbiting Starship to another as early as next March, a technical milestone that will pave the way for an uncrewed landing demonstration of a Starship on the moon, a NASA official said this week.  Much has been made of Starship’s potential to transform the commercial space industry,…

Two of the biggest forces in two deeply intertwined tech ecosystems — large incumbents and startups — have taken a break from counting their money to jointly plead that the government cease and desist from even pondering regulations that might affect their financial interests, or as they like to call it, innovation. “Our two companies…

A Philadelphia judge ordered X CEO Elon Musk to appear in a hearing Thursday morning over his super PAC’s plan to award $1 million a day to voters in key battleground states. But Musk skipped his courthouse appointment after the same judge granted a request to transfer the case from Pennsylvania state to federal jurisdiction.…

Indonesia has banned sales of Google Pixel smartphones for failing to meet domestic content requirements, days after blocking Apple’s iPhone 16 in Southeast Asia’s largest phone market. The Indonesian Ministry of Industry said Google’s phones cannot be traded until they comply with rules requiring 40% local content in smartphones sold in Indonesia. Google must obtain…

For startups that hope to save the world, or at least make it a better place, balancing impact with profit can be tricky. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. ​ For startups that hope to save the world, or at least make it a better place, balancing impact with profit can…

Buying a home has always been complicated. You have to figure out how much money to put down and how that down payment will affect a monthly mortgage bill. Then there are the closing costs and fees. Kevin Bennett launched Further to try to help make the financial process easier to navigate — especially for first-time…

Two mobile operating systems currently comprise nearly 100% of the global smartphone market. Building one is hard, and for most phone makers, there are better uses of resources, especially when Android is right there for the taking. While it’s a potential differentiator, these companies have largely opted to maintain Google’s mobile OS, customized by skins and…