Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly roundup of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Sign up here to receive it in your inbox every Friday.
Ticktock, TikTok: It’s been a wild week for TikTok. Even as the company begins testing its Twitter competitor in some markets and launches its luxury second-hand store in the UK, it finds plenty of friction in the land of the free and home of the brave: In an episode of “As the TikTok Turns » , the venerable US House of Representatives, in a rare display of bipartisanship, passed a bill to give TikTok’s parent company a nine-month ultimatum: Sell or face extinction in the US That’s like giving your teenager an extra three months to to clean up their room before they are grounded…forever!
The bill also comes with a magic “90-day extension” button for use only by the president. How thoughtful! That move appears to have appeased some Senate skeptics, and even President Biden is on board. Critics argue that such a ban could infringe on free speech rights and harm businesses. (Who knew viral dances were so critical to our economy?) On the other hand, as one lawmaker puts it — think of it less as entertainment app bans and more as deflation of spy balloons.
How powerful is influences;: The weirdest curveball we saw this week was a reminder that people don’t really understand how journalism or product reviews work. In fact: Humane Ai raised $230 million before the product even left the factory. The hype was real until the Ai Pin dropped to a whopping $699 plus monthly fees, and people realized it was a lot of hype for not much. Don’t shoot the messenger — in this case popular YouTuber Marques Brownlee aka MKBHD, whose crime was
Now, this YouTuber has more subscribers than some countries (18 million to be exact. In fact, if his YouTube channel were a country, it would be about the 69th most populous country. Cool.). Apparently, being honest amounts to “potentially killing someone else’s budding project”, according to former AWS engineer Daniel Vassallo. Funny how an 800 million dollar underdog can get hurt so easily! And by the way, this is not the first. MKBHD was also accused of causing Fisker’s downfall with another truth bomb review last month: “This is the worst car I’ve ever reviewed.” Dom and Amanda think it’s remarkable that a YouTuber is seen as having the power to make or break a company.
The most interesting startup stories of the week
Poetry Camera takes a photo and prints a poem. Image Credits: Poetry camera
The next time you miss the good old days of squinting through a tiny viewfinder and praying your shot is okay, remember Mood.camera. It’s an iOS app that gives you all the uncertainty of analog photography without trips to the photo lab. Created by developer Alex Fox, this app says no thanks to live previews and editing features, instead focusing on vintage filters and letting fate decide how your photos turn out. Because who doesn’t love a little mystery in their life? Just remember to stand still for about three minutes while it “develops”. For $1.99/month (or $14.99 one-time fee), you too can experience the thrill of accidentally overexposing every photo on your beach vacation like it was 1995.
Have you ever taken a photo of a tree and wished it was poetry? Well, neither did Joyce Kilmer. But in the age of artificial intelligence technology, Kelin Carolyn Zhang and Ryan Mather decided to bless us with their interesting reproduction – the Poetry Camera! This is not your average Insta clicker. Instead of capturing duck faces and dinner plates, she creates thought-provoking (or as much as AI can manage) poetry based on her visual encounters. A Raspberry Pi serves as its brain, while OpenAI’s GPT-4 churns out lyrics worthy of Wordsworth (or maybe not). And here’s the kicker: This camera prints your poetic masterpiece on paper — yes, paper. No digital savings for that extra touch of nostalgia, or is it just an easy way to avoid privacy concerns? The jury is still out. But hey, if you’re craving a physical memento of your digital existence… go for it!
- A common date is a risk halved: Tinder has launched a new feature called “Share My Date”, allowing users to send details about their upcoming romantic getaways directly from the app. Now your friends can know where you go, with whom and when. And let’s face it, who doesn’t love a good digital, remote third wheel?
- Good Grief: Here’s something that might just help you navigate this dark maze of grief and pot. DayNew is a new social platform for dealing with trauma and grief, brought to us by two widow-entrepreneurs who were fed up with the lack of proper resources during their own grieving process.
- No loans for you, students: BloomTech (formerly Lambda School) has been served a big slice of humble pie by the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). After pulling back the curtain on their “not-so-risk-free” income shares and playing fast and loose with job placement statistics, the CFPB banned BloomTech from its consumer lending business for 10 years.
The most interesting fundraisers this week
Image Credits: Betty Laura Zapata/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Breaking news in the world of bling: Pascal, the lab-grown diamond startup, is making it rain with nearly $10 million in VC funding and a huge revenue forecast. Who needs Drake’s $400,000 diamond-encrusted iPhone case when you can have ice for an affordable price? These cultured gems are so shiny that they will make your TikTok videos sparkle like a disco ball. Even Andreessen Horowitz couldn’t resist throwing some money at this gem of an idea!
Well well well! Last week we learned that Rippling was set to close a $200 million funding round at an impressive $13.4 billion valuation. Now founder Parker Conrad has confirmed the news and provided some juicy details. They were looking for a way to give the early employees some liquidity (read: cash), but investor interest was so high that they had to expand their plans. As for publicity? That’s somewhere over the rainbow, Conrad suggests.
Other Unmissable TechCrunch Stories…
Oh, Tesla. With profits falling faster than a Cybertruck with a stuck throttle and electric vehicle sales feeling the squeeze, it seems the auto industry is a little tired. 55% drop in profits? Ouch! Looks like slashing EV prices like they’re Black Friday deals didn’t work out so well for them. Between wars, factory arson attacks, high-profile layoffs, and new models rolling off the assembly line slower than the LA launch, it seems Tesla has a long list of challenges. Let’s just hope Musk’s plans work out better than Tesla’s pickup schedule.
Here’s another handful of stories you might have otherwise missed:
- Formlabs’ Form 4 breaks cover: Formlabs makes desktop 3D printing less of a dream and more of a reality. It’s been five years since the Form 3 came out — and what better way to celebrate than by releasing an upgraded version? Meet the Form 4. This big boy boasts faster print times (under two hours for most prints), higher build volume (up 30%) and resolution that apparently rivals injection molding (whatever is that means).
- Bezos’ buzzy brainchild survives in California: Amazon’s Prime Air drone delivery operations in Lockeford are folding faster than an origami bird flying badly. Why; Well, Amazon mumbled some vague reasons, but the experiment continues in Texas and will soon come to Arizona.
- The last post: Oh, Post News. We hardly knew you… mostly because we still had Twitter. The a16z-backed microblogging platform that emerged as an eager freshman following Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter is closing its digital doors.
- Wait, what did you say? Remember when Rewind promised to help you record your digital life and let you search for it? Well, they’re rebranding themselves as “Limitless,” creating a locket (or is it a necklace?) that records your conversations.
- Robotics Recruitment: Dust off your circuit boards and hit the job market, folks, because Brian has compiled a rich list of 74 robotics companies that are hiring! From Advanced Construction Robotics with four roles to Exotec with 17, there are plenty of opportunities for all the wired kids out there.
