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Thanks for subscribing to Startups Weekly. This week, I’m taking my mother and father to Yosemite to discover the snowy peaks and to see if my automotive can deal with snow. In lieu of an everyday Startups Weekly, I figured I’d dive in and provide you with a reminder of a few of the largest startup tales from 2024 — each on TechCrunch and our subscription sibling TechCrunch+.
Listed below are a few of the largest themes which have echoed all through the startup ecosystem in 2023.
Crime and punishment
Picture Credit: Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch
Among the largest startup tales on TechCrunch in 2023 have been associated to the deeds and misdeeds of these within the ecosystem.
By far one among our most-read tales this yr was the homicide of Bob Lee, greatest generally known as the creator of Money App and former CTO of Square. He was tragically killed in a stabbing incident in San Francisco, within the in any other case often quiet Monetary District. Rolling Stone picked up the story from there, digging into who Bob Lee and his alleged assassin have been.
The different massive story was the trial of Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes. She is now serving a jail sentence of 11 years and three months after being indicted for wire fraud in a scheme to defraud buyers. Theranos, as soon as valued at $10 billion, promised revolutionary blood testing know-how however was uncovered in 2015 for its nonfunctional know-how, which posed well being dangers to sufferers. The subsequent unraveling of Theranos led to numerous lawsuits and government investigations. The case serves as a stark reminder of the results of fraudulent practices and that the “pretend it until you make it” strategy that may be prevalent amongst startups doesn’t at all times work out.
The different massive “hmm, possibly you shouldn’t have executed that” serial story of the yr was the Sam Bankman-Fried trial, which prolonged over 5 weeks. It turned out to be a spectacle of evasion and reminiscence lapses. The previous CEO of FTX faced the jury for several days, delivering an affidavit that was outstanding principally for its lack of substance. When cross-examined by prosecutors about his previous choices and actions, Bankman-Fried’s responses have been predominantly “Yup” (372 instances), “Unsure” (117 instances), and “I don’t bear in mind” (73 instances). He was found guilty on all seven charges of fraud and money laundering, and will likely be sentenced in March 2024. Across the identical time, there’ll seemingly be a second trial, with a bunch of further fees.
Extra from the courts and authorized methods:
It’s not simply the startups . . . : Former VC Mike Rothenberg, identified for internet hosting extravagant events, was convicted on 21 counts last month, together with for financial institution fraud, false statements, cash laundering, and wire fraud. The conviction brings his journey from a promising entrepreneur, launching a VC agency in 2013, to being a convicted fraudster to a detailed. He was initially charged with fraud by the SEC in 2018, which resulted him having to pay $31 million. Sentencing within the fraud case is scheduled for March.
I’m attempting to succeed in you about your prolonged guarantee: The FCC imposed a report $300 million high quality on a robocaller operation for scamming people with fake auto warranty sales. This operation made at the very least 5 billion calls.
The Swiss military knife for hackers: Flipper Zero, a multi-tool hacking gadget, is on track to achieve $80 million in sales this year, a major improve from its $25 million gross sales final yr. Began in 2020, the gadget can manipulate numerous methods like storage openers and RFID card methods.
The enjoyable and quirky
Picture Credit: Brian Heater
The world of startups wasn’t simply murders, fraud and shenanigans — a few of our most-read tales this yr have been much more lighthearted, thank goodness.
One of many highlights was Apple’s 31 new emojis — together with a shaking face for while you’re “shook” and a pink coronary heart as a result of, clearly, we’d like extra coronary heart colours. There are even two pushing palms that might imply “cease” or “excessive 5” — as a result of deciphering obscure hand gestures is what all of us wanted extra of. Need to spam your pals with a moose or a jellyfish? Apple had your back this year.
My different favorites within the more-or-less-quirky-news class:
[very recognizable drum riff]: MindGeek, the proprietor of grownup leisure websites equivalent to Pornhub, Brazzers, and RedTube, was acquired by Canadian private equity firm Ethical Capital Partners. The phrases of the deal weren’t disclosed.
Strap this laptop to your face: Apple’s new mixed-reality (XR) gadget made a major affect with its high-quality {hardware} and options. It boasts 24 million pixels throughout two panels and superior optics. It has brand-new chips to make sure clean efficiency with out judder or body drops, with correct eye monitoring and gesture management. Panzer tried it out, and I argued that the device would be a game-changer for startups operating in the space.
We’re getting a bit bored of Elon’s antics: In some unspecified time in the future, TechCrunch editor Darrell determined he had sufficient, and penned this piece — concluding that sufficient is sufficient.
The yr of AI
Picture Credit: Darrell Etherington with information from Getty underneath license
There will be little doubt that, above all, for higher and for worse, 2023 was the yr of AI.
OpenAI was on everyone’s lips. The company made GPT-4 universally available, which received everybody hella excited. It additionally gave ChatGPT the ability to browse the broader internet, which unlocked a world of performance and pleasure.
