Atlanta-based Cardlytics made its public debut on Friday, closing the day at $13.37, just a little above the IPO price of $13. The company sold 5.4 million shares, raising $70 million. Cardlytics works with financial institutions like Bank of America and 2,000 others to run cash back programs. It partners with brands across restaurant, retail, travel, grocery and home subscription categories… Read More
February 9, 2018
YouTube will remove ads and downgrade discoverability of channels posting offensive videos via @TechCrunch
After barring Logan Paul earlier today from serving ads on his video channel, YouTube has now announced a more formal and wider set of sanctions it’s prepared to level on any creator that starts to post videos that are harmful to viewers, others in the YouTube community, or advertisers. As it has done with Paul (on two occasions now), the site said it will remove monetization options on… Read More
Weekend Hashtag Project: #WHPwithlove Weekend Hashtag Project… via #Instagram Blog
Weekend Hashtag Project: #WHPwithlove Weekend Hashtag Project is a series featuring designated themes and hashtags chosen by Instagram’s Community Team. For a chance to be featured on the Instagram blog, follow @instagram and look for a post every week announcing the latest project. Love is in the air. ? In honor of Valentine’s Day, celebrated around the world on February 14, the goal this weekend is to create photos and videos showing how love inspires you, as in this featured photo from @shibainu.berry. Come together to connect with loved ones. (Humans and furry friends alike!) If you can’t be with them IRL, find a creative way to include them with a printed photo, drawing or meaningful memento. Do you show your love with gifts? We…
The Big Difference Between the Ads People Love and Ads People Hate
Introducing Dear HBR:
What should you do when you become the boss? HBR’s new advice podcast Dear HBR: has the answers. In this bonus episode, Dear HBR: co-hosts Alison Beard and Dan McGinn answer your questions with the help of Harvard Business School professor Alison Wood Brooks, an expert on behavioral insights. They talk through what to do […]
Understanding the Mendoza Line for SaaS growth via @TechCrunch
“How fast do I need to be growing to be interesting to a venture investor?” This is a question we get asked all the time by CEOs, and we realize “it depends” is not the most actionable answer to give. Instead, we have come up with a simple model that allows us to give a clear numerical answer to this question. Read More
Original Content podcast: ‘The Cloverfield Paradox’ is eating us alive via @TechCrunch
The Cloverfield Paradox is the kind of movie where a character will straight-facedly declare: “This dimension is eating us alive!” The first trailer for the film hit during the Super Bowl, and Netflix released the movie itself as soon as the game was over. Paradox takes the vaguely-connected Cloverfield franchise into space, where an international team of scientists (including… Read More
Azio’s Retro Classic typewriter-inspired Bluetooth keyboard is a luxurious treat via @TechCrunch
Maybe you’re sitting at a MacBook or other modern PC right now, typing away in near silence on a keyboard that provides no real satisfying response to your human fingers. Maybe, once in the distant past, you remember when keyboards offered something in return: A “click clack” that stood as an auditory proof of productivity. If you miss that and want it back, the new Azio… Read More
Script’s app lets parents digitally sign school permission slips, pay for field trips via @TechCrunch
Schools are often late to taking advantage of new technologies, so today still do much of their business over paper forms. One pain point in particular – for school administrators, teachers and parents alike – is handling permission forms for activities and field trips. A young startup called Script aims to help. Schools can use Script’s app to manage the entire trip… Read More
SpaceX aims to make history 3 more times in 2018 via @TechCrunch
Tuesday’s Falcon Heavy launch made history, not only becoming the highest capacity rocket platform since the Saturn V but accomplishing the first double autonomous booster landing. And that’s just the start of what could prove to be an epic year for SpaceX — if Elon Musk’s ambitious timeline isn’t delayed, say by high winds. Read More
Larger-Than-Life Designs for the Biggest Party on Earth with… via #Instagram Blog
Larger-Than-Life Designs for the Biggest Party on Earth with @alexiahentsch To see more of Alexia’s designs, follow @alexiahentsch on Instagram. “I do something in the line between fashion and costume,” explains Alexia Hentsch (@alexiahentsch). The costume designer splits her time between London and Rio de Janeiro, where she was born. For the past two years, she has created custom pieces for Rio’s Carnival celebrations. “I love Carnival. I think it’s difficult not to,” says Alexia. “It’s a celebration of joy, which doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world on such a large scale. The whole country has checked out to go to a party. It’s kind of nuts.”
Researchers discovered a new kind of stereo vision by putting tiny 3D glasses on mantises via @TechCrunch
Researchers at Newcastle University, U.K. believe they’ve discovered a differently evolved form of stereo vision in mantises. The research team studied the phenomenon in the insects precisely as one would hope — by attaching a pair of tiny 3D glasses to their bug eyes. Read More
Hulu’s ‘Hard Sun’ trailer definitely makes me want to watch the new series via @TechCrunch
Hulu Original Hard Sun is streaming starting on March 7, and the show looks great based on this trailer. It’s a combination speculative fiction/detective show, based on a rare PRE-apoclaptic premise: The world is ending in five years, but it seems like much of the tension of this show might revolve around who knows that – and who doesn’t want anyone to find out. The show is… Read More
Facebook picks up half-hour dramedy series starring Elizabeth Olsen via @TechCrunch
Facebook isn’t one to be outdone by Apple’s recent big content spending: It’s purchasing a 10-episode, straight-to-series half-hour drama-comedy series produced and starring Elizabeth Olsen. The production also includes Lizzy Weiss on board as showrunner, Kit Steinkellner as creator and lead writer and Master of None‘s James Ponsoldt as a directly and executive producer… Read More
Snapchat almost acqhired anonymous app Secret via @TechCrunch
Evan Spiegel secretly tried to hire away the team at Secret, but the price was too high. That’s according to three sources familiar with the deal who spoke to TechCrunch. The information expands and clarifies a report from the new book about Snapchat’s origin story coming out next week called “How To Turn Down A Billion Dollars” by former TechCrunch writer Billy… Read More
Uber’s new CEO could probably win at 10 dimensional chess via @TechCrunch
The courtroom has been cleared, the lights are off in the spillover room on the 19th floor and the initial takes are in on the Uber vs. Waymo trial. Uber will give Alphabet, the parent company of both Waymo and the search giant Google, some $244 million worth of stock, and agree to ensure that no Waymo intellectual property will make its way into Uber autonomous vehicles. While Uber has… Read More
Here’s what it was like to be there when SpaceX launched the Falcon Heavy via @TechCrunch
SpaceX made history earlier this week with its Falcon Heavy launch: The Falcon Heavy is now the largest active rocket in terms of cargo capacity, and is able to propel over 140,000 lbs of cargo to lower Earth orbit, or smaller loads all the way to Mars and beyond. The launch was incredible to witness live, and watching the feed is cool enough, but we were actually there on site as it took… Read More
Whip the llama’s ass with this Javascript WinAmp emulator via @TechCrunch
If you were an early Internet kid you’ll recall a little app called WinAmp that was, in short, the best MP3 player ever made ever. The little program looked like skeuomorphic stereo receiver with a full range of equalizer sliders and included an important MP3 that explained WinAmp’s primary mission: whipping the llama’s ass. A programmer named Jordan Eldredge has created… Read More
Disney’s streaming service won’t have R-rated films via @TechCrunch
A new report offers a few more details as to what Disney has in store for its upcoming Netflix rival. The company last August had announced plans to debut its own streaming service in 2019 with content like Star Wars and Marvel movies, Disney studio and Pixar films. This week Deadline offered a sneak peek into the service’s initial slate of content, which will include four to five… Read More
What Pardot Users Should Know About Accessibility in Email Marketing & Web Design
Accessibility of digital content is something that hasn’t really been on my radar before. Like, at all. Didn’t even know it was a thing. I first heard about it when a client mentioned some corporate requirements related to accessibility for a new website they were building. Cue the lightbulb with the blinding flash of the […]
Think3 is a new $1B fund that wants to buy up SaaS startups so founders can go out to build again via @TechCrunch
We all know about the unicorns of the startup world — fast-growing companies that appear to be on the road (or have already arrived at) valuations of $1 billion or more — and we hear a lot about the unfortunate ones that either run out of money or fail for another reason. But what about the startups in the middle — reasonably good companies that aren’t going away… Read More
How More Regulation for U.S. Tech Could Backfire
Alberto Manuel Urosa Toledano/Getty Images If 2017 was the year that tech became a lightning rod for dissatisfaction over everything from the last U.S. presidential election to the possibility of a smartphone-driven dystopia, 2018 already looks to be that much worse. Innovation and its discontents are nothing new, of course, going back at least to the […]
Seun Adigun is Taking the First Nigerian Athletes to the Winter… via #Instagram Blog