The darker aspect of AI received its time within the limelight as nicely. The development of AI porn mills, equivalent to Unstable Diffusion, has raised significant ethical and societal concerns. These mills, which have improved in creating extra lifelike and various photographs, are posing some new dangers — and continues to make the web extra poisonous, particularly for ladies (nearly all of deepfake pornography targets ladies and is commonly used as a software for harassment). We have been additionally profitable in tricking Lensa into generating NSFW content by placing crudely photoshopped pictures into its supply materials. In brief: maybe deepfakes-for-all is worse than we thought.
One other massive AI drama story of the yr was Sam Altman getting fired as OpenAI’s CEO. We put collectively an entire timeline, as a result of, goodness, that was fairly the saga.
From the desk of “didn’t see that coming”
Picture Credit: Nikolas Liepins/Anadolu Company / Getty Photos
If there’s one factor startups love doing, it’s throwing curveballs. This yr was no exception, and listed here are a handful of probably the most stunning ones:
A banking collapse: All the things was high quality one second, then immediately one of many largest startup banks — Silicon Valley Financial institution, or SVB amongst pals — took a nosedive. We put collectively a timeline of what happened, together with a wall of coverage and analysis. Enterprise debt was one of the big question marks post-collapse.
The DPReview saga: DPReview, a famend digital digital camera evaluation web site, was shut down by Amazon after 25 years of operation, earlier than Gear Patrol bought the property and revived it.
That submarine story: OceanGate attempting to dip all the way down to the Titanic and imploding within the course of was in every single place for a sizzling second. A whistleblower was fired in January 2018 after presenting a scathing quality-control report on the vessel to OceanGate’s senior administration, together with founder and CEO Stockton Rush — who later died onboard the submarine. We originally covered the company back in 2017 when it first revealed the plans to go 3D-scan the Titanic.
Is it a fowl? Is it a balloon?: Pathfinder 1 is an electrical airship that’s giving the Goodyear blimp a run for its cash. At 124.5 meters lengthy, it’s like the Hindenburg had a tech-savvy baby with a drone. With 12 electrical motors and a penchant for helium (considerably safer than its high-explosive, Hindenburg-exploding hydrogen counterpart), it’s set to beat the skies at a whopping 75 mph . . . ultimately.
Spherical after spherical after spherical of layoffs: Woof.
The most important hits from TC+
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My well-liked Pitch Deck Teardown series is as much as greater than 75 pattern pitch decks, full with evaluation for what’s working and what ain’t. And, after all, there’s oodles of further superb content material too. Right here’s a handful of tales you might have missed:
From cloud to on-premise: After a decade of cloud transformations, refined enterprises at the moment are growing hybrid strategies to support critical data science initiatives, transferring away from unique reliance on cloud computing and bringing workloads again to on-premises methods.
The evolution of layoffs: Again in July, we checked out how the era of tech layoffs was evolving, noting that whereas it was not over, it was dropping a few of its depth and was growing into its personal distinctive pattern.
Stage applicable over perfection: Startups should focus on creating minimal viable merchandise which can be laser-focused on answering particular questions, fairly than attempting to scale too shortly, losing sources within the course of.
Hey, OpenAI, generate a advertising and marketing technique: On this case examine, we confirmed how using OpenAI for generating marketing strategies led to vital enhancements in search engine optimisation rating on Google, leading to a considerable improve in web site visitors, area ranking, and backlinks in lower than a yr.
Construct on another person’s tech and get burned: An replace on OpenAI’s ChatGPT allowed for PDF uploads. That was a spanner in the work for startups, particularly these constructed round a characteristic hole in ChatGPT. It underscored the vulnerability of such companies to modifications in underlying applied sciences.
Development is tough: The previous CEO of PlanGrid reflected on key mistakes they made whereas main the corporate to $100 million in annual recurring income, providing insights to assist different founders keep away from comparable pitfalls.
Setting the stage for a battery gold rush: Volkswagen’s breakthrough in lithium-ion battery technology may considerably affect the automotive business, particularly because it grapples with elevated prices because of inflation and provide chain points.
F you, pay me: If an investor tells you to not take a wage after you’ve raised VC funding, tell them to go do something anatomically strenuous.
One of the best laid plans of mice and males: We look at the evolution of fintech over the previous decade, wanting on several hyped fintech ideas that ultimately failed to transform the monetary providers business as supposed.
To distant or to not distant: We regarded on the shift in distant work startups, the place preliminary enthusiasm for dedicated remote work tools has waned, as corporations have tailored to a hybrid work mannequin fairly than a purely distant one, resulting in challenges for startups targeted solely on distant work options.
Right here’s why your pitch deck sucks: Within the yr of AI, I constructed a software that analyzes startup pitch decks (due to course I did — why wouldn’t I construct a software that places me out of enterprise) and located a ton of interesting data about what startup founders get wrong after they create pitch decks.
Oh, and since I simply know you’re loopy curious: The featured picture of this submit was taken with an iPhone 14 Professional Max. I created the bauble utilizing the Circular Name Ornament creator from Cuttle Labs, together with a Glowforge Aura. After I reviewed the entry-level laser cutter from Glowforge in July, I made a decision that I simply needed to have one. As a result of, nicely, what sort of nerd would I be if I didn’t set shit on hearth on a semi-regular foundation.
Completely satisfied New 12 months — see y’all in 2024!