Seun Adigun is Taking the First Nigerian Athletes to the Winter Olympics The Winter Olympics (@olympics) are taking place in Pyeongchang, South Korea, February 9-25. Tune in as we spotlight competing athletes from around the world. Nigerian-American athlete Seun Adigun (@seun_msamazing) and her teammates are making history. They’re the first African bobsled team to qualify for the Winter Olympics. “It feels absolutely amazing,” says Seun, who was born in the U.S. to Nigerian immigrant parents. “It’s surreal on a daily basis.” Seun, the driver on her team of three, found bobsledding through track and field, which she’d competed in at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Years later, after countless hours of training on both dry land and the ice track, she’s taking her bobsled team to…
Lyft partners with Black Girls Code to help develop a more diverse tech industry via @TechCrunch
Lyft has teamed up with Black Girls Code, a non-profit organization dedicated to getting more black girls involved in computer programming and technology, to make the non-profit organization one of its Round Up & Donate partners. Since launching the Round Up & Donate program eight months ago, Lyft riders have donated over $4 million to causes. Other partners include SickKids… Read More
Viacom to launch its own streaming service this year via @TechCrunch
Is there room in the market for yet another streaming service? Viacom thinks so. The company, on its earnings call on Thursday, said it’s planning to launch its own ad-supported streaming service by September 2018, the end of its fiscal year. The service will include “tens of thousands of hours of content” from across Viacom’s library. Viacom had hinted about its plans… Read More
The LifeClock One will help you escape from mundanity via @TechCrunch
Whether you’re trapped on a futuristic island prison full of blood-thirsty gang members or simply stuck in a two-hour meeting, the LifeClock One might be the watch for you. Inspired by the movie Escape From New York starring Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken, the watch is an homage to Plissken’s wrist-worn LifeClock, a device that would trigger the an injection of micro-explosives in… Read More
Uber settles lawsuit with Waymo via @TechCrunch
Uber has agreed to settle the lawsuit brought against it by Waymo for theft of some of the company’s trade secrets. As part of the settlement Uber has agreed to work with Waymo to ensure that the company’s LIDAR and software represents just the work of Waymo engineers. The agreement also comes with a financial settlement that is 0.34% of Uber’s equity, valued at Series G-1… Read More
Mastering the Client Interview: How to Ask the Right Questions and Build Trust with New Clients
You have a new client. They have scheduled a conference call during which you’ll discuss a batch of web content assignments they’re hiring you to complete. You’ve never met the client, but based on a quick search, you have a basic understanding of their business. How will you approach the client interview? The answer to […]
Mastering the Client Interview: How to Ask the Right Questions and Build Trust with New Clients
Questions and Build Trust with New Clients You have a new client. They have scheduled a conference call during which you’ll discuss a batch of…
#ContentWritingChat Recap: How to Find Your Writing Speciality & Pitch Services to Your Dream Clients with Kaleigh Moore
If you’ve ever joined us for #ContentWritingChat, there’s a good chance you’ve noticed that we have a lot of writers joining us each week. It’s amazing having an incredible group of content creators come together for our chat. But sometimes writers need a little help when it comes to niching down and sending out those […]
Grove raises $2.1M to find the sweet spot between old-school financial advisors and chatbots via @TechCrunch
Right now if you want financial guidance and planning help you basically have two options – shell out thousands (or more) a year for an old-school Wall Street-affiliated advisor, or test your luck with one of the free financial planning chatbot startups that have been popping up over the past few years. Neither of these are ideal for most people; traditional advisors give good advice but… Read More
Aurora will power Byton EV’s autonomous driving features via @TechCrunch
Aurora, the self-driving startup founded by Google self-driving car project alum Chris Urmson, along with Tesla Autopilot developer Sterling Anderson, CMU robotics expert and Uber vet Drew Bagnell, and a team of industry experts, will be making the autonomous smarts for Byton’s forthcoming electric vehicle. Byton, a startup that had a splashy debut at CES earlier this year.… Read More
Facebook’s plan to build community with hiring and $10M in grants via @TechCrunch
Facebook will award up to $1 million to five community leaders and $50,000 to 100 more to fund their ideas for how to strengthen people’s online and offline connections. Facebook will also hire double the number of engineers currently working on safety-related causes in its London office. These were a few of the big announcements made at today’s Facebook Communities Summit Europe.… Read More
When You Have to Carry Out a Decision You Disagree With
Sophie Blackall/Getty Images One of the great frustrations of being a middle manager is that senior leaders make decisions that go against what you would have done had it been up to you. Sometimes you are part of the decision process, and other times the decision is simply handed down. Either way, you are now […]
Can We Keep Our Biases from Creeping into AI?
CSA Images/Printstock Collection/Getty Images Eminent industry leaders worry that the biggest risk tied to artificial intelligence is the militaristic downfall of humanity. But there’s a smaller community of people committed to addressing two more tangible risks: AI created with harmful biases built into its core, and AI that does not reflect the diversity of the […]
The special data device SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy sent to orbit is just the start via @TechCrunch
A so-called ‘Starman,’ which is a life-size mannequin wearing a production version of the SpaceX crew spacesuit; a miniature car created by Hot Wheels to commemorate the Roadster and its primary passenger; and something called an Arch (pronounced “Ark”), which is not so easy to summarily describe. The Arch on board is a data crystal (sort of like a Jedi Holocron if… Read More
Equity Shot: Twitter and Snap’s surprising, synchronized social success via @TechCrunch
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. Today we’re doing another Equity Shot, a short topic-centered episode where we assemble the troops to dive into one particular thing. Or, in this case, two particular things. Matthew Lynley, myself, and Katie Roof gathered to pick over Snap and… Read More
Future-Proofing for Growth in the Age of AI
AI is all the rage on tech websites, but it can still seem like a pretty obscure, inaccessible tactic for B2B companies. The hype and expectations of AI are astronomical, yet the actual business impact it can have on B2B companies at this moment is still relatively uncertain. However, one thing I can assure you […]
Future-Proofing for Growth in the Age of AI
AI is all the rage on tech websites, but it can still seem like a pretty obscure, inaccessible tactic for B2B companies.
Hacker group manages to run Linux on a Nintendo Switch via @TechCrunch
Hacker group fail0verflow shared a photo of a Nintendo Switch running Debian, a distribution of Linux (via Nintendo Life). The group claims that Nintendo can’t fix the vulnerability with future firmware patches. #switch pic.twitter.com/4iTjTk9D59 — fail0verflow (@fail0verflow) February 6, 2018 According to fail0verflow, there’s a flaw in the boot ROM in Nvidia’s… Read More
WeTravel builds a group payment platform for small travel businesses via @TechCrunch
WeTravel wants to be the payment platform for small travel companies and group trips. Founded by three immigrant entrepreneurs who met at University of California, Berkeley, the company has just closed a $2 million seed round to expand its business among the small and medium-sized agencies that still play a role in tourism and travel. Last year (its second full year as a business) the… Read More
Amazon said to launch delivery service to compete with UPS and FedEx via @TechCrunch
Amazon is gearing up to compete directly with UPS and FedEx, according to a new Wall Street Journal report. The so-called “Shipping with Amazon” program will be an end-to-end shipping solution, with pickups from businesses and shipments made to consumers, per the report. The timeframe for rollout is soon, too: Amazon is said to be readying the service for its first launch in LA in… Read More
YouTube suspends ads on Logan Paul’s channels after “recent pattern” of behavior in videos via @TechCrunch
More problems and controversy for Logan Paul, the YouTube star who caused a strong public backlash when he posted a video of a suicide victim in Japan. Google’s video platform today announced that it would be pulling advertising temporarily from his video channel in response to a “recent pattern of behavior” from him. This is in addition to Paul’s suspensions from… Read More
Apple adds live news channels to TV app for iOS and Apple TV via @TechCrunch
After teasing the feature back in September, Apple is adding support for live news in the TV app on the iPhone, iPad and Apple TV — 9to5mac first spotted the new section. For now, it’s quite limited as it only supports a handful of channels for American users. If you’re running the most recent versions of iOS and tvOS, the feature should now be live. I’m running iOS… Read More
Google fined $21.1M for search bias in India via @TechCrunch
Another antitrust fine for Google. India’s competition commission has issued a 1.36BN rupees (~$21.1M) penalty on the search giant for abusing its dominant position in the local search market for online general web search and web search advertising services. Read More
Six Ways to Help Your Child Deal with Social Exclusion
The mom of a third-grade girl sits in my office, her face buried in her hands. Through muffled sobs, she tells me that she’s at a loss. She’s tried everything to help her daughter repair her friendships at school—arranging coffee dates with the families of the other girls, meeting with the teacher and school director, […]
Are Webinars Dead? How to Make a Webinar that Works in 2018
As an acquisition marketer, I hear questions like this all the time: “Is the PDF dead? Is the webinar dead now too? How should we continue generating leads for our sales team while continuing to innovate on the content formats we produce and gate behind a form?” It’s 2018, and the way our prospects and […]
Are Webinars Dead? How to Make a Webinar that Works in 2018
As an acquisition marketer, I hear questions like this all the time: “Is the PDF dead? Is the webinar dead now too? How should we…
Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital Group closes first fund at $360M via @TechCrunch
B Capital Group, the VC fund founded by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, has closed out its first fund at $360 million. Read More
Crypto’s go-to wallet forked as MyEtherWallet co-founder launches rival service via @TechCrunch
There’s controversy in the crypto community after one of the founders of a prominent wallet service for storing and sending cryptocurrencies abruptly announced a rival venture. Taylor Monahan, who start MyEtherWallet.com (MEW) with Kosala “Kvhnuke” Hemachandra in 2015, announced a new company and wallet service called MyCrypto.com on Thursday. MyCrypto.com is initially a… Read More